Reviewed by John E. Dannenberg
Three years after publishing his 67 page 4th Edition of the California Habeas Handbook (CHH) [see: PLN, Jan. 2004, p.18], Attorney Kent Russell has rewritten and expanded this tutorial guide to aid pro per prisoners in researching and filing successful habeas corpus petitions in state ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The County of San Diego, California agreed in September 2006 to pay $400,000 to settle an excessive-force wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of a prisoner who died on February 2, 2001 in the Otay Mesa Jail after being hog-tied by sheriff?s deputies.
Marshawn Washington was ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania held that a 1997 state ballot constitutional amendment, which modified Pennsylvania?s commutation laws to require a unanimous vote rather than a simple majority of the Board of Pardons to initiate pardons or commutations of death or ...
by John E. Dannenberg
California?s 16-year-old prisoner mental health federal lawsuit (originally, Coleman v. Wilson) was given new and urgently needed life on May 2, 2006 when a frustrated U.S. District Judge (Emeritus) Lawrence K. Karlton ordered the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to activate 125 intermediate inpatient ...
California DOC Medical Receiver's Initial On-The-Job Impression: "Conditions Disgraceful"
by John E. Dannenberg
In his first bi-monthly accounting to his boss (U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson), California's Prison health-care Receiver ("CPR") Bob Sillen concluded that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's (CDCR) health-care situation was even worse than ...
by John E. Dannenberg
On September 29, 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislative bills that would have permitted better access to public records, condoms in state prisons as well as media access to specified prisoners.
The public records access bill (AB 2927) would have made public agency records requests available ...
New York's Governor Vetoes New Treatment Facilities For Mentally Ill Prisoners
by John E. Dannenberg
Prior to leaving office, on August 16, 2006, then New York Governor George Pataki (R)vetoed Assembly Bill No. 3926-A, which would have provided $280 - $380 million to construct Residential Mental Health Treatment Programs (RHMTP) ...
BOP Halfway House Walkaway Is Not Federal "Crime of Violence"
by John E. Dannenberg
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a walkaway from a federal halfway house did not fit the categorical "crime of violence" definition for career offender under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (U.S.S.G.) § 4B1.1, notwithstanding ...
California's "High-Risk" Sex Offender Parolees Ostracized; Parole Official Fired
by John E. Dannenberg
California's 2,000 "high-risk" sex offenders (HRSOs) currently on parole are increasingly being ostracized following relentless publicity as to their whereabouts, forcing parole officials to continuously find new housing for them after concerned citizens run them out of ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The class of all Cook County, Illinois parole violators was granted a preliminary injunction by the U.S. District Court, Northern District, Eastern Division, ordering the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) to conduct preliminary parole revocation hearings within ten days after arrest, at or near the site ...
