by Matt Clarke
In October 2017, a $9 million settlement was reached in a lawsuit brought by an Illinois man who spent 15 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. The suit alleged law enforcement officials fabricated a false murder scenario, coerced false confessions and witness statements, and ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 23, 2017, Cook County, Illinois paid $380,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman using the pseudonym “Jane Doe,” who alleged she was repeatedly beaten and sexually assaulted by other prisoners during her 27-day stay at the Cook County jail, while guards and medical ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 31, 2017, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a judgment for a U.S. citizen who was improperly held in an immigration detention facility for 1,273 days.
Davino Watson was born in Jamaica. When he was 13, he entered the U.S as a lawful permanent ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 22, 2017, a federal jury awarded $10,000 to a prisoner against six Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) guards for beating him and issuing false disciplinary reports in retaliation for grievances and previous successful litigation.
Daniel Ostrander, a Texas state prisoner, was held in administrative ...
by Matt Clarke and Christopher Zoukis
During a heat wave in the summer of 2017, dozens of protesters gathered outside the Medium Security Institution in St. Louis, Missouri and chanted “shut it down,” after a video showing prisoners at the jail begging for relief from soaring temperatures went viral. But in Texas and elsewhere, prisoners have taken their complaints of extreme – and sometimes deadly – heat to court.
Under a 1977 Texas statute, county jails must keep interior temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees. But over 70 percent of Texas’ 141,000 state prisoners are held in facilities that lack air conditioning, and Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) spokesman Jason Clark said prison officials would not consider retrofitting those facilities with climate control, as that would be “extremely expensive.” Of the state’s 105 prisons, only 30 are fully air-conditioned.
The TDCJ pointed to a study indicating the cost of retrofitting just four prisons with AC would run about $350 million – an amount that exceeded the construction costs for four of the state’s 2,500-bed maximum-security facilities. Yet the TDCJ has managed to air condition administrative areas in its older prisons to ensure the comfort of staff members.
At the ...
by Matt Clarke
In April 2016, a federal civil rights lawsuit against Canyon County, Idaho, over the death of a county jail prisoner due to denial of medical care was settled for $95,000.
Alfred Girrard Young, 46, was booked into the Dale G. Haile Detention Center in Canyon County, Idaho, ...
by Matt Clarke
The family of a prisoner who died at a Richland Heights, Missouri jail after untreated deep vein thrombosis caused a fatal pulmonary embolism has settled a lawsuit brought against the jail, two hospitals and hospital employees. The settlement was confidential but the city’s portion was released as ...
by Matt Clarke
On September 12, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a federal district court’s denial of a defendant’s motion to seal all documents related to the lower sentence he received because he informed on a drug cartel.
John Doe is the pseudonym of a defendant who ...
by Matt Clarke
The State of Hawaii and a former prison guard have each agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a female prisoner who was sexually assaulted.
Stormy Rae Smith was serving a five-year sentence at the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Honolulu for car theft ...
by Christopher Zoukis and Matt Clarke
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit in superior court against The GEO Group in September 2017, alleging the private prison contractor had violated the state’s minimum wage laws by paying immigrant detainees $1 per day to perform work at the company’s ...
