by John E. Dannenberg
California's $5.3 billion prison spending plan was shaved only a miniscule $35 million in the August 2, 2003 $100 billion annual state budget - a "budget" that is admittedly $38.2 billion out of balance over the next two years - while state vehicle registration fees were ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 5
We reported in the September 2003 issue on a suit brought by PLN where the court issued permanent injunctions ordering the Washington DOC to deliver all bulk mail and catalogs sent to Washington prisoners and to provide due process to the sender and intended recipient when mail to Washington prisoners ...
SouthLand Prison News was a bi-monthly magazine published by Virginia prisoner Joseph Houck. In August, 2003, they published their last issue after almost five years of publishing. I am saddened at their passing as it illustrates the ongoing problems of the prison press in the United States. PLN will be ...
If you are representing yourself in federal court, you should become familiar with how prison cases may be handled by magistrate judges. This column looks at magistrate judge authority in federal cases, and at a recent Supreme Court case about magistrate judge procedure, Roell v. Withrow, 123 S.Ct 1696 (2003). ...
In a move that would purportedly save the state about $250,000 annually, a South Carolina Corrections Department official on April 13, 2003 announced they would cancel accreditation contracts at four state prisons, including one maximum-security institution.
Corrections Department director Jon Ozmint said the cuts were necessary due to state budget ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 9
by Matthew T. Clarke
On January 5, 2003, Mexico applied for an injunction from the International Court of Justice, or World Court, to halt the execution of 54 of its citizens by the United States. Mexico claimed that none of them had been accorded their rights under Articles 5 and ...
On April 25, 2003, acting Attorney General Peter C. Harvey announced he would reopen a criminal investigation in which New Jersey prison guards reportedly brutalized over 600 prisoners.
When guard Fred Baker was stabbed to death in 1997, by prisoner Steven Beverly, at the medium security Bayside State Prison, all ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 11
by Matthew T. Clarke
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) does not violate the Takings Clause by failing to pay prisoners the interest it earns on their trust fund accounts.
Gary Lee Hatfield, a Texas state prisoner, sued TDCJ under ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 12
The latest development in the unsavory Texas VitaPro scandal is the jailing of a court reporter for botching the transcripts in the VitaPro trial.
In 1995, George W. Bush was the governor of Texas and James "Andy" Collins ran the Texas prison system which was involved in a multi-billion dollar ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 13
by Matthew T. Clarke
Allegations of sexual abuse have rocked the North Texas town of Haltom City. The allegations surfaced in March, 2001, when a Fort Worth woman filed a complaint with the Haltom City police stating that jailer Clint Wade Weaver, 22, coerced her into having sex with him ...
Dial up Michelle Spruill and her gentle voice recording tells you that "if you ever need a helping hand, you can find one at this number." On her other line she signs off, "God loves you and so do I." Knowing that Spruill reluctantly gave up two sons for adoption ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 15
Inmate Compensation Program Applies to Federal Pretrial Detainees, Is Exclusive Remedy for Work-Related Injury
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Inmate Compensation Program (ICP) at 18 U.S.C. § 4126(c) applies to pretrial federal detainees.
Leo Paschal was a pretrial detainee at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a federal ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 16
The Arizona Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict awarding a prisoner compensatory damages totaling $440,532 and punitive damages totaling $195,000, against Maricopa County, Sheriff Joseph Arpaio, his wife, and other defendants, for failing to protect him from being assaulted by other prisoners. The court also reversed the lower court's ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 17
by Marvin Mentor
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer called into question the impartiality of Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski as to death penalty cases after Kozinski and two other Ninth Circuit judges visited San Quentin State Prison in California, speaking with three condemned prisoners. Kozinski further wrote to one of ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 18
Correctional Medical Services (CMS), a private provider of medical services to jails and prisons, lost a jury verdict in a case brought by a former Lake County, Illinois, Jail prisoner's estate alleging that CMS violated the prisoner's constitutional rights, resulting in his suicide. The jury awarded compensatory damages to the ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 19
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that parolees sentenced for crimes committed while on parole cannot have the time on parole deducted from their new sentence pursuant to KSA § 21-4608 et seq and amendments thereto.
In Kansas, crimes committed while on parole are sentenced consecutively to the crime for which ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 19
The Alaska Supreme Court held that pro se litigants are not entitled to judicial advice as to the ramifications of every decision made during the course of litigation. That court affirmed the trial court's summary dismissal of the pro se plaintiff's medical negligence action.
James Kaiser was injured at work ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 20
According to the Toronto Star, on September 20, 2002, more than a hundred prisoners at the privately-run Superjail in Penetanguishene, Ontario, used a battering ram to attempt an escape. According to the Ontario Provincial Police, the prisoners, who were armed with homemade weapons and equipped with crude gas masks, breached ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 20
A federal district court for the District of Columbia granted an injunction to a class of Rastafarian and Muslim prisoners holding the requirement that those prisoners must cut their hair or shave their beards imposes a substantial burden on their religious beliefs. The prisoners are in the custody of the ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 21
The Washington State Supreme Court upheld a trial court's judgment for the State in a negligent parole supervision case, brought by a woman who was abducted and raped by a paroled sex offender.
In 1993, Byron Schref was paroled on convictions for kidnapping, raping and setting a woman on fire. ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 22
The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed a district court's Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal of a failure to protect action, holding that the complaint sufficiently stated a claim for failure to protect.
On August 30, 1999, Jesus Manuel Calderon-Ortiz (Calderon) was confined as a pretrial detainee at ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 22
Confinement for Nonpayment Without Willfulness Violates Due Process, Washington Courts Have 10 Years to Collect Fines
The Supreme Court of the State of Washington, sitting en banc, held that defendants cannot be jailed for failure to pay fines, in the absence of a finding that the failure was willful. The ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that summary judgment for defendant prison guards was inappropriate without a trial to develop the facts, in a case where a prisoner claimed he was viciously beaten by six guards while another guard watched.
Carl M. Smith sued ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 24
In a special report issued in January 2003, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) found that participation rates in prison education programs declined 5% from 1991 through 1997, although the total number of prisoners in education programs rose with the prison population in the United States. The report surveyed prisoner ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 24
by Matthew T. Clarke
The mechanism for a Texas pro se prisoner to gain transport to court for a hearing is to file a motion for bench warrant or petition for a writ of habeas corpus ad testificandum (WHCAT). Two Texas courts of appeals have held that prisoners have the ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 25
Gay Prisoners Not Entitled To Double-Occupancy Cell
The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that legitimate penological interests supported a prison policy to restrict homosexual male prisoners to single celled housing while at the same facility yet permitting homosexual female prisoners to live together, as well as heterosexual males. ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 26
by Matthew T. Clarke
A Texas state court of appeals held that the trial court's granting of TDCJ's motion for summary judgment was error because photocopies of prison rules attached to the motion were not authenticated.
Richard Allen Kleven, II, a Texas state prisoner, sued the Texas Department of Criminal ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 26
In two separate parental rights cases, the Nevada Supreme Court held that imprisonment alone is not sufficient grounds for termination of parental rights.
In 1997, the minor child Q.L.R. was born to Roger R. and his wife, Dina M. Dina and Roger separated in August 1999. Roger admitted "that in ...
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has held that post-judgment attorney fees are compensable under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), though subject to the PLRA's rate cap of $112.50 an hour.
In 1991, Robert Webb, then a prisoner in Idaho's Ada County Jail, brought a §1983 class ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 28
The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict, damages awards, and discovery sanctions against Missouri Department of Corrections officials at the Potosi Correctional Center (PCC) in a case involving excessive force against PCC prisoners.
Edward V. Lawrence and Dennis Kirksey, PCC prisoners, sued PCC Guard Thomas Hays ...
America Without the Death Penalty:
States Leading the Way
by John F. Galliher, Larry W. Koch, David Patrick Keys,
and Teresa J. Guess. Northeastern Univ. Press, Boston, 2002,
280 pages, hardcover $35.00
Review by Robert H. Woodman
Death penalty foes seeking to abolish government-sanctioned murder in their states now have ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 29
Oklahoma Prisoner/Paupers May Be Required to Pay Partial Filing Fees
The Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld a trial court order directing an indigent prisoner to pay partial filing fees from future prison labor earnings.
Eugene Smith, an Oklahoma prisoner, petitioned a Blaine County, Oklahoma trial court for a writ of mandamus. ...
After two years, the draconian practice of video-only visitation was abolished in New Mexico prisons. "I believe we can achieve the same security goals with non-contact visits," said newly installed Corrections Secretary Joe Williams. "Keeping an inmate's family ties are important," he added. Williams went on to describe the video ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 30
Arizona Surcharge On Fines Upheld
The Arizona Supreme Court recently upheld A.R.S. 16-954(C) which imposes a 10% surcharge on civil and criminal fines, with a portion of the proceeds to fund political campaigns.
Steven May, an Arizona legislator, received a $27 parking ticket but refused to pay the 10% surcharge ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 30
Oklahoma Jail Pays $385,000 Settlement
in Baby's Death
On December 11, 2002, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma agreed to settle a medical neglect suit by paying $385,000 to Deborah Smith, 31, a former prisoner in the Oklahoma county jail. While imprisoned in the jail in March, 1998, Smith repeatedly requested medical attention ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 30
A Florida Jury awarded a Martin County Jail guard, Ronald Keeler, $515,813 against a private medical provider. Keeler sued Correctional Physician Services (CPS), who provided medical care to jail prisoners, and New Horizons of the Treasure Coast, Inc., who was a subcontractor to provide mental health services to prisoners. Prisoner ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 31
by Matthew T. Clarke
A Texas state court of appeals has held that the trial court abused its discretion when it dismissed a prisoner's suit that alleged retaliation for accessing federal courts.
Angel Martinez Vacca, a Texas state prisoner, filed suit in state court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that where guards' pepper spraying of combatant prisoners in one cell did not violate their Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment, the drift of the spray to neighboring cells, with no attention to calls of distress, ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 32
by Matthew T. Clarke
A Texas state court of appeals has ruled that a prisoner claiming accident or mistake in failing to file an expert report within 180-days of filing his medical negligence suit is entitled to a 30-day grace period in which to file the report.
Gerald Allen Perry, ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 33
Alabama: In August, 2003, 163 prisoners on death row at Holman Prison were allowed to have small fans to relieve the heat in their cells. The prison has no air conditioning. Fans had been allowed but were banned on death row in 1995. In 2002 the Southern Poverty Law Center ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
November, 2003, page 36
Sex Offender Registries Asked:
Where Are All the Sex Offenders?
An informal poll by the organiza-tion Parents for Megan's Law has revealed holes in states' abilities to track the location of convicted sex offenders who are required to register with local authorities under the so-called "Megan's Law" each state now ...
