On October 17, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that 26 cell checks performed within 13 hours by six Los Angeles County jailers who nevertheless failed to assess the condition of a detainee later found dead were sufficient to create a genuine issue of fact ...
In a settlement agreement dated May 28, 2024, Colorado’s Jefferson County agreed to pay $500,000 to Frederick Fisk, a former detainee at the county jail who suffered substantial injuries to his face after guards used a jujitsu move to take him to the ground while he was handcuffed.
On the ...
On November 13, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld a jury award of more than $8.7 million to the Estate of detainee who died in Utah’s Davis County Jail. In its ruling, the Court agreed that jail Nurse Marvin Anderson and other County officials were ...
On November 15, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reinstated a deliberate indifference claim lodged by Missouri prisoner Tremonti Perry, whose alleged medical neglect left him in a coma—and therefore unable to complete the prison grievance process. His complaint had been dismissed for just that reason ...
by Douglas Ankney
On February 7, 2025, California’s Sacramento County made a $600,000 offer of judgment that was accepted by the Plaintiffs in a suit filed over a detainee’s murder at the County lockup in 2019. The Estate of Bryan Debbs had earlier accepted another $600,000 settlement offer from the ...
by Douglas Ankney
A volunteer minister took a dustup with Georgia jailers over baptism to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which agreed on September 16, 2024, that he had been subjected to impermissible viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment. The relevant policies adopted ...
by Douglas Ankney
Private prison and jail medical provider Wellpath, LLC has announced a plan to exit bankruptcy proceedings, as reported elsewhere in this issue. [See: PLN, May 2025, p.56.] The plan offers some relief to prisoners or their survivors who have successfully sued Wellpath for causing their injuries or ...
by Douglas Ankney
On October 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed dismissal of Connecticut prisoner’s complaint over an assault he suffered in a Virginia lockup where he was temporarily transferred five years earlier. The Court found that Joe Baltas raised a triable fact issue ...
by Douglas Ankney
For subjecting him to sexual harassment, the state of Missouri paid a jury award of more than $1.2 million in damages, plus legal fees and costs to former Kansas City Reentry Center Deputy Warden Bryant Holmes, after a state appellate court upheld the verdict on August 20, ...
by Douglas Ankney
In a maddening decision issued on July 16, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit managed to dismiss the excessive-force claim of a Colorado prisoner shot by a guard despite being shackled. Conveniently avoiding the merits of Brian Estrada’s suit, the Court decided ...
