On March 21, 2002, an unidentified plaintiff settled this medical
malpractice claim against two physicians for $2,500,000. At issue was the
medical treatment of a Riker's Island guard who suffered a heart attack in
front of the jail's infirmary.

Upon suffering bruises and contusions while suppressing a riot at the ...

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia held that a
former guard suing CCA of Tennessee under the District of Columbia Human
Rights Act (DCHRA) had not proven she was subjected to a hostile work
environment, that lack of promotion was discriminatory and that she was
qualified for promotion, or that she was retaliated against.

Plaintiff Nicole McCain was employed by CCA of Tennessee at the District of
Columbia Correctional Treatment Facility. McCain brought suit against CCA
under the DCHRA (D.C.Code §§ 1-2510 et seq.) alleging that she was denied a
promotion because she resisted sexual advances by a supervisor (Chief of
Security Larry Bynum) and that she was retaliated against for filing the
lawsuit. CCA moved for summary judgment.

The district court granted CCA's motion for summary judgment, holding: 1)
McCain's allegations that she was twice solicited for sex by Bynum was not
sufficient to support her claim of a hostile work environment. 2) The
warden, not Bynum, set the requirement of prior supervisory experience for
promotion. Thus, failure to promote McCain was not pretextual. 3) McCain
had not shown that she was qualified for the promotion, a requirement in
claims alleging gender discrimination. 4) McCain ...

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York held
that Title VII procedural requirements mandate that a claimant obtain a
right-to-sue letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC), but a right-to-sue letter is not necessary for actions brought
under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).

Elease Canty, a former guard employed by Wackenhut Corrections Corporation,
brought action against her former employer under Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 and the ADEA alleging gender, race, and age
discrimination after she was passed over for a promotion. Before filing
suit Canty filed a grievance with the EEOC but did not obtain a
right-to-sue letter. Defendants moved for dismissal alleging that Canty had
failed to exhaust her administrative remedies.

The district court denied the motion, holding: 1) Procedural requirements
for filing a Title VII action mandate that the claimant obtain a
right-to-sue letter from the EEOC. Since Canty had not obtained a
right-to-sue letter, her Title VII race and gender claims were dismissed.
2) The ADEA requires only that the claimant wait 60 days after filing a
complaint with the EEOC before filing suit. Thus, Canty's failure to obtain
a right-to-sue letter did not ...

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, affirming the U.S. District Court,
Western District of Washington, held that a prisoner failed to prove that
Washington prison officials were deliberately indifferent to his serious
medical needs when they treated him with anti-psychotic medication and
failed to diagnose a lung condition.

Paul L. Howard, a Washington state prisoner, sued the Clark County Jail,
Columbia River Mental Health Services, their employees, and officials of
the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12132. Howard
claimed that while he was a pretrial detainee in the Clark County Jail in
1994 jail and mental health officials forcibly medicated him with
anti-psychotic drugs after misdiagnosing him as having a mental illness.
Howard also claimed that DOC officials continued to treat him with
anti-psychotic medications based on the misdiagnosed mental illness and
that, while he was being treated, officials failed to diagnose a lung
condition (unspecified in the opinion). The district court dismissed
Howard's claims against the jail and mental health services provider as
time-barred and granted summary judgment to prison officials. Howard appealed.

The Court of Appeals held that Howard's claims against the ...

Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeals has reversed a Broward County
Circuit Court's order dismissing a petition for writ of mandamus, seeking
to compel Aramark Food Service to provide a copy of the food service
contract between Aramark and the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC).
The petition was filed by prisoner Thomas P. Wells, Jr. under Florida's
Public Records Act.

The Circuit Court dismissed the petition on grounds mandamus does not lie
against a private corporation doing business with the State.

In reversing and remanding, the Fourth Circuit held that to determine
whether a private corporation is an agency" subject to Florida's Public
Records Act, a court must consider the following factors: (1) the level of
public funding; (2) commingling of funds; (3) whether the activity was
conducted on publicly owned property; (4) whether services contracted for
are an integral part of the public agency's chosen decision-making process;
(5) whether the private entity is performing a governmental function or a
function which the public agency otherwise would perform; (6) the extent of
the public agency's involvement with, regulation of, or control over the
private entity; (7) whether the private entity was created by the public
agency; (8) whether the public ...

by Matthew T. Clarke

On September 8, 2004 the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that prisoners
incarcerated in a private prison must first exhaust the prison's
administrative remedies before bringing suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983
challenging unconstitutional prison conditions.

Louis Boyd, Sammie Everett, Murray Allen, Howard R. Harris, Joshua O.
Kyles, Larry B. Lemmons, Jesus Villanueva Mata, Patrick U. McGee, Randall
Miller, Paul Nemchek, Luis Nieves, Jerome Paul, Cory Purifoy, Shannon Quinn
and Tracy Smith are Wisconsin state prisoners incarcerated at Correction
Corporation of America's (CCA's) Whiteville Correctional Facility in
Whiteville, Tennessee. All were allegedly beaten and called racial epithets
by members of the prison's Special Operations Response Team (SORT).
The plaintiffs filed three separate civil rights actions in federal
district court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The parties agreed to have a
magistrate judge hear the cases. The magistrate judge granted the
defendants' motion to dismiss on the ground that the plaintiffs had failed
to exhaust their administrative remedies as required by the PLRA, 42 U.S.C.
§ 1997e.

The plaintiffs appealed, alleging that the PLRA's administrative remedies
exhaustion requirement did not apply to private prisons and that the
prisoners had exhausted the available remedies. The Sixth Circuit ...

In an unpublished opinion filed on August 7, 2001, the U.S. Eighth Circuit
Court of Appeals upheld a judgment against Correctional Medical Services
(CMS) for failing to provide adequate dental care to a Missouri prisoner.
While imprisoned in the Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC),
plaintiff Edward Allen Moore sued CMS and various MDOC medical personnel
for failing to timely provide him dental care and for mishandling medical
service requests (MSRs). The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for
the Western District of Missouri pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state
tort law. Prior to trial the court dismissed several defendant prison
employees and Moore's state law claims. A jury subsequently acquitted a
prison doctor and nurse of wrongdoing but entered a judgment against CMS.
Both parties appealed and the Eighth Circuit affirmed.

With regard to Moore's appeal, the appellate court held that the prison
defendants were properly dismissed because "Moore failed to create trial
worthy issues on whether these defendants knew of and refused to remedy an
objectively serious deprivation of dental care, or ignored his allegations
that MSRs were being discarded." The Court further held that Moore's state
law claims were invalid because he had failed ...

On August 16, 2001, a Maine jury awarded $200,000 to a registered nurse who
claimed she was fired by Prison Health Services (PHS) for voicing concerns
about the quality of care being provided to juvenile prisoners and because
of her age.

The plaintiff worked at the Northern Maine Juvenile Detention ...

In the week of January 1, 2001, a lawsuit alleging false arrest and an
unconstitutional strip search in retaliation for supporting a particular
candidate for district attorney settled for $50,000.

In 1999, while attending Gallup High School, Emily Ellison was actively
supporting Navajo causes and candidates for the 2000 elections in McKinley
County. On September 12, 1999, Ellison was cited for speeding 11 to 15
miles per hour over the limit and not carrying proof of financial
responsibility. Ellison later appeared before Judge Karl Gillson and filed
a demand for jury trial, which the judge granted. When McKinley County
District Attorney Mary Helen Baber and her two assistants, Michael Sanchez
and Gerald Byers, learned of Ellison's request for a jury trial, they
allegedly decided to use the power of the state to punish her for
supporting Baber's competition for district attorney.

On November 5, 1999, Ellison received a second ticket for speeding 1 to 10
miles per hour over the limit. The case was assigned to Judge Rhoda Hunt
but Ellison initially appeared before Judge Gillson. She pled not guilty
and requested postponement of the bench trial until after Christmas break
so she could go out of town to look ...

In 1998, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) paid $60,000 to settle a
lawsuit filed by the father of a prisoner who died from a drug overdose at
a CCA-operated prison.

Hugh Wayne Martin, a Texas state prisoner, was transferred to the Venus
Pre-release Detention Center in September 1995. The prison ...