by David M. Reutter
On March 29, 2022, the First Circuit Court of Hawaii awarded $1.375 million to the estate of Joseph O’Malley, who committed suicide while incarcerated at the Halawa Correctional Facility (HCF) in July 2017.
O’Malley, 28, was diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorder upon incarceration at HCF on ...
by Jayson Hawkins
On December 26, 2021, a federal court dismissed a lawsuit filed by an epileptic former Illinois jail detainee after he accepted $1,425,000 to settle claims that he was denied medication and placed in an upper bunk from which he fell while suffering a seizure, leaving him with ...
by Jacob Barrett
In a stunning decision reached on December 16, 2021, the Court of Appeal of the State of California, Third Appellate District, absolved the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) of any liability to warn a woman murdered by her paroled grandson that he might be dangerous. ...
by Mark Wilson
On January 18, 2022, the federal court for the Western District of Washington approved a class-action settlement awarding 76 juvenile offenders a total of $1,357,665, or $500 a day for their solitary confinement at two adult jails in King County. The court also approved a $50,000 award ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
On August 18, 2018, Milan Jackson was riding on Caltrain near the rail system’s stop in Redwood City, California. At some point Jackson, who suffers ADHD and autism, lay down on the train floor, not foreseeing the dire consequences of this innocuous action: He was arrested by ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
California’s San Luis Obispo County reached a settlement on February 10, 2021, agreeing to pay $35,000 to resolve wrongful death claims filed by the widow of an elderly man with dementia and mental illness who died of an embolism in the county jail on November 6, 2017, ...
by Kevin Bliss
The Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) entered into another agreement with Disability Rights Florida, Inc. (DRF) on November 8, 2021, denying it had breached an earlier 2017 agreement regarding treatment of disabled prisoners, but promising to make several changes to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, ...
by Ashleigh N. Dye
A sex discrimination suit against filed by a female guard at the Maine State Prison against the state Department of Corrections (DOC) was settled for $400,000 in June 2022.
The guard, Autumn Dinsmore, filed the suit in federal court for the District of Maine in July ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
On August 18, 2018, Milan Jackson was riding on Caltrain near the rail system’s stop in Redwood City, California. At some point Jackson, who suffers ADHD and autism, lay down on the train floor, not foreseeing the dire consequences of this innocuous action: He was arrested by ...
by Matt Clarke
On November 29, 2021, the federal court for the Southern District of New York approved the final settlement of a class-action civil rights lawsuit over suspicionless and invasive “strip/body cavity” searches of visitors at New York City Department of Correction (DOC) jails. [See: PLN, Aug. 2018, p.54.] ...