David M. Reutter
One alternative to incarceration that criminal justice reformers clamor for is probation or parole. A May 2023 report by Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) counted nearly 3.7 million people in the U.S. under some form of community supervision, nearly twice the number held in prisons and jails. The ...
by David M. Reutter
The Washington city of Lynnwood agreed on September 20, 2023, to pay $1.75 million to settle a lawsuit alleging guards at the Lynnwood Municipal Jail were negligent in the suicide death of Tirhas Tesfatsion two years before. An investigation after her death found “significant” lapses between ...
by David M. Reutter
On September 19, 2023, the Commonwealth of Virginia, the County of Henrico and its Sheriff Alisa A. Gregory agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle claims arising from the death of Irvo Otieno, 28, at Central State Hospital (CSH) in Petersburg.
As PLN previously reported, Otieno ...
by David M. Reutter
On September 25, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed dismissal of Louisiana prisoner Brandon LaVergne’s Eighth Amendment claim, finding the alleged restrictions on his visitation and email access while in “restricted custody”—solitary confinement—were not so bad that they were unconstitutional.
The ...
by David M. Reutter
On August 23, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed denial of qualified immunity (QI) to Anne Precythe, Director of the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC), in an Eighth Amendment complaint filed by a state prisoner accusing Precythe of failing to protect ...
by David M. Reutter
A headline in the August 1965 edition of The Daily Oklahoman said that then-Sheriff Bob Turner of Oklahoma County “denies his jail’s ‘deplorable.’” A new jail was later built, but almost six decades later, a surprise inspection of the lockup in downtown Oklahoma City by the ...
by David M. Reutter
On April 24, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed a lower court and granted qualified immunity (QI) to officials with Missouri’s Department of Corrections (DOC) in a state prisoner’s complaint accusing them of violating his due process rights with a false ...
by David M. Reutter
On July 12, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania unsealed the settlement agreement between PrimeCare Medical and the Estate of Charles Freitag.
As PLN reported, Freitag, 57, committed suicide on August 25, 2018, at the Bucks County Correctional Facility (BCCF), one ...
by David M. Reutter
On August 15, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a paraplegic Arkansas jail detainee’s deliberate indifference and conditions of confinement claims, while reviving claims under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. ch. 126 § 12101 et. seq.
The ...
by David M. Reutter
On August 7, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed summary judgment for Defendant Wisconsin prison officials in a prisoner’s lawsuit that alleged a due process violation when he was deprived of an impartial disciplinary hearing decision maker.
Terrance Prude helped a ...
