by Douglas Ankney
According to a June 2020 report from Medical News Today, the infection and mortality rates — and a lack of testing — for COVID-19 disproportionately affects Black and Latino populations within the United States based upon the available data. Because the government has been reluctant to ...
by Douglas Ankney
On July 31, 2020, a motion was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri revealing that CoreCivic and Securus Technologies (Defendants) had agreed to pay $3.7 million to settle a lawsuit alleging illegal recording of attorney-client conversations at the Leavenworth Detention Center ...
by Douglas Ankney
The chaplains of various faiths in the jails of Los Angeles County are united in a common mission: remind prisoners of their humanity. Often in one-on-one visits, the chaplains patiently listen to tragic stories of suffering, offer counseling, or share a prayer or religious teaching. A simple thing as telling a poignant joke can have a tremendously positive impact.
Many prisoners are from broken homes, were homeless, or otherwise have no one who cares about them. The attention and compassion of a chaplain are their only source of human warmth.
But Los Angeles County, with a daily jail population around 17,600, doesn’t pay jail chaplains.
Consequently, the jails depend on volunteers and that means, for some faiths, demand far exceeds supply. “Certain communities are not as well-represented,” said Sheriff’s Sergeant Alex Gamboa, who works in the office of Religious and Volunteer Services for the county’s jails.
Gamboa acknowledged that only about 20 people are listed as Jewish volunteers, most of whom come to the jails “every blue moon.” He says funding of chaplains isn’t necessary when some religions — like the Christian faiths — have dozens or hundreds of volunteers. According to Gamboa, “Half our chaplains don’t ...
by Douglas Ankney
On December 3, 2019, fourteen prisoners filed suit alleging repeated rapes and other sexual abuse at two federal prisons for women in Florida. Senator Marco Rubio demanded that the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) investigate the allegations. Nine months later, Rubio again wrote Attorney General William Barr, complaining that the DOJ still had not provided “a substantive response, or any indication that these abhorrent allegations were investigated.”
The complaint, filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346, names the United States as the defendant and describes horrific assaults. Plaintiffs Rachelle Beaubrun, Kayla Buchanan, Amanda Dimuro, Kristen Goduto, Kara Guggino, Sara Hoehn, April Johnson, Maggie Leon, Rebecca Mora, Terry Nagy-Philips, Lauren Reynolds, Ann Ursiny, Cristian Villalta-Garcia, and Karen Watson (collectively “Plaintiffs”) ranged in ages from 30 to 56 and were all first-time offenders incarcerated at the minimum security unit at Coleman Federal Correctional Institution (“Coleman”) in Sumpter County, Florida (with the exception of Plaintiff Guggino who was raped at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee before being transferred to Coleman and sexually assaulted again).
The complaint alleges that Officers Palomares, Kuilan, Phillips, Campbell, Vann, Gonzalez, Laudenstager, and Urdialez admitted to investigators that they sexually abused the ...
by Douglas Ankney
On June 10, 2020, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) sent a letter to then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper requesting information about the Department of Defense’s (“DOD”) reliance on the American Correctional Association (“ACA”) for accreditation of military confinement and corrections facilities.
“The importance of maintaining military facilities, especially military confinement and corrections facilities, that meet basic health and safety standards cannot be overstated, and we are pleased that the Department takes this issue seriously enough to seek accreditation for its facilities,” the lawmakers wrote. “Unfortunately, however, it is not clear that the ACA treats its duties as accreditor with the same respect and care.”
The letter came on the heels of an investigation Warren opened last year into the private prison accreditation industry following widespread reports of mismanagement and poor conditions for detainees in facilities across the U.S.
The ACA touts itself as the “voice of corrections,” auditing private and public detention facilities and accrediting over 1,500 facilities in 49 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The ACA also audits and accredits several military corrections facilities in the U.S. and abroad. But documents provided to Warren’s office reveal that the ACA has not denied accreditation ...
by Douglas Ankney
On December 10, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee approved a class action settlement in which Madison County agreed to pay $1.25 million over claims alleging that Sheriff John Mehr violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).
Natasha Grayson, an employee of the Madison County Criminal Justice Complex (“MCCJC”), was the named plaintiff in the lawsuit, which was filed on July 2, 2019.
The suit named Madison County as the Defendant and sought to recover unpaid wages, overtime wages, liquefied damages, attorney’s fees, and statutory penalties under the FLSA on behalf of Grayson and other similarly situated current and former employees (Plaintiffs) of the Defendant. The suit alleged that Plaintiffs were hourly employees who worked eight-hour shifts, five days per week. But Defendant’s policies required Plaintiffs to arrive at the MCCJC and be ready for work 15 minutes before their shift began and to remain another 15 minutes after their shift ended. The Plaintiffs were not compensated for this time, and Defendant failed to log this time.
Since this period of 30 minutes each day was in excess of their 40 hour each week, Plaintiffs alleged the FLSA required they be compensated ...
by Douglas Ankney
Forty-three states, along with the District of Columbia and the federal government, passed “consequential legislation” in 2019 aimed at reducing barriers faced by people with criminal records.
The 152 laws significantly or completely eliminated obstacles to societal reintegration in areas of employment, housing, voting, jury duty and ...
by Douglas Ankney
On July 21, 2020, attorneys for New York state prisoner Imhotep H’Shaka, 46, announced that he had been released into the general population at Attica Correctional Facility after spending nearly a quarter century in solitary.
The announcement followed a March 12, 2020, ruling by the U.S. District ...
by Douglas Ankney
On December 10, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Eastern Division, modified and approved a $1.25 million settlement of a lawsuit against Madison County, Tennessee that alleged Sheriff John Mehr violated the Federal Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. § 201 et ...
by Douglas Ankney
On January 28, 2020, the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island found the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) in violation of a 38-year-old consent order limiting stays in solitary confinement to 30 days for a single offense with a unilateral decision to change the limit to 31 ...
