Various employees with the Department of Corrections, including Director Heidi Washington, who are defendants in an ongoing scabies outbreak lawsuit, have asked a federal judge to certify his recent decision to let the case continue so it can be appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Democratic members of the House and Senate who chair committees overseeing the Department of Corrections said they support Director Heidi Washington remaining at the helm of the department.
Rep. Sarah Lightner called for Department of Corrections Director Heidi Washington to immediately resign in a statement issued Tuesday.
A challenge to what appeared to be a life without parole sentence handed down when the defendant was 17 years old was not properly brought before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and should be dismissed, a split 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled recently.
The parties in a federal lawsuit against the Department of Corrections challenging what the plaintiffs called illegal strip searches that violate their constitutional rights have agreed to dismiss the case, court records show.
Public pressure and a hard look at its own practices have led the Department of Corrections to change its policies on segregating problem inmates, but advocates say those changes haven't gone far enough to curb the mental and physical health tolls segregation can place on inmates and staff.
The Department of Corrections allegedly violated the terms of a settlement, which aimed to provide community-level standards of mental health care to minor victims of prison rape, because the department failed to provide that level of care, according to a lawsuit filed in federal district court.
The Department of Corrections and the various other defendants named in consolidated scabies outbreak lawsuits have agreed that discovery in the case should be stayed while the court considers granting judgment based on pleadings already filed.
The governor, the director of the Department of Corrections and two wardens were dismissed Monday from a 2022 COVID-19 lawsuit involving an alleged medically vulnerable inmate, court records show.
More than 6,100 of the Department of Corrections inmates who were paroled in 2020 did not reoffend and stayed out of prison, the department announced Wednesday.