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Articles by Matthew Clarke

Report Decries Ongoing Inadequate Medical Care for Pregnant Arizona Prisoners

by Matt Clarke

ACLU and Prison Law Office attorneys representing Arizona state prisoners toured the Perryville prison for three days in April 2019, interviewing 25 women who had recently given birth or suffered miscarriages in prison. The report they gave the court describes “shocking and horrifying” stories of a “deficient” ...

Federal Court Orders Videophone Access for Deaf Prisoners in Colorado

by Matt Clarke

On September 18, 2019, a federal district court ordered the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) to provide access to videophones for all of its deaf and hard of hearing prisoners and prisoners who wish to communicate with people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The court ...

$2.5 Million Settlement Over Prisoner’s Restraint Death in Houston, Texas Jail

by Matt Clarke

The family of a man who died at a jail in Harris County, Texas while being subjected to a dangerous form of restraint settled for $2.5 million in a lawsuit they brought against the county and seven jail officials.

Kenneth Christopher Lucas, 38, was arrested on a ...

Neither Fines Nor Lawsuits Deter Corizon From Delivering Substandard Health Care

by Matt Clarke

In 2018, Corizon Health was the largest for-profit provider of prisoner health care in the country. It contracted with 534 correctional facilities in 27 states holding about 15 percent of the nation’s prisoners. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Corizon was sued for malpractice 660 times ...

Lethal Prison Electric Fences May Violate International Law

by Matt Clarke

A solicitation of bids last Novem-­​­ber to refurbish a “non-lethal/lethal” electric fence surrounding a federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) prison in Tucson, Arizona, resulted in three offers between $3.3 million and $3.8 million and some questions over whether the electric fences comport with international law.

The trend ...

Federal Class-Action Lawsuit Seeks Hepatitis C Treatment for Texas Prisoners

by Matt Clarke

A Texas prisoner has filed a federalclass-action lawsuit seeking the current standard of care for treatment of hepatitis C.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prisoner Matthew Roppolo, 53, has the hepatitis C virus, a serious illness that can eventually lead to liver failure and death. Despite ...

Terminal Texas Prisoner’s Morphine Withdrawn After He Filed Sexual Harassment Complaint

by Matt Clarke

A Texas prisoner with a rare and virtually untreatable form of leukemia filed a sexual harassment complaint against a medical provider. Then the morphine he was being given for the pain caused by his terminal cancer was cut off, he alleged in a pro se lawsuit.

Jeremy ...

$102,500 Settlement in Lawsuit Over Alaska DOC’s Discrimination Against Muslims

by Matt Clarke

On September 3, 2019, the Alaska Department of Corrections (DOC) settled a lawsuit brought by two Muslim prisoners who had been given inadequate food or no food during the fast of Ramadan, were denied religious congregation rights, and were denied the right to hold religious services and ...

Utah Supreme Court Reinstates Lawsuit Over Man Held 17 Days Without Hearing or Formal Charges

by Matt Clarke

On June 3, 2019, the Supreme Court of Utah held that a district court erred when it applied an incorrect standard in dismissing a man’s lawsuit alleging his state constitutional rights were violated when he was held in a county jail for 17 days without being brought ...

Texas Attorney General Secretly Sabotages Compensation Payments to Man Exonerated of Killing Police Officer

by Matt Clarke

Alfred Dewayne Brown spent over a dozen years in prison, including nine on death row, before suppressed exculpatory evidence emerged that supported his alibi and proved he did not murder Houston Police Department Officer Charles Clark.

Brown had been convicted of killing Clark during a botched robbery ...