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Articles by Lonnie Burton

PLN Settles Censorship Suit Against Illinois County for $75,000, Policy Changes

by Lonnie Burton

On June 17, 2016, Kane County, Illinois ratified a settlement agreement with Prison Legal News to resolve a federal lawsuit after dozens of copies of PLN sent to prisoners at the county’s jail were rejected. The county agreed to pay $75,000 in fees to PLN’s attorneys ...

Kansas: Self-Defense Must be Disproved in Prison Disciplinary Proceeding

by Lonnie Burton

The Kansas Supreme Court held on June 17, 2016 that prison authorities must disprove a claim of self-defense when a prisoner is charged with fighting and asserts he was merely defending himself. The ruling overturned a Court of Appeals decision which had upheld a judgment by a hearing officer that placed the burden to show self-defense on the prisoner.

William May was incarcerated at the Larned Correctional Facility in Kansas in 2012 when he got into a fight with a fellow prisoner. May claimed he was attacked and only defended himself, but still was found guilty of fighting by the hearing officer, who held that “with no evidence of self-defense,” he had been “involved in a fight.”

May then filed a petition challenging his infraction under K.S.A. 60-1501 in Reno County District Court, claiming there was no evidence to support the decision of the hearing officer and asking the court to reverse the infraction. Finding that the hearing officer “made no attempt to evaluate the reasonableness” of May’s self-defense claim, the district court held the decision violated May’s right to due process and overturned the guilty finding.

The Kansas Court of Appeals reversed, however, holding that “some ...

Indiana County is Leader in Sending People to Prison

by Lonnie Burton

In a major shift from just a decade ago, rural areas of the U.S. are more likely to send people to prison than urban areas. While big cities have been trying to reduce incarceration rates, large parts of rural and suburban America have gone in the opposite direction. Residents of small counties – those with populations under 100,000 – are now 50 percent more likely to go to prison than those in more populous counties, compared to just ten years ago. In fact, one small county in Indiana is proudly leading the way in locking people up.

That would be Dearborn County in eastern Indiana. The elected prosecutor for Dearborn County and neighboring Ohio County, Aaron Negangard, is unapologetic about being the leading contributor to the state’s prison population.

“I am proud of the fact that we send more people to jail than other counties,” he said. “That’s how we keep it safe here.” So safe that the county has imposed prison terms on over 5,000 residents – more than San Francisco and Durham, North Carolina combined.

The county not only sends more people to prison than other, larger counties, it also imposes sentences that are shockingly ...

Petition Challenging Disciplinary Hearing Not Mooted After Prison Rescinds Sanction

by Lonnie Burton

On April 22, 2016, the Kansas Court of Appeals reversed a ruling by the Leavenworth County District Court dismissing a habeas petition filed by a prisoner challenging the findings and sanctions imposed at a prison disciplinary proceeding. The district court had held that because prison officials rescinded the sanctions after the petition was filed, it was moot.

The case began in December 2014 when Lansing Correctional Facility (LCF) guard R. Maddox charged prisoner Vaccaro Stano with a disciplinary report for being intoxicated. Following a disciplinary hearing a month later, Stano was found guilty and the hearing officer imposed sanctions that included a $10 fine and 60-day restriction of privileges. The 60-day restriction was suspended, and the LCF warden and Secretary of Corrections denied Stano’s appeals and affirmed the findings and sanctions.

Stano filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 60-1501, alleging that the disciplinary hearing was not held in a timely manner, evidence and witnesses were withheld, and there was insufficient evidence to support the guilty finding.

Twelve days after the habeas petition was filed, the district court ordered LCF to produce Stano for an evidentiary hearing. LCF then rescinded ...

Study: Public Misperceptions About Sex Offenders Skew Policy-Making

by Lonnie Burton

Public opinion toward crime is complex. Research shows that Americans strongly favor punitive measures to address criminal behavior while also demanding the rehabilitation and treatment of offenders. When it comes to sex offenses, it gets even more complicated.

A 2015 study authored by Christina Mancini, an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Kristen Budd of MiamiUniversity (Ohio) found that numerous misperceptions about sex crimes--such as the myth of "stranger danger," the perception of abnormally high sexual recidivism, and offense amplification--have been the impetus behind laws passed by "get tough" legislators spurred on by a misinformed public.

The study found, for instance, that 75% of sex offenders are known to their victims, and that "stranger danger" feats are largely exaggerated. In addition, the "vast majority" of individuals convicted of a sex offense will never reoffend. This is in contrast to the common myth among the public that sex offenders can never be "cured" and will inevitably reoffend. According to the study, a mere 11% of treated sex offenders will commit another sex offense. And finally, the impression that sex offenders always progress to "more serious and predatory offenses" (offense amplification) has been primarily communicated by news accounts ...

Fourth Circuit Reinstates Prisoner’s Lawsuit Over Coerced Penis Surgery

by Lonnie Burton

On June 7, 2016, a unanimous panel of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit partially reinstated a lawsuit brought by a West Virginia state prisoner who claimed prison officials had coerced him to have surgery to remove marbles from his penis.

Prior to his incarceration at the Huttonsville Correctional Center, Adrian King had marbles implanted in his penis during a body modification procedure. When he was booked into Huttonsville in March 2012, he informed the processing officer of the marbles and a tattoo he also had on his penis. The guard told King, “This isn’t a pornographic video, put [your] clothes back on.” The presence of the marbles was thus never recorded in the booking report.

Several months later, King was called to medical for an examination after another prisoner informed staff that he saw King and other prisoners implanting marbles into their penises. Upon examination, the nurse verified that King’s marbles had not been recently implanted and there was no sign of infection.

Nevertheless, King was taken to segregation and told by a deputy warden to “get comfortable,” as he would remain in isolation, and have his parole eligibility revoked, until he agreed to ...

Despite Past Problems, Prison Privatization in Ohio May Expand

by Lonnie Burton

Ohio Governor John Kasich believes in privatization of some government functions as both a way to save the state money and improve the services that residents receive. So in 2011 he submitted a budget plan asking the legislature for authorization to sell as many as five state prisons to for-profit companies. But following the first sale, a series of embarrassing reports revealed numerous problems under private management.

The first – and thus far only – prison to be sold, the 1,798-bed Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut, was transferred to the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA, now known as CoreCivic) in 2012. CCA paid the state almost $73 million for the facility, and in exchange received a 20-year contract to house Ohio state prisoners along with a 90% bed guarantee provision. [See: PLN, Aug. 2015, p.42].

According to Neil Larusch, a Conneaut City Councilman who toured Lake Erie shortly after it was sold, the prison’s population quickly grew by 300 prisoners, requiring double bunking. He also noted that CCA hired the bare minimum of guards, resulting in a toxic mix of violence, drugs and squalid living conditions. Some prisoners, for example, were left without running water, requiring ...

BOP Potentially Liable for Valley Fever Outbreak at Privately-run California Prison

by Lonnie Burton

On May 20, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinstated lawsuits filed by two federal prisoners who had sued the government and two prison contractors for failing to protect them from “valley fever,” an infectious disease, at a privately-run federal prison.

The Taft Correctional Institution is located in Kern County in central California. Although Taft is owned by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), its day-to-day operations are contracted out to a private prison company. Until 2007, Taft was run by the GEO Group, and since that time it has been operated by Management and Training Corp. (MTC). Taft was built in the San Joaquin Valley, where the soil is infested by coccidioidomycosis, commonly known as “cocci” – a fungus that when inhaled can cause a flu-like illness or pneumonia and is sometimes fatal.

In 2003, the number of prisoners at Taft infected with valley fever reached epidemic levels. The warden admitted there were “more cases of diagnosed valley fever at Taft than in all other federal prisons combined.”

In response to the outbreak, the BOP and the Centers for Disease Control initially developed a plan that included prevention protocols, but then quickly ...

State Sentencing Reforms Doing Little to Reduce Nation’s Prison Population

by Lonnie Burton

With almost 7 million people under some sort of correctional supervision, including probation and parole, the United States continues to lead the world in terms of tough-on-crime policies and incarceration rates. Although there have been slight declines in the U.S. prison population since 2010, the number of people held in prisons, jails and other detention facilities remains extremely high.

A recent study by The Sentencing Project, a research organization based in Washington, D.C., entitled “The State of Sentencing 2015: Developments in Policy and Practice,” noted that punitive sentencing practices like mandatory minimums, habitual offender laws, three strikes legislation and restrictions in sentence reduction policies have resulted in a national prison and jail population of 2.2 million. Another 4.7 million people are being monitored on probation or parole.

The study found that in 2015, lawmakers in at least 30 states passed legislation that may contribute to a further decline in the nation’s prison population as well as minimize the collateral consequences of criminal convictions. Among the changes highlighted in the report:

• Three states (MD, OK and ND) passed mandatory sentencing reform, allowing trial judges to depart from mandatory minimums under certain circumstances, including the defendant’s character and ...

Corrections Corporation of America Held in Contempt of Court for Falsifying Records at Idaho Prison

On May 23, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed an Idaho federal district court ruling that found Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) -- a private prison company -- in contempt of court for failing to comply with a settlement agreement when the company was caught falsifying reports related to staffing numbers at its Idaho prison. The Ninth Circuit's decision is now final as CCA has declined to seek review of the ruling by the Supreme Court.

CCA runs the state-owned Idaho Corrections Center (ICC) in Kuna, Idaho. In March 2011, a lawsuit was filed against CCA alleging that ICC was inadequately staffed resulting in a dangerous environment that can and did fail to protect the prisoners from assault and other physical violence. In a settlement agreement signed in September 2011, CCA agreed to a specific number of increased custody staff, including a three-person "Warden's Crew," which would be available to enhance security response time. The agreement was for two years and required CCA to issue staffing reports to prove compliance with the settlement.

Just over a year later, however, Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) officials began to receive reports that ICC had been falsifying ...