On May 8, 2002, a California superior court jury awarded $2.5 million in damages for negligent medical care to a severely diabetic state prisoner, who, debilitated from insulin shock, broke his neck in a fall sustained while trying to run to the prison medical clinic.
David Padilla was incarcerated at ...
by David M. Reutter
In July 2001, the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) entered into a five-year contract with Philadelphia's cost-conscious Aramark Corporation to feed prisoners at 126 of the 133 prisons in Florida. The contract is projected to reduce FDOC's cost of feeding its prisoners from $80.2 million in ...
At a time when the California Department of Corrections (CDC) is already under intense Legislative criticism for overspending its annual budget by $544.8 million (see: PLN, Aug. 2004, p. 41), an April, 2004 report by the California State Auditor revealed that CDC repeatedly violated its own policies regarding contracting for ...
The California Supreme Court let stand one appellate court's ruling that the California Board of Prison Terms' (BPT) lifer parole denial decisions were subject to court oversight under a "some evidence" standard, but granted a Petition for Review of (and thereby temporarily vacated) another appellate court's ruling on the arguably ...
In a California prisoner suit claiming cruel and unusual punishment for the prison's "integrated yard" policy, the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled that the factual question presented could proceed to trial, thus rejecting prison defendants' claims of qualified immunity.
AfricanAmerican prisoner George Robinson had twice, while in administrative ...
A scandal has unfolded wherein a contract medical laboratory faked critical test results of at least 4000 state prisoners in 11 California prisons between 1995 and 1996. Moreover, a search of prisoners' medical records uncovered at least 650 cases, where, as of four years later, no retest was documented, a ...
With no change in the statutory standards for lifer parole hearings, the CA Board of Prison Terms (BPT) has reduced its rate of parole grants from 50% in 1978 to 0.2% in 1998. In April, 1999, newly elected Governor Davis (who has the constitutional power to recommend BPT en banc ...
