by Mark Wilson
On September 22, 2021 Oregon prison officials suspended outside prisoner work crews “in order to review any potential changes following a walk away earlier this year” according to an internal memo sent by Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) Director Colette Peters and Deputy Director Heidi Steward.
The pause comes in the wake of a high-profile international incident. Fourteen-time felon, Jedaiah Lunn, 36, was incarcerated at the South Fork Forest Camp, a 200-bed minimum-security prison on the Oregon coast operated by ODOC and the Oregon Department of Forestry. While on a work crew at the Gales Creek Campground on April 14, 2021, Lunn walked away, accosted two women who are Japanese nationals, brutally beating them with a large stick, and severely injuring both of them. He then stole their car. Later that day he was caught and arrested. Lunn faces multiple charges, including attempted murder, first-degree assault, first-degree robbery and escape.
The incident prompted angry Japanese government officials to write Oregon Governor Kate Brown demanding answers. After taking several months to respond, Brown initially stood by the program. The Forest Camp has “largely been successful” Brown wrote to a Japanese diplomat.
Of course, the program’s success was little ...
by Mark Wilson
"The law is clearly established that individuals in government custody have a constitutional right to be protected against a heightened exposure to serious easily communicable diseases,” concluded United States Magistrate Stacie F. Beckerman in denying Oregon prison officials qualified immunity for their coronavirus (COVID-19) response. “The Court ...
by Mark Wilson
On July 16, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a federal prisoner’s Bivens action, because First Amendment claims are not cognizable Bivens claims.
Federal prisoner Scott Callahan is incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, ...
by Mark Wilson
A January 2021 watchdog report painted a grim picture of a losing struggle by officials with the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) against an outbreak of COVID-19 the previous year at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Terminal Island in San Pedro, California. Ten prisoners died there of ...
by Mark Wilson
The California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA) was cited on March 1, 2021, by the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) and fined $24,300 for “serious” violations stemming from a June 2020 exposure to COVID-19 of prisoners employed in a metal fabrication and vehicle-outfitting facility at ...
by Mark Wilson
On July 22, 2020, a rural and politically conservative county in western New York implemented one of the nation’s most progressive transgender jail policies, also agreeing to pay a transgender woman $60,000 to settle a lawsuit stemming from her mistreatment in the Steuben County Jail (SCJ).
The ...
by Mark Wilson
“Individuals who commit crimes need to be held accountable, but they should not be stripped of their rights as a citizen,” said Oregon state Senator Floyd Prozanski, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose committee is considering one of two bills to eliminate Oregon’s 164-year prohibition on ...
by Mark Wilson
With 3,392 (28.1%) of 12,073 prisoners infected with coronavirus (COVID-19) and 42 prisoner deaths - 20 deaths occurring in January 2021 alone — Oregon prisoners are being infected at nearly 10 times higher than Oregon’s 3.1% general public infection rate and they are dying at a ...
by Mark Wilson
“Our constitutional rights are not suspended during a crisis. On the contrary, during difficult times we must remain the most vigilant to protect the constitutional rights of the powerless,” declared U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman in issuing a preliminary injunction, directing Oregon prison officials to ...
by Mark Wilson
Oregon prisoner Carl Spieler, 56, suffered for three months after he was admitted to the state penitentiary in Salem in May 2018, while prison medical staff, convinced he was malingering, dismissed his 62-pound weight loss, dangerously low blood pressure and other alarming symptoms of an untreated staph ...
