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Daily Mail
09-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Wild moment inmates start trading blows before their visiting loved ones join in amid violent jailhouse brawl
A violent brawl between inmates and visitors erupted inside a New South Wales prison when a routine visiting session went wrong. The clash at Bathurst Correctional Centre, 210 kilometres west of Sydney, kicked off on the morning of February 8 and left one prison officer hospitalised with a broken arm. Shocking footage obtained by Nine News showed one male inmate walking across the visitor's room towards another prisoner sitting with loved ones. The pair, aged 29 and 36, then allegedly started throwing a series of punches. The altercation escalated quickly, drawing in three other visitors, two women aged 28 and 32, and a man aged 32. The male visitor was seen allegedly joining in on the attack when the two inmates failed to break it up, before five corrections officers were forced to step in. A third inmate also tried to break up the brawl before he was dragged away by a guard. One corrections officer ended up being crushed as the fight carried on, leaving him in hospital with a broken arm. Public Service Association president Nicole Jess said it was lucky more people, especially women and children visiting, weren't hurt. 'We've got alert systems that are in place, but we don't know what the visitors are doing and then they come in and they know someone that we just don't have the alerts on, and something like that erupts,' she said. Police have charged the 32-year-old woman with assault and affray. The 32-year-old man and 28-year-old woman have also been charged with affray, along with the two inmates. All five appeared in Bathurst Local Court this week.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Yahoo
Supreme Court rules prison inmate cannot sue federal officers for alleged assault
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a federal prison inmate cannot sue corrections officers for an alleged assault in which he was punched, kicked and had his face slammed into a wall. The loss for inmate Andrew Fields is the latest setback for plaintiffs seeking to hold federal officials accountable for constitutional violations. Although the Supreme Court allowed such claims in a 1971 ruling called Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, it has since changed course and made it almost impossible to do so in most situations. The unsigned ruling, which had no dissents, said that if Fields' claim was allowed to move forward, it "could have negative systemic consequences for prison officials." Fields has other ways of vindicating his rights, the court added. Fields, 53, had sought to bring a "Bivens claim" arising from the 2021 incident at a federal prison in Lee County, Virginia. He is now at a different prison in Florida. The facts are disputed, with officers saying he initially assaulted them, which he denies. Fields, serving a lengthy sentence for drugs and gun offenses, alleges that the incident began when he went to lunch without bringing a required movement pass. While being moved to a special housing unit, Fields says officers punched him in the face and stomped on him. Then, once he was secured in the unit and restrained, the officers shoved his face into the wall, slammed a security shield into his back, and again punched him and kneed him in the groin, he alleges. A federal judge threw out Fields' lawsuit, which he filed without the help of a lawyer. But in a 2024 ruling, the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived it, saying he could bring a claim under the Constitution's 8th Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment in the prison context. The Supreme Court has over several decades shown a reluctance to allow Bivens claims. In the most recent decision, the court in 2022 said Border Patrol agents could not be sued. In the 12 months after that ruling, lower courts cited it 228 times in a variety of cases against all kinds of federal officials, an NBC News investigation found. In 195 of those cases, constitutional claims were dismissed. Congress has never enacted legislation that would specifically allow federal officials to be sued individually for constitutional violations, even though it allows similar claims to be brought against state and local officials. In fact, the appeals court noted that there is "little doubt that Fields would have a viable ... claim against prison officials if he had been incarcerated at a state prison." Legislation in Congress that would codify Bivens claims has stalled. This article was originally published on
