by John E. Dannenberg
In August 2007, former California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) federal healthcare Receiver Robert Sillen issued a report titled Analysis of CDCR Death Reviews, prepared by the CDCR’s Death Review Committee (DRC). The 11-page “public version” of the report analyzes the causes of all prisoner ...
Failure to Treat Immigrant Detainee’s Fatal Penile Cancer Ruled “Beyond Cruel”
by John E. Dannenberg
A U.S. District Court (C.D. Cal.) has ruled that the repeated failure of U.S. immigration authorities over an eleven-month period to provide medical testing and treatment for a detainee’s cancerous penile lesion that ultimately proved ...
by John E. Dannenberg
Faced with a pending federal class action lawsuit brought by New York state prisoners seeking relief from being denied parole based solely on the nature of their crimes, then Governor Elliot Spitzer was ready to order the Parole Board to reconsider the cases of 1,000 Class-A ...
by John E. Dannenberg
A federal prisoner in Texas sued prison officials for retaliating against him for filing grievances. While the court found for the defendants, it nonetheless sanctioned two Assistant U.S. Attorneys $500 for procedural discovery errors, payable to the plaintiff. On appeal the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ...
by John E. Dannenberg
A federal jury awarded $6,058,000 in damages to a parolee and his girlfriend for outrageous conduct by Oakland, California city police (OPD) when they broke into his residence, told him they had a non-existent warrant, falsely claimed they found a firearm, and caused him to be ...
by John E. Dannenberg
Between 1995 and 2005, Washington State Department of Corrections (WADOC) policy 440.000 required prisoners who were being transferred between WADOC prisons to pre-pay the shipping costs of their personal property in excess of two boxes, or forfeit the property. A class-action lawsuit brought by four WADOC ...
Reviewed by John E. Dannenberg
Unlocking America is a study on how to approach the task of reducing America’s prison population (“decarceration”) without compromising public safety. Key factors recommended to accomplish this include reducing the number of persons sent to prison, shortening the terms of those who are, and decreasing/eliminating ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has rejected several Utah-based civil rights complaints concerning the denial of reading material to prisoners, including issues of Prison Legal News. In a case involving the Salt Lake County Jail, suit was brought regarding the constitutionality of the jail’s ...
by John E. Dannenberg
On September 21, 2007, a California U.S. District Court granted summary judgment in favor of a class of prisoners who had been required to sleep on the floor of the Los Angeles County Jail (“Jail”) between December 18, 2002 and May 17, 2005, ruling that such ...
by John E. Dannenberg
Butte County, California officials settled a decade-old $1.2 million lawsuit brought by a former county jail deputy who blew the whistle on a jailhouse beating of a child molester ordered by three other deputies, and who was then subjected to a retaliatory bogus prosecution on unrelated ...
