North Carolina Prisons Slow to Change Attitudes about Mentally Ill Prisoners
by David M. Reutter
The head of North Carolina’s Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice is calling for more than $20 million in additional state funding to pay for changes in the way the state prison system takes care of its approximately 4,600 mentally ill prisoners – 12% of North Carolina’s total prison population.
The request by corrections commissioner W. David Guice came in the wake of the high-profile dehydration death of mentally ill prisoner Michael Anthony Kerr on March 12, 2014 after more than a month in solitary confinement, when the water to Kerr’s cell had twice been disconnected. [See: PLN, May 2015, p.60]. Guice made the request when he appeared before a December 11, 2014 meeting of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety that was convened to examine the state’s treatment of mentally ill prisoners.
Guice requested $16 million to hire 308 new employees to help manage mentally ill prisoners, plus additional funding to operate 72 beds for mentally ill prisoners at Central Prison in Raleigh that are in place but not being used due to budget cuts, according to Terri Cartlett, ...
Pennsylvania: $65,000 Settlement for Brain Injury Caused by Guard’s Excessive Force
by David Reutter
Pennsylvania’s Erie County Prison (ECP) agreed to pay $65,000 to settle a federal lawsuit claiming a guard used excessive force on a prisoner, causing brain damage.
Jerome McCallion was housed in ECP’s Restrictive Housing Unit in ...
Closed Colorado Prison Converted into Homeless Program
by David Reutter
Nearly two years after it opened on September 3, 2013, supporters of Fort Lyon, a former Colorado prison-turned-homeless facility, say it’s too soon to call the program administered by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless a success. But officials say there is growing support for the sprawling campus in extreme southeast Colorado that once housed minimum-security prisoners but now accommodates more than 200 men and women who previously lived on the streets.
Fort Lyon, a former frontier fortress, was a veterans hospital for about 80 years until 2001, when it became too expensive to operate. State officials converted it into a prison, but Governor John Hickenlooper ordered it closed in 2011 due to budget cuts. Amid a great deal of controversy, Fort Lyon was converted into a facility to house chronically homeless persons suffering from addictions they could not overcome in an urban environment.
The sprawling campus is remote, but in many ways idyllic: located on 552 acres, the former prison can house up to 775 people. The facility has two swimming pools, eight wells, a water treatment plant, agricultural facilities, sports fields, metal and wood shops, a state-of-the-art kitchen, ...
California: Private Medical Provider can be Liable for ADA Violations; Class-action Suit Settles
by David M. Reutter
A California federal district court held in September 2014 that a jail’s private medical provider may be held liable under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); the class-action lawsuit later settled, with the jail agreeing to make a number of policy changes.
At issue was a complaint that alleged the Monterey County Jail (MCJ) had substandard conditions that included “violence due to understaffing, overcrowding, inadequate training, policies, procedures, facilities, and prisoner classification; inadequate medical and mental health care screening, attention, distribution, and resources; and lack of policies and practices for identifying, tracking, responding, communicating, and providing accessibility for accommodations for prisoners with disabilities.” [See: PLN, June 2014, p.1].
The defendants, including the County of Monterey, Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and California Forensic Medical Group (CFMG), filed motions to dismiss. MCJ frequently houses more than 1,100 prisoners; the majority are pretrial detainees who stay an average 30-40 days.
Health care at the facility is provided under a contract with CFMG, which is responsible for determining “the method, details, and means of performing services.” The complaint in the class-action suit listed ...
Two Kentucky Jail Guards Face Charges in Prisoner’s Death
by David Reutter
A special prosecutor has been appointed to try a first-degree manslaughter case against two Kentucky jail guards indicted in the 2013 beating death of a 54-year-old prisoner who was being held on a DUI charge. Assistant Attorney General Barbara Maines-Whaley was named on February 26, 2014 to serve as prosecuting attorney.
Maines-Whaley will present the state’s evidence against Kentucky River Regional Jail guards Damon W. Hickman and William C. Howell, who were indicted for the July 9, 2013 death of prisoner Larry Trent after an altercation at the jail. Following the incident, Trent was restrained and placed in a holding cell. At around 10:50 a.m., jail staff found him unresponsive; he was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Although an official cause of death was not released, the state medical examiner’s preliminary report cited “jail beating” as the cause of Trent’s injuries. That report found Trent had suffered “blunt impacts of the head, trunk, and extremities with multiple skeletal and visceral injuries.”
In an incident report obtained by the Hazard Herald newspaper, Howell wrote that Trent “came out fighting. I tased him, [but] he ...
$36 Million Awarded to Two Men Wrongfully Convicted of Rape, Murder
by David Reutter
A New York federal jury awarded $36 million to two of three former prisoners wrongfully convicted in the 1984 rape and murder of a teenage girl.
The horrific death of Theresa Fusco, 16, was a high-profile ...
$1.2 Million Award for Failure to Treat New York Prisoner’s Rectal Bleeding
by David Reutter
A New York Court of Claims awarded $1.2 million to a former prisoner who was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer after prison medical personnel failed to properly treat his complaints of rectal bleeding.
While at ...
Due Process Violation for “Sham” Reviews During 13 Years in Segregation
by David M. Reutter
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a grant of summary judgment to prison officials on a due process claim, holding there was sufficient evidence for a jury to determine whether a prisoner received “sham” ...
16 Years of Failure to Treat Neurological Disorder Results in $48,000 Award
by David Reutter
A New York Court of Claims awarded a prisoner $48,000 for pain and suffering caused by prison medical staff rendering inadequate treatment during his first 16 years of incarceration, “including a failure to maintain proper ...
Medical Malpractice Caused California Prisoner’s Death, $177,500 Settlement
by David M. Reutter
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDOC) paid $177,500 to settle a lawsuit claiming that medical malpractice caused a prisoner’s death.
Prisoner Tyrell Rippetoe was a dialysis patient susceptible to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections at his ...
