The clue for 17 across, a seven-letter
empty space in the Friday, March 26, New York Times crossword puzzle was "detainee's entitlement." It took me a while to break the code _ the Friday crossword's always a nightmare _ and discover that the "entitlement" was "one call" (which fit with ...
Between April 12 and April 25, 2003,
Lawrence Trant, Jr., 56, tried to kill 8 registered sex offenders in Concord, New Hampshire. Trant set fire to a boarding house, to an apartment building and ultimately stabbed one man in the street. All of the victim's names and addresses were easily ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 8
Law-and-Order Former Texas Attorney General
Lands in Federal Prison
by Matthew T. Clarke
Dan Morales, the former Texas at
torney general who ran on a law-and-order platform, was sentenced on October 31, 2003, to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to mail fraud and filing a false income ...
by David M. Reutter
"The Court is totally out of patience with the assurances and promises that compliance will be achieved" with the Final Settlement Agreement signed on January 24, 2000. So said Judge Shoeb, U.S. District Court Northern District of Georgia, when ordering Fulton County, Georgia, to ease overcrowding ...
This month's cover story reports on
the U.S. government's clandestine network of prisons around the world. The story was written before the news about the torture and murder of Iraqi prisoners appeared. The only thing that would have been unusual would have been the news that prisoners in Iraq and ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The California Court of Appeal judicially extended the reach of California's parole violator alternative drug treatment program, Proposition (Prop.) 36 (Nov. 7, 2000, codified at Penal Code §§ 1210, 1210.1, 3063.1) to include similarly situated probation violators. Prop. 36, which permits a drug treatment sentencing alternative ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 11
The California Department of Corrections (CDC) agreed on October 15, 2003 to pay $450,000 to settle the civil rights complaint brought by the surviving family of a prisoner murdered by his cellmate.
Jeffrey Ford, an effeminate homosexual serving prison time for petty theft at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, ...
The Supreme Court recently decided
another in a series of cases about when prisoners can sue directly under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, versus when they must first employ habeas corpus proceedings, to challenge actions by prison officials. The difference is very important because if a prisoner must follow the habeas ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 13
The Florida Supreme Court held that a Florida statute that imposes civil liens for recovery of incarceration cost and victim restitution violates neither the Ex Post Facto Clause or Due Process. Florida prisoner 011ie James Goad, who has been incarcerated since February 1991, initiated a "civil action" against the Florida ...
Federal Supermax Terrorist's New Home and Bargaining Chip;
$1 Million Cells Planned
by Bob Williams
The United States PenitentiaryAdministrative Maximum Facility goes by many names: ADX, Supermax, Alcatraz of the Rockies. It has been the federal Bureau of Prison's (BOP) home to problem and high profile prisoners since opening in ...
The old maxim, the more things change, the more they stay the same," could have been tailored to Wackenhut these days. Although Wackenhut Corrections has spun off from its parent company, Wackenhut Corporation, there's no indication that the political involvement which brought it this far will change anytime soon.
Wackenhut ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 17
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), in August 2003, released the findings of its Year 2000 Census of State and Federal Prisons. The report found that from the previous census in 1995 to 2000 the number of Federal, State, and privately-operated prisons increased from 1,464 facilities to 1,668 facilities. The ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 18
$22 Million Washington Parole Liability Verdict Affirmed,
Review Granted by State Supreme Court
On August 8, 1997, Vernon Valdez
Stewart stole a car, sped through an intersection in Tacoma, Washington, and collided with another vehicle. The accident killed the driver of the other car, Paula Joyce. Stewart was under community ...
by Dr. D.M. Granit, Two Rainbow Publishing Co., Oct. 2003, 106 pp.
Review by John E. Dannenber
The Inmate's Guide to Prison Health
Care offers prisoners a unique perspective on how to get the best response to their health care needs: being a better patient. Dr. D.M. Granit (pseudonym and ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 19
by Matthew T. Clarke
On December 18, 2003, Glenn A.
Finer, Inspector General of the U.S. Justice Department, released a report which found that guards at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York, physically and verbally abused detainees arrested as part of a federal immigration sweep following the ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 20
A groundswell of prisoner litigation is taking aim at states to force them to comprehensively and meaningfully address HCV in prison. These suits, often brought as class actions, seek to mandate a protocol for HCV detection and treatment that satisfies Eighth Amendment guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment.
New Jersey ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 20
Nebraska Prisoners Win Summary Judgment on
Phone Access and Monitoring Issues
by Matthew T. Clarke
A Nebraska state district court
granted Nebraska state prisoners' summary judgment on issues involving the monitoring and recording of phone calls to government officials, courts, and attorneys, and the denial of calls to some attorney ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 21
In a decision with implications for
prisoners' suits, the United States Supreme Court held that consent decrees may be enforced by federal courts. In 1993, mothers of children eligible for Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) services under Medicaid sued several Texas state officials under 42 U.S.C. § ...
Capitalist Punishment: Prison Privatization & Human Rights
Edited by Andrew Coyle, Allison Campbell, & Rodney Neufeld,Clarity Press, Inc;
Zed Books (2003) 234 pp. Softback
Review by Mark Wilson
Proponents of prison privatization argue that for-profit prisons make good sense, "promis[ing] reduced costs to governments, better and more cost-effective services to ...
California's Budget Secret: Prisoners Form Core
of Forest Fire Fighting Army
by Peter Wagner
In California, up to three quarters of
the crew members fighting California fires are prisoners. In exchange for a reduction in sentence length, 4,100 minimum security prisoners work fighting fires and on public works projects for ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 23
On November 20, 2002, a state court of claims in Rochester, New York, awarded the estate of Olevia Ousley-Winters $335,000 after determining that prison doctors failed to properly diagnose and treat Ousley-Winters' medical condition. (Ousley-Winters died prior to trial, apparently from unrelated causes.)
While imprisoned at the Westchester County Jail ...
Amended Pennsylvania Parole Statute Ruled Ex Post Facto; Third Circuit Orders Release On Parole
by John E. Dannenberg
The US District Court (E.D. Pa.) held that a 1996 amendment to the Pennsylvania Probation and Parole Act violated constitutional ex post facto protections because it increased to a significant degree the ...
On Tuesday, October 21, 2003, a
jury found four employees at California State Prison, Corcoran not responsible for the rape of prisoner Eddie Webb Dillard by a fellow prisoner. The verdict was read by District Judge Anthony W. Ishii, following a four week trial and six hours of deliberation by ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 26
In August, 2003 a State Jury in
Leavenworth County, Kansas, awarded the son of a Kansas State prisoner who was killed after being stabbed by another prisoner on August 8, 2000, $1.4 million. Donald R. Grisham was stabbed on his 27th birthday at the Lansing Correctional Facility laundry room. He ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 26
Actual Damages Required to Maintain Suit
Under Federal Privacy Act
The United States Supreme Court recently held that a showing of actual damages is required in order to maintain a civil action brought under the Privacy Act of 1974. The Privacy Act regulates the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of ...
Missouri Guards Liable For Refusing Prisoner's Seatbelt Request
by John E. Dannenberg
The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals permitted a 42 U.S.C § 1983 complaint to proceed against five Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) transportation guards for injuries suffered by a shackled prisoner in a prison van crash after ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 27
A New York City Department of Corrections guard reached a settlement of $135,000 in her federal civil rights suit alleging sexual harassment. Guard Virginia Jones began a consensual sexual relationship with Captain Michael Baxter in March 1998. Jones contended that in September 1998, she ended the relationship with Baxter and ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 28
In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Seventh Circuit overturned a jury's $1.5 million verdict in favor of a prisoner who was sexually assaulted by his cellmate.
Anthony Riccardo and Juan Garcia were both housed in the segregation unit of the Centralia Correctional Center in Illinois. ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 29
The Wyoming Supreme Court reversed a conviction and dismissed the underlying indictment because the State failed to bring the defendant to trial within the time period allotted in the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD).
In 1997, Janvirgo Odhinn was sentenced to two to four years in the Nebraska Department of ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 30
On May 21, 2002, an Indiana federal district court held that state prisoner Robert Pierson was entitled to $100,000 in compensatory damages because prison officials failed to protect him from assault by another prisoner.
Pierson, 51, arrived at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City in August 1997 and was ...
Illinois Segregation Brutality Suit Fails Because
Injury Was De Minimis
by John E. Dannenberg
An Illinois state prisoner who alleged
in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 civil rights complaint that he had been maliciously injured by prison guards escorting him to administrative segregation, lost his appeal of the unfavorable court ...
In July 2003, a federal jury in Maryland awarded a former prison guard $1.6 million for the discrimination and hostile work environment he endured while on the job at a Maryland prison.
Mathen Chacko, a native of India, alleged in the lawsuit that for 20 years while employed as a ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 31
by Matthew T. Clarke
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals
has held that a district court improperly dismissed a suit by Shiite Muslim New York state prisoners seeking separate religious services from the Sunni Muslims.
Thomas Pugh, Edward Hamil and Clay Chatin, New York state prisoners, filed suit against under ...
Ninth Circuit Affirms California Parole Denial
Based On "Some Evidence"
by John E. Dannenberg
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the U.S. District Court, E.D. Calif. denial of a California state lifer's federal habeas petition which had found "some evidence" to support one of the ten reasons the ...
California Prisoner Not Earning Wages is Denied Workers' Comp.
by John E. Dannenberg
The California Court of Appeals held
that a prisoner injured on his job in the prison laundry was entitled to a $0.00 Workers' Compensation Insurance Fund (Fund) award based upon his actual wages (no money - only ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 33
A Ventura County, California jury
awarded $1.25 million on August 6, 2002 for the wrongful death of an 88 year-old woman who was run over by a full sized state prison bus as it was turning right out of the Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility in Whittier, California.
Ms. ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 33
The United States Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia recently held that prisoners serving life sentences with the possibility of parole have no right to earn good time credits on their maximum terms.
In the Mid-1980's, Eric Glascoe, Jibril Ibrahim, and Bobby Morgan ("petitioners") were each convicted of ...
Unearned Good Time Credits May Not Be Withheld As Disciplinary Sanction
by Bob Williams
The West Virginia Supreme Court of
Appeals has held that a state prisoner may not lose more good time credits as a disciplinary sanction than those actually earned as of the disciplinary hearing date.
Randy Bailey ...
The New Mexico State Court of Appeals has ruled that Dona Ana County must disclose to the Las Cruces Sun-News records relating to a civil suit settlement between the County and female jail detainees who were sexually abused by jail guards. Sun-News attorney fees were also awarded.
In 1999 a ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 35
Pauper's Declaration Sufficient for Cost Bond
in Texas Medical Malpractice Suit
by Matthew T. Clarke
A Texas court of appeals has held
that a prisoner's unsworn declaration in support of his seeking to proceed as a pauper satisfies the statutory requirement under Article 4590i, § 13.01(a), Texas Revised Civil Statutes, ...
The U.S. District Court for the
Middle District of Alabama has brought to a halt prospective relief from unconstitutional conditions at an Alabama state women's prison because a previously entered preliminary injunction was allowed to expire under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA).
As reported in the September 2003 issue ...
Mandating administrative hearings
and allowing for judicial review, the Colorado Court of Appeals has reversed a state district court's dismissal of a prisoner's challenge to his Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) sex offender classification.
Albert Fisher, serving time in the CDOC for aggravated motor vehicle theft, was classified without a ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 36
RFRA May Protect Federal Prisoners'
Right to Cast Spells
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Seventh Circuit (7th Circuit) has reinstated a federal prisoner's religious freedom lawsuit under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-1.
Kerry O'Bryan, a federal prisoner, was kept from practicing witchcraft (Wicca) ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 37
The Washington Court of Appeals,
Division I, held that the Legislature exceeded its authority when it attempted to statutorily overrule the appellate court's decision in In re Personal Restraint of Capello, 106 Wn. App. 576, 24 P.3d 1074, review denied, 145 Wn.2d 1006 (2001). The appellate court's ruling sends a ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 37
Injunctive Relief Granted for Parole Rescission
Based on Free Speech
U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Irenas
of New Jersey recently granted Edward Forchion's request for a preliminary injunction reinstating him to New Jersey's Intensive Supervised Parole (ISP) pending trial on his claim that state officials reincarcerated him in retaliation for ...
Consent Decree Entered in Unconstitutional BOP
Parole Revocation Procedures
by Bob Williams
The United States District Court for
the District of Columbia has approved a Consent Decree correcting unconstitutional parole revocation procedures of the United States Parole Commission (USPC) for the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area.
Pursuant to the National Capital ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 38
The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled
that K.S.A.2002 Supp. 21-4603d allows state trial courts to order prisoners to pay restitution from their prison accounts, and to order that a portion of such accounts be exempt from collection.
William Puckett was convicted of aggravated escape after he escaped from the Stockton ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 38
Notice Required in Texas
Parole Date Rescission
In an en banc opinion, the Texas Court
of Criminal Appeals has held that the parole board must provide a prisoner prior notice of a hearing before reconsidering its decision to grant the prisoner mandatory supervision release.
Charles Albert Barry, a Texas state ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 39
( In a prisoner 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit alleging the brutal beating of a San Quentin prisoner by six guards, United States District Judge Charles Breyer (N.D. Cal.) threatened sanctions against California's State Attorney General Bill Lockyer if the state stooped to appeal Breyer's ruling denying its request for ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 39
The United States Court of Appeals
for the First Circuit recently held that a mentally ill woman presented sufficient evidence to warrant a trial on her claim that mental illness prevented her from filing suit for nearly 30 years.
In May 2002, Kristin Douglas filed a civil rights suit against ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 40
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Second Circuit has reversed a federal district court dismissal of a prisoner's civil rights lawsuit for failure to exhaust available administrative remedies, as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). The Second Circuit found that prisoners must exhaust ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 40
The Arkansas Court of Appeals, Division, II, held that a work release prisoner who loses his job as a result of a transfer to a prison to prepare him for parole is entitled to unemployment benefits as a result of losing his job. Kirk Rankin was an Arkansas state prisoner ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 40
Kansas Good Time Regulations Enacted After Prisoner's
Crime May Not Be Applied Retroactively
The Kansas Supreme Court recently
held that an amended version of the Department of Corrections (DOC) regulation governing the award of good time credits cannot be applied to prisoners whose offenses were committed prior to the regulation's ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 41
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
reported in August 2003 that, if current American incarceration rates continue, 1 of every 15 persons born in the year 2001 will be incarcerated at some point in their adult lives. The report also found that at the end of 2001 there were 1,319,000 ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The County of Los Angeles settled
for $2.75 million the complaints of illegal strip searches and body cavity searches of female demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention in August, 2000, and the mistreatment and over detention of all plaintiffs. An additional settlement with the City of ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 42
Arizona: On June 1, 2004, over 20 prisoners in the Yavapai county jail became very ill after an unidentified person put industrial soap in the dinner meal's iced tea. One prisoner was in critical condition and several others were hospitalized afterwards. Police were investigating.
Brazil: On May 30, 2004, prisoners ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2004
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2004, page 44
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
held a named class representative may not receive an incentive award unless a common fund is established. Prisoner C. Pepper Moore, who was named a class representative in 1988 in Hadix v. Johnson, which was a class action suit challenging conditions of confinement at ...
