Heart Disease, Cancer, and Suicide Continue to be Leading Causes of Prisoner Deaths

by Derek Gilna

In 2000, the Bureau of Justice Statistics began to compile statistics from state and local jails on causes of prisoner mortality, and although the rates of mortality have declined slightly, mortality rates for disease continue to be high. The most recent figures contained in their August 2013 report show that 4,238 prisoners died in state and local prisons in 2011, a number that hasn’t fluctuated much over the years.

This translates into a mortality rate of 122 per 100,000 prisoners in 2011, a slight decline from 2010, and the last year for which complete statistics were available. Suicides continue to be the leading cause of death, closely followed by heart disease, cancer, liver disease, and respiratory ailments.

Males accounted for approximately 90% of jail deaths, but mortality rates for male and female prisoners were quite similar. White prisoners overall had a slightly higher mortality rate than Black prisoners, who in turn had a higher rate than Hispanic prisoners.

The mortality rates of state and local jails were very similar, but both experienced an increase in deaths from cancer, mirroring the increase in cancer deaths ...

Basque Fighters Win Major European Human Rights Court Ruling

by Derek Gilna

An October 2013 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has reversed a decision by the Spanish prosecutor’s office that had been used to eliminate various sentence credits. This ruling should immediately impact 61 political prisoners from the Basque region of Spain. Known as the “Parot doctrine,” the decision had been used to extend the sentences of members of the Basque separatist organization known as ETA, branded as a “terrorist” group in Spain.

The 1973 Spanish criminal code permitted term reductions for various prison activities such as workshops and educational courses from the maximum term of 30 years, but the Parot doctrine, introduced by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2006, mandated that benefits be deducted from each of the counts on which the prisoner was convicted. Ines del Rio Prada, 55, had been sentenced to 3,000 years in jail for her alleged role in 23 murders for the ETA. The new ruling invalidated this doctrine as it is “ex-post facto” punishment.

In its decision, the EDHR paved the way not only for the immediate release of del Rio, but also 61 ETA prisoners and at least ...

Reforms Propel Drop in Juvenile Detention Figures and Juvenile Crime Rates

by Derek Gilna

Juvenile crime rates and the number of incarcerated juveniles have fallen in a majority of states as states begin to reap the benefits of more enlightened treatment of young offenders. The FBI’s newest statistics agree that juvenile crime has fallen to a new 32-year low, and according to a report issued by the non-partisan Pew Research Center, “(b)etween 2010 and 2011, the number of committed youth—those locked up as a result of a court-ordered sanction—fell in 43 states.”

That report, based upon the most recent data released by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, also showed that the “juvenile commitment rate dropped 14 percent during that period.” Still, a staggering total of 42,000 youth, or 1 in 751, are locked up in a juvenile corrections facility or other residential placement in the United States.

The drop in juvenile crime rates mirrors the drop in the adult crime rate, both of which have been falling since the mid-1990s. Much of the credit goes to the enlightened recalibration of failed juvenile detention policies in the past decade in states not generally known for enlightened correctional practices, ...

Ohio Limits Solitary Confinement for Juvenile Offenders

by Derek Gilna

Ohio’s Department of Youth Services, which is responsible for the incarceration of offenders ages 10 to 21, reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in May 2014 to significantly reduce the frequency and duration of solitary confinement. Instead, state officials agreed to expand mental health services to juvenile offenders.

The previous year, a federal court had approved a consent order that mostly ended the monitoring of conditions of confinement and mental health services in Ohio juvenile facilities as part of a class-action suit. See: S.H. v. Reed, U.S.D.C. (S.D. Ohio), Case No. 2:04-cv-01206.

Ohio has joined a number of other states that have reformed their juvenile justice practices under varying degrees of pressure, either from the DOJ or advocacy organizations such as the ACLU. New York has agreed to limit its use of solitary for juvenile offenders, as have Texas, Nevada and Oklahoma.

Amy Fettig, senior staff counsel for the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said the well-respected American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has voiced its opposition to the use of solitary in juvenile facilities because the “potential psychiatric consequences of prolonged solitary confinement are well recognized ...

11th Circuit Reinstates Suit Filed by BOP Confidential Informant

by Derek Gilna

The 11th Circuit has reinstated a previously-dismissed complaint alleging Eighth Amendment violations by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for being deliberately indifferent to the safety of a prisoner who acted as a confidential informant. The plaintiff, who filed suit using a John Doe pseudonym, had assisted the BOP in investigating one of its own officers, which put his personal safety in jeopardy.

While held at USP Atlanta, Doe helped obtain evidence against a BOP guard who had engaged in sexual misconduct. The guard resigned, and in exchange for his assistance Doe “was promised that he would be kept safe and would be transferred to a lower security prison.”

However, the BOP later transferred Doe to a high-security facility and failed to keep confidential his grievance concerning the transfer. As a result, he was placed in a cell with “two known sexual offenders, who severely beat and assaulted him.” Doe was then moved to several other high-security prisons and placed in special housing units; at one point he was sent back to USP Atlanta, where he “was beaten by a BOP officer so badly that he required a trip ...

Association of State Correctional Administrators Study Criticizes Solitary Confinement

by Derek Gilna

In August 2015, the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA), made up of the heads of state prison systems, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and large jails, in conjunction with the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program of Yale Law School, released a study sharply critical of the use of solitary confinement in U.S. correctional facilities.

The study surveyed 34 facilities nationwide that hold almost 3/4 of the state and federal prison population, and estimated that up to 100,000 prisoners are held in some form of solitary confinement – more than previous estimates.

Whether termed “administrative segregation,” “disciplinary segregation” or “protective custody,” it typically means the same thing – prisoners are kept in their cells at least 22 hours a day, denied access to almost all programming, limited to perhaps one phone call a month and confined to an area about the size of a large bathroom. Many are held in such conditions indefinitely, and often the amount of time they are confined is counted not in days, weeks or months, but in years.

Corrections officials have finally begun to acknowledge that such practices must be reformed, and ...

Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders Files “Justice is Not for Sale Act”

by Derek Gilna

Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, along with Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona in the House, filed companion bills on September 17, 2015 to address some of the many problems in the U.S. criminal justice system. The highlights of their legislation include abolishing all for-profit prisons and reinstating parole for federal prisoners.

The proposed legislation, which must pass both houses of Congress before being signed into law by the President, also takes aim at various other criminal justice issues – including a quota that requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to incarcerate 34,000 detainees at any given time. The bill further addresses excessive charges for prison phone calls and money transfer services, requires ICE to better monitor its facilities and ends the detention of immigrant families.

Senator Sanders, who has advocated other social reforms, including raising the minimum wage and increasing oversight of large banks, noted in a press release that announced the filing of his bill that the private prison industry generates billions of dollars in annual revenues and employs teams of lobbyists to persuade government officials to continue mass incarceration ...

Seventh Circuit Vacates Unduly Restrictive Supervised Release Conditions

by Derek Gilna

In a consolidated case involving post-release restrictions imposed on federal defendants, the Seventh Circuit struck down those portions of a district court’s judgment it deemed beyond the scope of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). The case was remanded for a new judgment order in line with the Court of Appeals’ recommendation of five “best practices” for conditions of supervised release.

The original conditions of release for one of the defendants, convicted of a sexual offense, included a lifetime prohibition on legal or illegal materials containing “nudity,” a ban on mood-altering substances and a mandatory sex offender program. Those of the other defendant, who was convicted of selling illegal drugs, also included a ban on mood-altering substances as well as a ban on excessive use of alcohol, plus a requirement that he receive substance abuse treatment and cognitive behavioral therapy.

The Seventh Circuit suggested instead that the district court follow the strictures of § 3583(d) of the Sentencing Reform Act and U.S.S.G. § 5D1.3(a), as well as 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), which requires a court to consider the seriousness of the offense, promote respect for the law, impose just punishment, protect the ...

Breaking News: Federal Bureau of Prisons to Release 6,000 Prisoners

by Derek Gilna

In a dramatic announcement on October 6, 2015, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) stated it is preparing to release up to 6,000 prisoners by the end of the month or early November 2015, who will be sent to halfway houses or placed on home confinement. After the U.S. Sentencing Commission announced its “Drugs Minus Two” change in the sentencing guidelines for non-violent drug offenders in 2014, thousands of prisoners have filed for relief on a case-by-case basis. [See: PLN, Aug. 2014, p.26].

The sentencing change, made in part to relieve serious overcrowding in the BOP, was hailed by prisoners’ rights advocates such as Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), which noted it was the largest single one-time release of federal prisoners.

“The number of people who will be affected is quite exceptional,” said FAMM general counsel Mary Price. She acknowledged that so many prisoner releases “could be a scary thing,” but added it could also “be a signal that we as a nation are serious about rethinking our approach to crime and punishment.”

FAMM and Prison Legal News, as well as many other organizations, ...

Sixth Circuit Reverses Dismissal of Prisoner’s Bivens Suit against BOP Officials

by Derek Gilna

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a district court’s dismissal of a prisoner’s suit raising a failure to protect claim, remanding it for further proceedings. The district court had dismissed the case due to failure to exhaust administrative remedies and also because it found the dismissal of a federal tort claim on purely procedural grounds was a bar to other litigation that alleged related facts.

In 2010, federal prisoner Walter J. Himmelrich filed suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) against the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and various prison officials for failing to protect him from a 2008 assault by another prisoner in violation of the Eighth Amendment. He also filed a Bivens lawsuit alleging retaliation for the filing of the FTCA action, including being placed in administrative segregation for 60 days.

After a trip to the Sixth Circuit on appeal that resulted in a remand to the district court, the BOP filed for summary judgment in the Bivens case based upon the dismissal of Himmelrich’s FTCA suit and the fact that he had not exhausted his administrative remedies as required under the ...