by Matt Clarke
On September 1, 2015, a California court of appeal vacated the decision of the Board of Parole Hearings to deny parole to a prisoner who had been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison because the decision was impermissibly based upon the prisoner’s claim ...
by Matt Clarke
When California Governor Jerry Brown announced his intention of getting a voter initiative to reduce the length of time nonviolent prisoners would spend in prison onto the ballot, it engendered opposition ... and a sense of irony. Brown was the governor who ushered in California's "tough-on-crime" era ...
By Matt Clarke
Lance Lowry, a Texas prison guard and the head of the Huntsville local of the union representing the most prison guards in Texas, said a prison supervisor who fired a gas gun at a crowd of prisoners indoors was definitely out of line. However, he blames lack ...
by Matt Clarke
On March 20, 2017, an Oklahoma federal jury awarded $10.25 million to the estate of a prisoner who died at the Tulsa County Jail.
According to court documents, Elliot Earl Williams, 37, a U.S. Army veteran, was arrested by Owasso police officers responding to a complaint about ...
by Matt Clarke
On January 19, 2017, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the award of $36 million in damages and nearly $5 million in attorney fees to two New York men who were wrongly convicted of rape and murder, and spent 18 years in prison.
In January 1985, ...
by Matt Clarke
On January 23, 2017, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed in part a district court’s grant of summary judgment to an Oklahoma state trooper and jailers who failed to obtain medical care for a prisoner after mistaking a brain injury for intoxication. An amended appellate ruling ...
by Derek Gilna and Matt Clarke
Jail officials in Syracuse, New York have agreed to end solitary confinement for 16- and 17-year-old juvenile offenders held at the Onondaga County Justice Center under the terms of a June 26, 2017 settlement that ended a federal class-action suit filed by the New ...
by Matt Clarke
On February 21, 2017, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in an en banc ruling, held that Correctional Medical Services, Inc. (now known as Corizon Health) may be held liable for deciding not to centrally coordinate medical services for prisoners.
Prior to his incarceration, Indiana state prisoner ...
by Matt Clarke
On December 30, 2016, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the denial of qualified immunity to two Phoenix police officers and two Maricopa County jail guards in a civil rights case alleging they beat a prisoner to death.
When mentally ill U.S. Army veteran Ernest “Marty” ...
by Matt Clarke
On January 3, 2017, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down an opinion that reversed a district court’s finding of substantive due process violations in a civil rights complaint brought by civilly committed sex offenders in Minnesota.
In the class-action suit, sex offenders who had been ...
