The Louisiana Department of Corrections is on the hook for holding an inmate 41 days past his release date after a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the bureaucratic mistake amounted to “false imprisonment.”
Brian McNeal was ordered to serve 90 days in prison after his probation was revoked on a prior cocaine conviction, according to his lawsuit. McNeal was given a letter from the DOC showing his release date, but the paperwork did not follow him to the prison where he was ultimately assigned.
U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles granted McNeal a rarely-issued summary judgment in his civil rights claim, agreeing that his over-detention “kept him in prison admittedly without legal authority.”
The ruling means that McNeal’s case will now go to a jury to determine damages unless it is settled beforehand, his attorney William Most said.
The lawsuit is among the first of about a dozen lawsuits pending against the Department of Corrections for keeping inmates after their sentences have been completed.
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The WWL-TV investigation series “Left Behind” showed that the over-detention problem forces hundreds of inmates to serve time beyond their sentences each year. State officials blame a combination of complex sentencing calculations, lack of technology, and poor communication between court clerks, jailers and the Louisiana Department of Corrections.
On top of disrupting the lives of inmates and their families, the problem costs taxpayers millions of dollars each year in additional incarceration expenses.
William Most, McNeal’s attorney, said, “Mr. McNeal is one of the thousands of Louisiana people held each year past their release date. Hopefully this decision will show the Louisiana Department of Corrections that what they are doing is illegal and has consequences.”
