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Articles in Verdict1

Families of New Jersey Jail Suicide Victims Still Waiting for Settlement Payouts

Families who lost loved ones to suicide in New Jersey’s Cumberland County Jail (CCJ) were still waiting in early March 2024 for payouts from settlements reached two years ago or more. The delay is blamed on their now-imprisoned attorney, Conrad J. Benedetto, who provided the federal court for the District ...

Indiana Settles Prisoner’s Retaliation Claim for $4,500

On September 12, 2022, the state of Indiana reached a $4,500 settlement to resolve a state prisoner’s claim that guards confiscated his property without following prison procedure and then threatened retaliation when he filed grievances.

Victor Karp was held at Correctional Industrial Facility in Pendleton on June 16, 2020, when ...

$40,000 Paid to Ohio Detainee Kicked in the Face While Restrained

On March 1, 2023, the federal court for the Southern District of Ohio granted dismissal of a suit brought by a former Cincinnati jail detainee after she accepted a $40,000 settlement from the Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners for an assault by jail guards four year earlier.

The day ...

$100,000 Settlement Reached With Corizon Health for Failure to Provide Arizona Prisoner Eye Care

On July 25, 2022, a settlement was reached between Corizon Health, Inc. and an Arizona prisoner to whom it allegedly denied eye care, resulting in partial vision loss. Under the agreement, the firm owes $100,000 to Kevin Campbell, inclusive of legal costs and fees.

One of the nation’s largest for-profit ...

North Carolina Prisoner Recovers $500 for Injuries in Shower Slip and Fall

On December 7, 2022, North Carolina prisoner Vinson Shane Hill prevailed in a negligence tort claim he filed with the state Industrial Commission (NCIC) over an injury he suffered while incarcerated at Scotland Correctional Institution in July 2019.

Hill, who has difficulty walking due to a prior auto accident, was ...

Ohio Supreme Court Awards Prisoner $700 From Sheriff Who Failed to Comply with Public Records Request

by Douglas Ankney

On April 19, 2023, the Supreme Court of Ohio awarded prisoner Franklin Woods $700 in statutory damages against the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) for failure to comply with a public-records request.

On August 1, 2022, while Woods was incarcerated at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution, he sent ...

$12,000 Paid to California Prisoner Denied Back Surgery Despite Doctor’s Recommendation

On August 25, 2022, a California prisoner told the federal court for the Eastern District of California that he had reached an agreement with the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to settle a suit he filed over denial of back surgery that he claimed left him in “excruciating ...

Almost $2.4 Million in Settlements For Seven Suicides at New Jersey Jail

by David M. Reutter

The families of two women and five men who committed suicide while held in pretrial detention between July 2014 and November 2018 at New Jersey’s Cumberland County Jail (CCJ) have received a total of $2,372,500 to settle their claims against the County and its profiteering medical ...

St. Louis City Jails Director Under Fire, County Jail Director Leaves After Nearly $2.7 Million in Legal Payouts

by Benjamin Tschirhart

When you’re arrested in St. Louis, it doesn’t much matter whether you end up in the city’s jail or the lockup in adjacent St. Louis County; both are mired in controversy. But in a letter defending city Jail Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah, Mayor Tishaura O. Jones (D) took ...

Deadline Looms for Payouts Under California’s Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program

December 31, 2023, will be the last day to file for reparations under California’s Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program (FISCP). State lawmakers created it in 2021 to offer compensation to thousands of victims who were sterilized without their consent in the Golden State starting at the beginning of the ...