by Douglas Ankney
“This appeal arises from the tragic death of Antonio May,” began the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on June 7, 2023. As longtime PLN readers know, “tragic” deaths are often those for which no one is held liable. Sure enough, the ...
by Douglas Ankney
When Missouri prisoner Robert Hebert learned in January 2023 that he had less than two years remaining on his prison sentence, the father of six and his family shared in the excitement. He planned to look for work in the concrete industry. Along with his wife, Rachelle ...
by Douglas Ankney
On April 19, 2023, the Supreme Court of Ohio awarded prisoner Franklin Woods $700 in statutory damages against the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) for failure to comply with a public-records request.
On August 1, 2022, while Woods was incarcerated at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution, he sent ...
by Douglas Ankney
On August 23, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the judgment of a lower court in favor of Arkansas prisoner Deverick Scott, who claimed that a guard with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) provoked a fellow prisoner to attack Scott in ...
by Douglas Ankney
On January 25, 2023, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) signed Executive Order No. 6, establishing an Independent Prison Oversight Commission (IPOC). Created to address the “urgent need to provide transparency and accountability of Arizona’s corrections system,” Hobbs said that IPOC’s responsibilities include safeguarding the integrity of the ...
by Douglas Ankney
On April 13, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that a district court cannot dismiss a prisoner’s complaint and at the same time declare it a “strike” for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). Under that statute, as amended by the Prison ...
by Douglas Ankney
On April 5, 2023, the South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed that denying a state prisoner visits from people he didn’t know prior to incarceration did not implicate any liberty interest created by the state – so he was not entitled to relief when his grievance over the ...
by Douglas Ankney
On December 8, 2022, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania agreed to pay state prisoner Warren Easley $30,000 to settle claims that guards and medical staff at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) in Frackville violated his civil rights.
Easley filed his suit pro se in federal court for the ...
by Douglas Ankney
According to a report released by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS Report) in December 2022, “the number of persons under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities in the United States declined 1%, from 1,221,200 to 1,204,300” between December 31, 2020, ...
by Douglas Ankney
In consolidated cases, the Massachusetts Superior Court for Suffolk County ordered preliminary injunctive relief on December 30, 2022, for a pair of transgender women incarcerated at the state’s Souza Baranowski Correctional Center (SBCC).
Each woman filed a suit, which the Court consolidated. In the lead case, Jerome ...
