In the Seventh Circuit’s recent en banc decision in Glisson v. Indiana Department of Corrections, No. 15-1419 (7th Cir. Feb. 21, 2017), the Court held that a private medical corporation, contracted to provide medical services for the Indiana Department of Corrections (INDOC), could be held liable for its failure to enact policies and practices which would…
Read MoreMedia reports abound with stories of persons released from incarceration after being exonerated based on newly discovered evidence. These persons almost inevitably sue in federal court under 42 U.S.C. 1983, claiming that their constitutional rights were violated because the police allegedly coerced incriminating confessions or statements, fabricated evidence, or withheld exculpatory evidence from prosecutors. The…
Read MoreTwo years ago, in Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 135 S. Ct. 2466, 2474 (2015), the U.S. Supreme Court held that only an objective reasonableness standard should apply to cases involving pretrial detainees, rather than the subjective deliberate indifference standard. The Kingsley case involved a pretrial detainee’s excessive force claim, but the Court’s language indicated that an…
Read MoreCooperation agreements between criminal suspects and the police are commonplace. But, what happens when the police arrest the suspect allegedly in breach of the cooperation agreement? Does the suspect have any civil remedies? In People v. Stapinski, 40 N.E.3d 15 (Ill. 2015), a police sergeant had promised not to arrest and file charges against Stapinski for illegal…
Read MoreIn Leyva v. Kankakee County, et al., a jail inmate, Giovanni Leyva, alleged that multiple officers used excessive force against him during a transport from his housing unit to a segregation unit. Leyva alleged that he was struck multiple times in the back, and that upon arrival to the segregation unit, he was placed in…
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