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     The trial court abused its discretion in denying a motion for an attorney to represent an indigent inmate in his deliberate indifference to serious medical needs lawsuit. The inmate had a low IQ, was functionally illiterate and was inexperienced with civil litigation, as well as currently incarcerated. Additionally, the case was legally complex, and reliance on a "jailhouse lawyer" would be inadequate, especially in relation to the need to engage a necessary medical expert. The prisoner was also incapable of obtaining other witnesses and evidence needed to prevail, so the failure to provide him with a lawyer prejudiced him. Henderson v. Ghosh, #13-2035, 2014 U.S. App. Lexis 11816 (7th Cir.).

     A prisoner proceeding pro se in a federal civil right lawsuit seeking damages from prison officials suffered from a schizoaffective disorder. The trial court erred in declining to appoint a guardian ad litem to help him pursue his claim and instead staying the proceedings until the prisoner was found to be restored to competency and therefore capable of protecting his own interests, which might never occur. This amounted to a dismissal with prejudice and did not adequately protect the prisoner's interests. Davis v. Walker, #12-15856, 745 F.3d 1303 (9th Cir.2014).

Criminal Conduct

     A former lieutenant at the Roxbury Correctional Institution (RCI) in Hagerstown, Maryland, was sentenced by a federal court to 36 months in prison for obstruction of justice in connection with his involvement in a series of assaults against an inmate at the facility. He pleaded guilty to a charge of destruction of records. According to court documents filed in connection with his guilty plea, he acknowledged that he intentionally used a magnetic device to erase incriminating surveillance video footage related to the officers' assaults of the inmate. Officers from three different shifts assaulted Davis in March 2008, in retaliation for a prior incident in which he struck an officer. To date, 16 current or former officers at the facility were convicted in connection with the series of assaults that the prisoner suffered on March 8 through 9, 2008. One former officer still awaits sentencing. U.S. v. Stigile, #1:13-cr-00084, U.S. Dist. Ct. (D. Maryland). Justice Dept. press release.

Medical Care

     A pre-trial detainee failed to show that a prison doctor acted with deliberate indifference to a surgical thread that was protruding from a wound on his abdomen from bowel obstruction surgery he had almost a year before, prior to his incarceration. The appeals court also upheld a ruling that a prison nurse's alleged act of hitting the plaintiff's nose was a de minimus (minimal) use of force that was not a violation of his due process rights. Jackson v. Buckman, #13-1165, 2014 U.S. App. Lexis 12127 (8th Cir.).

Prison Litigation Reform Act: Exhaustion of Remedies

     A prisoner broke his hand in a fight. He claimed that he filed an emergency grievance over an alleged inadequate medical treatment for his injury, but never received any response. He then was transferred to another facility, where he allegedly told an officer that he had been authorized, at the first facility, to be assigned to a bottom bunk, but was told to merely work things out with his cellmate. He claimed to have filed a grievance over this too, but prison officials said that he had not. His lawsuit was dismissed for failure to exhaust available administrative remedies as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act. A federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of the claim against the receiving officer at the second facility, as the grievance allegedly filed had not mentioned that officer's name nor contained information from which he could be identified. If the defendants wanted to contest whether the emergency grievance at the first facility was filed, an evidentiary hearing would be required. Roberts v. Neal, #13-1335, 745 F.3d 232 (7th Cir. 2014).

Prison Litigation Reform Act: Filing Fees

     A prisoner claimed that prison officials and medical personnel acted with deliberate indifference to his need for medical treatment for his epilepsy. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice because he did not pay the initial partial filing fee, which was $8.40, as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act. He claimed to have had no money or income when the fee was due, and also asserted that any money received in his account was automatically deducted by the prison to pay for the costs of printing copies of his complaint. A federal appeals court found that the trial court had not abused its discretion by setting the initial filing fee at $8.40, even though there was only two cents in the prisoner's account at the time, but the lawsuit was improperly dismissed without a determination of whether the plaintiff was at fault for not paying. Thomas v. Butts, #12-2902, 745 F.3d 309 (7th Cir. 2014).

Prisoner Assault: By Inmate

****Editor's Case Alert****

     A number of plaintiff prisoners claimed that they were seriously injured in assaults by other inmates who used prison issued padlocks as weapons. The prison had a longstanding practice of issuing footlockers with padlocks to most inmates. A federal appeals court found that the small number of assaults that had occurred involving the use of the padlocks as weapons were insufficient to support the claim that supplying the padlocks to prisoners rose to a constitutional violation. Lakin v. Barnhart, #13-2211, 2014 U.S. App. Lexis 12756 (1st Cir.).

Procedural: Jurisdiction

     A prisoner suing a number of correctional officers for allegedly violating his Eighth Amendment rights consented to the magistrate judge having jurisdiction over the case, but the officers never did. Despite this, the magistrate granted the defendant officers' motion to dismiss the case for alleged failure to exhaust available administrative remedies. Because the officers never formally consented to the magistrate's jurisdiction to decide the case, the judgment dismissing the case was a nullity, and further proceedings were required. Allen v. Meyer, #11-16714, 2014 U.S. App. Lexis 11639 (9th Cir.).

Procedural: Sanctions

     A prisoner claimed that he was denied adequate medical treatment and that, further, he was punished for seeking it. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing the lawsuit after the prisoner engaged in slurs, insults, and abusive attacks on the magistrate judge to whom the case was referred. The trial court properly found that the plaintiff was acting in bad faith and that no lesser sanction would be sufficient. Koehl v. Bernstein, #12-3855, 740 F.3d 860 (2d Cir. 2014).

Sexual Assault

     A ward at a Hawaii youth correctional facility received a jury award on claims that a male youth correctional officer sexually assaulted her, and against a number of other defendants. The officer's motion for a new trial was granted, however, because there was an irreconcilable conflict in the jury's answers to various special verdict questions that rendered it impossible to determine what each defendant was to pay. The retrial would be limited to the amount of general and special damages each defendant was to pay, and whether the awards were against each defendant in their individual or official capacities. A state statute did not bar the plaintiff from obtaining judgment both against the state and against the individual officer. Costales v. Rosete, #SCWC-30683, 133 Haw. 124, 324 P.3d 934 (2014).

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     Female Prisoners: Sterilization of Female Inmates: Some Inmates Were Sterilized Unlawfully, and Safeguards Designed to Limit Occurrences of the Procedure Failed, report of the California State Auditor, #2013-120 (June 19, 2014).

     Medical Care: Poor health and social outcomes for ex-prisoners with a history of mental disorder: a longitudinal study, by Zoe Cutcher, Louisa Degenhardt, Rosa Alati, and Stuart A Kinner, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (June 24, 2014). [Abstract].

Reference:

     • Abbreviations of Law Reports, laws and agencies used in our publications.

     • AELE's list of recently-noted jail and prisoner law resources.