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Access to Courts/Legal Info

     A trial court abused its discretion in denying a prisoner's request for an appointed lawyer in his lawsuit over prison conditions on the basis that it had no funds to pay one and could find "no attorneys in the area willing or able to take the case pro bono.” A federal appeals court ruled that the trial court had an inherent power to order an attorney to accept an uncompensated appointment under these circumstances. On remand, the trial court must consider whether appointment of a lawyer is warranted, rather than based its decision on either funding or the willingness of an attorney to work without compensation. Additionally, the trial court acted erroneously in granting the defendants summary judgment as the plaintiff was undoubtedly hindered in his ability to respond to a complex summary judgment motion by the denial of his request for a lawyer. Naranjo v. Thompson, #13-50541, 2015 U.S. App. Lexis 19799 (5th Cir.).

Death Penalty

      Reversing the trial court's grant of habeas corpus relief to a death row inmate, a federal appeals court held that the court could not consider, during habeas corpus review, a "novel constitutional theory" that California's post-conviction system review of death sentences creates such a long delay that only an arbitrary number of prisoners are actually ever executed, in violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Jones v. Davis, #14-56373, 2015 U.S. App. Lexis 19698 (9th Cir.).

Homosexual and Bisexual Prisoners

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

     A homosexual confined at a treatment and detention facility because of his designation and commitment as a Sexually Violent Person stated a claim under the Fourteenth Amendment's due process and equal protection guarantees when he alleged that a facility employee supervising him in the laundry abused him because of his sexual orientation, calling him derogatory names, encouraging other detainees to attack him, putting him in constant fear, and that the facility's rehabilitation director suspended his treatments because he complained about the abuse. Hughes v. Farris, #15-1801, 2015 U.S. App. Lexis 21169 (7th Cir.).

Insurance

    An insurer had no duty under a Commercial Umbrella Liability policy to defend or indemnify a private corporation operating a prison against claims that an inmate's death was caused by the failure to provide needed medications, as this fell under a professional liability exclusion in the policy. It did, however, have a duty to defend and indemnify the defendant on this claim under a Commercial General Liability policy, and was not required to do so under a Commercial General Liability policy because of an exclusion for providing medical services. LCS Corrections Services, Inc. v. Lexington Ins., #14-40494, 800 F.3d 664 (5th Cir. 2015).

Medical Care

     An Illinois state inmate claimed that a prison's medical staff were deliberately indifferent to the results of 11 blood tests it administered over a period of five years, during which he progressed from pre-diabetic to diabetic, even failing to tell him, until the last test, that his blood glucose levels were dangerously high. A federal appeals court held that the allegations, if true, did constitute deliberate indifference to a serious medical need. The two-year statute of limitations would have tolled between the time he discovered that he was diabetic and when he filed suit, since he was then engaged in exhausting available administrative remedies as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act. Nally v. Ghosh, #14-3426, 799 F.3d 756 (7th Cir. 2015).

Medical Care: Dental

     An Illinois prisoner claimed that it was 6 days after he complained of a tooth abscess that a dentist diagnosed an abscessed molar, prescribed penicillin, and extracted the tooth. A federal appeals court found that the evidence presented of possible deliberate indifference of a prison guard and the dentist to the plaintiff's serious medical needs barred granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants. Dobbey v. Mitchell-Lawshea, #14-2772, 2015 U.S. App. Lexis 20427 (7th Cir.).

Prison Litigation Reform Act: Exhaustion of Remedies

     A female prisoner who was pregnant when she arrived at a county jail claimed that the jail employees were deliberately indifferent in failing to take a proper medical history, failing to respond to several requests for medical assistance, and failing to react quickly enough when she went into labor. As a result, she further claimed, her child suffered serious birth defects. She was taken to a hospital where she gave birth and then returned to the jail where she was transferred to another facility after four days. The trial court erred in dismissing the lawsuit for failure to exhaust available administrative remedies at the jail. Even had she been informed upon her return to the jail from the hospital that he had only four days to file a grievance, that time period would have been an unreasonable deadline to impose on a woman right after she gave birth to a severely impaired child. White v. Bukowski, #14-3185, 800 F.3d 392 (7th Cir. 2015).

Prisoner Restraint

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

     A federal district court failed to provide adequate justification for a restrictive prisoner shackling policy under which pretrial detainees brought before the court were placed in full shackle restraints for court appearances, including arraignments unless the judge specifically requested that the restrains be removed. Such a policy cannot be based primarily on the economic strain of the jailer in providing adequate safeguards. Instead, the policy must be supported by an "adequate justification of its necessity." United States v. Sanchez-Gomez, #13-50561, 798 F.3d 1204 (9th Cir. 2015).

Prisoner Suicide

     A trial court denied a sheriff's motion seeking summary judgment on a claim that he should be held liable in his individual and official capacities for a prisoner's suicide because of his supervisory role. A federal appeals court held that the sheriff was entitled to qualified immunity on the individual capacity claim, accepting the argument that there was no clearly establish law in the Tenth Circuit at the time that he could be held liable for the suicide as a supervisor when the prisoner denied having any suicidal intent during booking and no jail personnel detected a basis for referring him for additional mental health screening based on his interactions with them. As the trial court's denial of summary judgment on the official capacity claim was not a final ruling, the appeals court declined to review it. Cox v. Glanz, #14-5022, 800 F.3d 1231 (9th Cir. 2015).

Privacy

      A female former inmate asserted privacy and other claims against New Jersey and correctional officials and employees, asserting that without proper authorization they took her from one place of confinement to another where they denied her clothing, sanitary napkins, and potable water, as well as needed medications, and subjected her to an unlawful body cavity search. They also allegedly required her to go to the shower or otherwise be exposed while naked while male employees and inmates were present. A federal appeals court found that she failed to adequately show that the state Attorney General or Commissioner of Corrections had adopted policies that led to the deprivation of her constitutional rights or that one named correctional officer knew of these violations. Claims against other, as yet unidentified, correctional employees with respect to these alleged violations, however, could continue. Chavarriaga v. NJ Dep't of Corrs., #14-2044, 2015 U.S. App. Lexis 19854 (3rd Cir.).

•Return to the Contents menu.

      Prison Rape: Developing and Implementing a PREA-Compliant Staffing Plan, Recorded webinar, National PREA Resource Center (Sept. 24, 2015).

     Statistics: Census of Jails: Population Changes, 1999–2013, by Susan M. Brumbaugh, Scott Ginder, Todd D. Minton, Harley Rohloff, and Hope Smiley-McDonald, Bureau of Justice Statistics (December 8, 2015 NCJ 248627).

     Statistics: Veterans in Prison and Jail, 2011–2012, by Marcus Berzofsky, Jennifer Bronson, E. Ann Carson, and Margaret Noonan, Bureau of Justice Statistics (December 7, 2015 NCJ 249144).

  Reference:

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

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