Resources
Prisoners Rights Resources
Prison Litigation Reform Act: Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies Requirement
It is important to note that before any legal action can be taken on behalf of incarcerated people, they must first abide by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). The PLRA has requirements regarding the exhaustion of administrative remedies, limits on the types of injuries that are actionable, and limits on attorneys’ fees. The PLRA prevents any lawsuit brought by a prisoner who has not yet fulfilled “such administrative remedies as are available[.]” The Supreme Court has held that if a detention facility’s grievance process is available, the prisoner must complete the process before legal action can be taken. If a prisoner fails to follow the rules governing the grievance process (including deadlines), he has procedurally defaulted, barring any federal claims in federal court forever. It is imperative that incarcerated people complete all levels of their institution’s grievance process when an issue arises, for example, if they are denied medication, before legal action can be engaged.
If you have a loved one who is incarcerated, it is vital that they complete the grievance system at their institution, including by requesting sick calls and filing required medical grievances. Please advise them to create copies of their grievances and responses, and to send you copies of each so they can preserve their legal rights.
Contract & Bid Materials — IDOC & Wexford Health Sources, Inc.
Websites for Identifying State Employees
Organizations Supporting the Rights of Incarcerated People
Information on MOUD
Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a chronic disorder with potentially deadly consequences. Symptoms may include uncontrollable cravings for and compulsive use of opioids, decreased sensitivity to them, and excruciating withdrawal symptoms.
People with opioid use disorder cannot simply “will” or “reason” their way out of continued opioid use, even when they are aware of the dire consequences. Because the disorder negatively impacts the brain’s reward system, the disease makes it difficult for individuals to stop taking opioids even when they experience negative consequences and have stopped feeling the drug’s pleasurable effects due to increased tolerance. Continued use does not indicate a person lacks willpower, but rather is the predictable outcome of chemical changes in the brain. Opioid use disorder has proven especially resistant to non-medication-based treatment methods, such as abstinence-only and twelve-step programs, which have been popular in treating other addictions such as alcoholism.
The Three Cycles of Addiction
The first stage, binge/intoxication, involves changes in the mesolimbic dopamine system, the brain’s reward system. This stage initially includes enhanced dopamine activity, which results in feelings of pleasure. With chronic substance use, however, people experience neurobiological changes including downregulation of dopamine receptors, meaning it takes progressively higher doses of a substance to get the same effect. If there is excess dopamine activation on a regular basis, the brain responds by reducing the number of dopamine receptors that can be activated. Once the excess dopamine activation is not there, there is an overall deficit in the ability of dopamine to create pleasure.
The second stage, withdrawal and negative affect, results in a decreased ability to cope with stress and negative affective or emotional states in the absence of opioid use. During this stage, patients also experience decreases in dopamine activity and receptors. These neurobiological changes cause people to feel anxiety, stress, depression, and discomfort when they are not maintaining the same or increasing amounts of opioids.
The third stage, preoccupation and anticipation, involves changes in the prefrontal cortex. This is the area of the brain that helps in decision making, executive function, planning, self-control, and recognizing the importance of one reward (e.g., safety and shelter) over another (e.g., feeling a “high” from substance use).
Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD)
The Food and Drug Administration has approved three medications for treating opioid use disorder, also referred to as “MOUD”: methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. The brand names for these medications include DISKETS, Dolophine, Methadose, Buprenex, Butrans, Sublocade, Suboxone, Subutex, Depade, Revia, and Vivitrol.
These medications are not the same and cannot be used interchangeably for every patient. This is important when addressing barriers to MOUD. For example, some jails and prisons will offer only one form of MOUD—usually naltrexone—which may be ineffective for an individual’s medical needs. Treatment decisions should only be made after an evaluation with an individual and their doctor.
Incarcerated people face a dramatically elevated risk of relapse, overdose, and death, especially in the weeks immediately following release, because their opioid tolerances drop while in jail and prison. MOUD treatment is thus necessary to address the serious risk of harm that patients with opioid use disorder face, both inside jails and prisons and after their release.
The American Medical Association is clear that MOUD is the “standard of care for patients in jail and prison settings” and supports the removal of “administrative burdens or barriers that delay or deny care for FDA-approved medications used as part of medication assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder.
Numerous studies show that providing MOUD in correctional facilities reduces opioid use, overdose deaths, criminal activity, recidivism, and infectious disease transmissions, and increases the likelihood of continued addiction treatment. Because providing MOUD reduces drug use and criminal activity, studies show it saves taxpayers from paying jail costs.
Legal Protections Related to Opioid Use Disorder
There are multiple legal protections for people who have substance use disorders. For instance, the Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act prohibits discrimination against people with substance use disorders on account of their disability.
When a lawsuit is brought on behalf of an incarcerated person, it is vital that the person first completes the grievance procedure at their correctional facility, including putting in sick calls and filing grievances. If you have a loved one who is incarcerated and is considering legal action, please advise them to create copies of their grievances and responses and to send you copies of them to preserve their legal rights.
If you wish to discuss your legal options because you or a loved one has been denied access to MOUD or suffered discrimination based on opioid use disorder, please contact us using the form on this page. The MOUD attorneys at Kaplan & Grady are ready to protect your civil rights.
Press Kit Resources
Press Releases
Press Mentions
Published July 15, 2024 – pressherald.com
Family sues Cumberland County Jail leaders over man's overdose death
Published May 5, 2024Updated May 7, 2024 – nytimes.com
When Prison and Mental Illness Amount to a Death Sentence.
April 4, 2024 – post-gazette.com
Uniontown jewelry store's lawsuit against PNC Bank will move ahead
February 1, 2024 – kutv.com
Lawsuit accuses 'district wide failure' of special needs students in Alpine schools
January 26, 2024 – fox13now.com
Bus driver sat on child with breathing difficulties, parents write in lawsuit
October 16, 2023 – wgno.com
Three men wrongfully convicted of murder in New Orleans are filing a lawsuit after decades of being locked behind bars in Angola.
October 16, 2023 – www.wwltv.com
Two men whose convictions in a 1994 New Orleans murder were tossed decades later — in part because a notoriously corrupt killer cop was involved in the investigation — sued the city, the district attorney's office and several former police officers Monday.
May 17, 2023 – Chicago Reader
'Inmates are extremely manipulative' Hundreds of lawsuits against Wexford Health Sources, a for-profit medical corporation operating inside Illinois prisons, allege substandard care.
February 17, 2023 – Crain’s Chicago Business
Former federal judge joins Kaplan & Grady
February 17, 2023 - The Indiana Lawyer
Retired Judge Tinder joins Chicago firm as neutral, consultant
February 14, 2023 – Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
Boutique litigation firm Kaplan & Grady has added retired 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge John D. Tinder as of counsel
February 8, 2023 – Law360
Ex-7th Circ. Judge Tinder Joins Boutique Firm Kaplan & Grady
January 2, 2023 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PNC Bank blamed in federal lawsuit for jewelry store funds getting drained by cyber thieves
June 10, 2022 - ProPublica
Shielded From Public View, Misconduct by Corrections Staff in Illinois Prisons Received Scant Discipline
July 16, 2021 - The Chicago Bar Foundation
Maurice Weigle Exceptional Young Lawyer Award Recipient for 2021
November 13, 2020 - PREA Resource Center
Full Seventh Circuit Hears Debate Over Municipal Liability in Prison Rape
May 12, 2020 - ABC 7 Eyewitness News
Cook County coronavirus: Sheriff calls jail case ‘constitutional whack-a-mole’ as re-entry ministry surges
April 12, 2020 - TRT World Now
Coronavirus in Chicago Jail: Sarah Grady, Lawyer
April 9, 2020 - Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center
Federal Court Affirms Government’s Responsibility to Protect Incarcerated People from COVID-19
April 7, 2020 - Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender
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