by Matthew Clarke
In August 2017, the Indiana Department of Correction (DOC) agreed to settle a prisoner’s conditions of confinement lawsuit after he alleged DOC officials had retaliated against him for filing the complaint.
Robert L. Holleman, an Indiana state prisoner, filed a pro se federal civil rights suit complaining ...
by Matthew Clarke
Soon after he was sworn in as sheriff for Maricopa County, Arizona, Paul Penzone began phasing out the infamous Tent City jail erected by his predecessor, Joe Arpaio, who was found guilty of criminal contempt by a federal court in July 2017 but later pardoned by President Trump. [See: PLN, Nov. 2017, p.42].
The final prisoner transport out of the Tent City jail occurred on October 7, 2017, but another Tent City, this one maintained at the Arizona State Prison (ASP) complex in Florence, remains in use.
The Tent City jail in Maricopa County, comprised of Korean war-era military tents, reportedly cost just $80,000 to build in August 1993, and Sheriff Penzone said closing it will save taxpayers about $4.5 million per year in operating expenses. Prisoners who were housed in the tents were moved to other county jail facilities.
“This facility is not a crime deterrent, it’s not cost-efficient and it’s not tough on criminals,” Penzone stated.
The ASP Tent City, also known as the North Unit, is controversial because it exposes up to 400 minimum-security prisoners to excessive heat, as the canvas tents are windowless and painted white.
“It felt as ...
by Matthew Clarke
Over a decade ago, with the promise of cost savings as well as stable jobs for the community, local governments in Texas agreed to issue bonds to finance the construction of prisons and jails operated by for-profit companies. But when state and federal authorities stopped sending enough prisoners for the facilities to break even, the companies pulled out of their deals, leaving cities and counties with empty jails and debt payments on the bonds sold to finance them.
In 2007, Burnett County, Texas issued $40 million in municipal bonds to build a new jail. A private operator, Louisiana-based LaSalle Southwest Corrections, was awarded a contract to operate the facility for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), which used it to house prisoners enrolled in a drug treatment program. LaSalle also signed a deal with the U.S. Marshals Service to hold some of its prisoners.
But the company lost $4 million on the deal. LaSalle had also been cited for failure to provide adequate healthcare in 2009, and for failing a security review in 2014. It pulled out in 2014, just five years after the facility opened, and the TDCJ sent its prisoners elsewhere. But the ...
by Matt Clarke
In August 2017, a lawsuit brought by a woman who was pepper sprayed at the Montgomery County jail in Dayton, Ohio – despite being held in a restraint chair – settled for $375,000.
Amber Swink was 24 years old when police received a domestic disturbance call ...
by Matt Clarke
An Austin, Texas couple wrongly convicted of sexually abusing a child at the day-care center they ran in the 1990s has been declared innocent and received over $3.4 million in compensation from the state.
Starting in the 1980s, the United States experienced an episode of mass hysteria now known as “Satanic Panic,” during which it was widely believed that Satanists had infiltrated the child-care industry and were sexually abusing children, brainwashing them and using them in satanic rituals. The first large-scale prosecution of alleged day care Satanists was the McMartin Preschool case in California. One of the last was that of Austin, Texas couple Dan and Frances “Fran” Keller, who both spent 21 years in prison.
The Kellers were convicted of sexually assaulting a three-year-old girl in 1992 and sentenced to 48 years. In 2015, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned their convictions because the physician who gave the only scientific evidence against them at trial realized he was mistaken.
During a 2013 hearing, emergency room doctor Michael Mouw testified he was wrong when he testified at the Kellers’ trial that tears he found in the girl’s hymen indicated sexual abuse. Years later, he ...
by Matthew Clarke
The family of a prisoner who died at the Bi-State Jail in Texarkana has filed a federal civil rights suit alleging his death resulted from inadequate medical care.
The jail is unique in that it straddles the border of Texas and Arkansas in a city that spreads out over four counties in two states. The 164-bed facility, opened in 1985, is run by a for-profit company, LaSalle Corrections, and used by law enforcement agencies in both Texas and Arkansas.
On July 19, 2015, Michael Sabbie, 35, was arrested on suspicion of verbal assault, a Class C misdemeanor, in Texarkana, Arkansas after he had an argument with his wife during which he allegedly threatened her. He was booked into the jail.
During the intake process, Sabbie told a nurse he had heart trouble, diabetes, mental illness, a communicable disease, asthma and hypertension, and reported he had suffered from congestive heart failure. He also complained of shortness of breath and told the nurse he had pneumonia prior to his arrest. [See: PLN, Dec. 2016, p.43].
Sabbie’s complaints about shortness of breath continued over the next two days. He was seen twice by nurses, but sent away without treatment ...
by Matthew Clarke
On August 26, 2017, Benjamin Davis, 42, the founder and leader of a white supremacist prison gang called the 211 Crew, was found hanging in his cell at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins. Davis was suspected of having ordered the 2013 murder of Tom Clements, director of Colorado’s Department of Corrections (DOC), though no evidence established a direct link between the gang and Clements’ death.
Clements was killed by Evan Ebel, 28, a 211 Crew member who had been released early due to a clerical error after serving a stint in solitary confinement. In March 2013, Ebel first murdered pizza delivery driver Nathan Leon and stole his car and uniform. He then drove to Clements’ home in Monument, near Denver, and fatally shot him. Ebel fled south into Texas, where he was killed in a shootout with law enforcement officers. [See: PLN, July 2014, p.1].
According to a 2016 Texas Rangers report, Davis is believed to have ordered Clements’ assassination. Police also found DNA from a third murder victim on a pipe bomb discovered in the trunk of Ebel’s car. They arrested six other members of the 211 Crew based on Ebel’s text and phone ...
by Matthew Clarke
On December 5, 2017, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed in part the dismissal of a prisoner’s lawsuit challenging the denial of Rastafarian group religious services at a North Carolina state prison.
Torrey F. Wilcox is an adherent of the Rastafarian faith incarcerated at the Marion Correctional Institution (MCI). Superintendent Dwayne Terrell and Assistant Superintendent of Programs Randy Teague suspended Rastafarian services at MCI, citing lack of a staff chaplain. They refused to provide certified non-custodial staff to monitor the group service even though that had been done for other religious groups. Wilcox filed a grievance challenging the discontinuation of services and exhausted his administrative appeals. The response to his initial grievance said the Office of Religious Services, headed by Betty Brown, had authorized Terrell and Teague to suspend Rastafarian services.
About two months after the suspension, MCI hired Chaplain Menhinick. Menhinick initially told Wilcox that the services would be restarted, but later informed him that “Terrell had made an executive decision not to open the Rastafarian worship service.” Wilcox filed a federal civil rights suit against Brown, Terrell, Teague and Chaplain Menhinick.
In performing the PLRA screening pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § ...
by Matt Clarke
On September 1, 2017 the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) changed its policy on prisoner discipline to eliminate solitary confinement as a punishment for violating institutional rules, though thousands of prisoners remain in segregation for other reasons.
According to the TDCJ, 76 state prisoners were held in punitive solitary confinement as of July 31, 2017. Under the new policy, they would not be punished by being placed in solitary; instead, prison officials would rely on penalties such as forfeiture of good conduct time and loss of commissary or phone privileges.
“There’s never been any factors that show that [punitive solitary confinement] positively rehabilitates the individual,” stated Lance Lowry, head of the Texas Correctional Employees Union, which represents TDCJ guards.
“I’m quite frankly very surprised and very pleased that they’ve made this move,” added Doug Smith, with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition.
The change in disciplinary policy will not impact the vast majority of prisoners held in solitary. The TDCJ has around 3,940 prisoners in administrative segregation due to their gang affiliations, high escape risk, death sentence or ongoing danger to staff or other prisoners. They remain confined to their cells for at least ...
by Matt Clarke
On January 29, 2018, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held a diabetic prisoner’s allegation that he was denied a medical diet and required to repeatedly eat high-sugar meals during prison lockdowns stated a claim of deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs sufficient to show a likelihood of success on the merits for the purpose of a preliminary injunction.
Carl David Jones, a Texas state prisoner, moved for a preliminary injunction after filing a pro se 42 U.S.C. § 1983 federal civil rights action. He claimed prison officials were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs when, during prison lockdowns, they repeatedly denied him the diet he was prescribed because he has diabetes and had suffered a stroke, and instead gave him high-sugar meals. The motion was denied and Jones appealed.
The Fifth Circuit noted that Jones asserted he had suffered a stroke just before a three-week lockdown. During the lockdown, Food Services Manager Greg Cruise replaced his medical diet with a “sugar-based diet” that caused Jones’ blood sugar level to exceed 500. Seventeen days into the lockdown, he said he experienced a heart attack.
According to Jones, about two months later the prison ...
