On August 18, 2014, a Texas federal jury awarded a state prisoner $1,000 on his claim of excessive use of force by a prison guard. Enforcement of that judgment, however, would prove difficult.
Florencio Hernandez was incarcerated at the Stiles Unit in Beaumont, Texas when he became involved in a ...
In February 2015, Sacramento County, California agreed to settle three pro se federal civil rights actions filed by a former Sacramento County jail prisoner alleging theft of his mail, opening of his legal mail outside his presence and failure to provide at least three hours of out-of-cell recreation time per ...
Despite years of controversy that included sitting vacant for months after it was built and staff members being arrested for smuggling contraband and having sexual relationships with prisoners, the Jack Harwell Detention Center in Waco, Texas has rebounded. It now houses more prisoners, obtained a lower interest rate on the ...
The Sixth Circuit allowed a prisoner to revive the appeal of her federal habeas corpus action in the interests of justice after she won a civil rights lawsuit against prison guards who prevented her from filing a timely notice of appeal a decade earlier.
Hattie Tanner, a Michigan state prisoner ...
A federal jury awarded a former Jefferson County Detention Center prisoner more than $11 million against the sheriff and the jail’s privately-contracted medical provider, Correctional Healthcare Companies (CHC) – now Correct Care Solutions – after he was denied medical treatment for at least 16 hours despite obvious signs of a ...
On October 24, 2014, a Montana state jury found Missoula County liable in the wrongful death of a jail prisoner and assessed an award of $565,500 against the county. The county agreed not to appeal and to pay within two weeks. A private health care provider settled confidentially prior to ...
In December 2014, Sussex County, New Jersey settled a lawsuit brought by a former jail prisoner who alleged he was brutally beaten, sprayed with chemicals and strapped into a restraint chair for 19 hours after he tried to talk to a prisoner who was being strapped into a restraint chair. ...
On May 21, 2014, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and private plaintiffs announced a settlement agreement with Ohio requiring the Ohio Department of Youth Services (DYS) to dramatically reduce and eventually eliminate the use of seclusion. DYS policy 305.05.04 defines seclusion as the involuntary confinement of a youth ...
On August 21, 2014, Tarrant County, Texas settled for $350,000 a lawsuit brought under the Civil Rights Act and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by the sister and administrator of the estate of deceased Tarrant County Jail prisoner Jonathan William Holden.
The lawsuit alleged that Holden, 30, was booked into ...
On October 2, 2014, an Arizona federal jury awarded a state prisoner $145,000 in a civil rights lawsuit over a guard’s excessive use of force.
Ron Zachary Pettit, 36, was a prisoner at the Arizona State Prison Complex - Eyman, Special Management Unit, when he was injured by guard Torrey ...
