A federal magistrate judge in Manhattan has threatened to sanction New York state officials for refusing to comply with a court order requiring that they engage in settlement negotiations with former inmates who were sent back to prison for violating administratively imposed parole conditions.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger of the Southern District of New York faulted state corrections administrators, and their counsel from the New York Attorney General’s office, for “unilaterally deciding to selectively comply” with a Jan. 14 order, which directed the state to provide a counter-offer to the plaintiffs’ settlement proposal in the long-running dispute.
