CO: Colorado Jail Guard Must Stand Trial for Opening Accused Sex Offender’s Cell, Subjecting Him to Assault

Source: prisonlegalnews.org 7/1/24 On December 13, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado denied summary judgment to a jail guard who allegedly failed to protect a pretrial detainee from assault by another detainee. But the Court dismissed a municipal liability claim against Colorado’s Chaffee County, even though the guard had been disciplined before—three times—for failing to keep cell doors locked. Jason Harter, then 34, was arrested and booked into Chaffee County Detention Center (CCDC) on February 20, 2020, on charges of kidnapping, forcible rape of an individual…

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NH: New York Must Offer Vaccine to All Prisoners Immediately, Judge Rules

[nytimes.com 3/29/21] A judge in the Bronx ruled that people incarcerated in the state’s prisons and jails had been arbitrarily excluded from the coronavirus vaccine rollout. New York must immediately begin to offer Covid vaccines to all incarcerated people in the state’s prisons and jails, a judge ruled on Monday, making the state one of few in the nation to provide doses to such a broad population behind bars. The order, the first involving any of the country’s largest correctional systems, comes as the coronavirus continues to roar through facilities in New York.…

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CA: The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wants to rid some facilities of sensitive needs yards

[sacbee.com – 5/27/18] The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is changing how inmates are housed, saying current separations between general population inmates and those held in sensitive needs yards have been ineffective in eliminating gangs and violence within prison walls. The agency will instead move toward creating some “non-designated program” facilities, where both groups will be tasked with co-existing. The current system has bred new gangs within the sensitive needs yards, resulting in escalating violence, CDCR Undersecretary of Operations Ralph Diaz said. “We are going to do behavior-based programs…

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