First Circuit Upholds Ex-Boston Guard's 46-Month Prisoner-Abuse Sentence
by Matthew T. Clarke
The First Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a 46-month prison sentence imposed on a former guard at the Nassau Street Jail in Boston, Massachusetts for beating a pre-trial detainee who suffered from Tourette's Syndrome.
Eric J. Donnelly, ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
A Texas court of appeals held that state prisoners may have a right to extra storage space for religious materials.
Jeffery Balawajder, a Texas state prisoner, brought suit in state court against the Texas prison system (TDCJ), alleging that his right to free exercise of religion ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 9, 2007, a federal district court in Texas held that the conditions of confinement at a privately-run facility used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold families detained due to immigration issues violated the terms of a class-action settlement related to the detention of ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
On June 17, 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that private attorneys could be sued as state actors in a civil rights action in federal district court, provided they allegedly operated in collusion with a state official to deprive the ...
By Matthew T. Clarke
0n May 12, 2006, a federal district court in Virginia ruled that a German citizen who allegedly was mistaken for a terrorist, kidnapped, flown to a foreign country, isolated and tortured by CIA personnel could not sue the US government over his mistreatment without violating the ...
by Matt Clarke
On March 29, 2007, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, awarded a Russian prisoner 15,000 Euros ($20,060) in damages for incarcerating him in extremely overcrowded conditions.
On November 26, 2001, Andrey Frolov, a Russian prisoner, filed an application against the Russian Federation pursuant to ...
by Matt Clarke
Seven months after arriving at the Dickens County Correctional Center (DCCC), a private prison in Spur, Texas operated by the GEO Group, Idaho state prisoner Scot Noble Payne, 43, was dead by his own hand. The reason he gave for committing suicide? Squalid conditions at the privately-run ...
by Matt Clarke
The number of New Jersey state prison system employees terminated for disciplinary reasons rose from 33 in 2005 to 69 in 2006. 52 of the 2006 firings are final; 17 are on appeal. The reasons for the firings range from beating prisoners without provocation and allowing prisoners ...
by Matt Clarke
On May 15, 2007, legislation took effect that brought Texas into the fold of the other 49 states that have prisoner telephones in state prisons.
State Senator Letica Van de Putte filed SD 1580, authorizing the phones, which took effect Nay 15, 2007. State Representatives Terri Hodge ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 12, 2007, eleven guards at the federal Bureau of Prison's Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York " including a captain and three lieutenants" were indicted for abusing prisoners. At the same time, another scandal at the MDC involved a staff psychologist allegedly having ...
