by Silja J.A. Talvi
[Ed. note: Prison Legal News goes undercover at the American Correctional Association's 2005 winter conference in Phoenix, Arizona. It's just business," as one prison medical administrator puts it. And what a surreal business it is.]
There is no doubt that good work is done at the ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 5
by Silja J.A. Talvi
DynCorp International, a subsidiary of Computer Sciences Corporation, was in heavy recruit-ment mode at the Winter, 2005 ACA Conference.
The Dawn of Liberty," blared one flyer. Join Us in the Fight for Freedom EVERYWHERE.
To get current and former correctional employees to consider exciting opportunities in ...
The American Correctional Association (ACA) is the largest and best-known organization of prison and jail staff in the country. It offers higher education programs designed to train prison industry professionals and, like a traditional professional association, it certifies persons as members in good standing of the profession. Of course, the ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 8
by Paul Wright
As mentioned in previous issues of PLN, our website has been a major undertaking and now makes available all back issues of PLN in various formats, including all articles in PLN's customized and searchable database as well as the issues in PDF format. The website has met ...
Located in East Texas, the Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) at Beaumont is made up of a trio of federal prisons that are home to 5,667 prisoners. These prisons are run by the Bureau of Prisons, which is the federal arm of the U.S. prison system and an agency of the ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 12
The New Hampshire Supreme Court held that the state was required to pay interest to all prisoners who receive pecuniary damages as a result of" Starr v. Governor, the New Hampshire canteen surcharge case.
Darren Starr, a prisoner of the New Hampshire State Prison system brought suit challenging the legality ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 13
Sexual abuse by a Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) guard has spurred three lawsuits against CCA and resulted in the guard's arrest.
The legal activity resulted from incidents at CCA's prisons at the Marion Adjustment Center (MAC) and St. Mary's Kentucky. MAC was home to Vermont prisoners that relocated to ...
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out
because ...
Houston Grand Juries Mostly Law-Enforcement and Government Employees
by Matthew T. Clarke
Ever since a ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court in Smith v. State of Texas, 311 U.S. 128, 61 S.Ct. 164, 85 L.Ed. 84 (1940), grand juries have been required to represent a broad cross-section" of the ...
In the latest performance of justice by the numbers, a behind the scenes power struggle is playing out between the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) and the state Board of Probation and Parole (BPP). As usual, prisoners are caught in the middle.
Conflicting priorities are fueling the dispute. The DOC, ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 18
Michigan: Money Bilked From Prisoners Used For Bonuses
While Michigan was trying to boost its cash-starved budget through spending cuts and tax increases, those in the Attorney General's Office were feasting on money squeezed from state prisoners.
In October 2004, Attorney General Mike Cox paid $340,000 in merit bonuses to ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
Tony Fabelo was the head of the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council for two decades. He survived multiple changes of administration by doing a great job as the state's top number-cruncher on prison issues. Legislators of both parties say the Cuban-born Ph.D., a nationally-known authority on ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 19
A court of appeals in Illinois ruled that the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC), which was seeking to attach a settlement awarded a prisoner in a personal injury suit, could not attach $7,500 of the award. That ruling was later affirmed by the Illinois supreme court.
Lonnie Booth was an ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 19
On March 10, 2005, Nebraska lawmakers overrode a veto by the governor and passed legislation automatically restoring the voting rights of felons.
With the passage of Legislative Bill 53, Nebraska felons will automatically have their voting rights restored two years after completing their sentences, including any parole or probation. Currently, ...
This column is intended to provide habeas hints" to prisoners who are considering or handling habeas corpus petitions as their own attorneys (in pro per). The focus of the column is habeas corpus practice under the AEDPA, the 1996 habeas corpus law which now governs habeas corpus practice throughout the ...
Antibiotic Resistant Staph Infections Continue
to Plague Prisons, Jails
by Michael Rigby
Chelsea Johnson, 30, said it began as a small pimple that formed on her right cheek shortly after she arrived at the Orange County Jail in 2003. Three days later, her entire face was swollen and she felt ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 23
Iowa's Governor Grants Ex-Prisoners Automatic
Voting Rights Restoration
by Matthew T. Clarke
On July 6, 2005, Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa signed an Executive Order which enacted a blanket restoration of citizenship rights to ex-prisoners who have completed their sentences. This allows persons previously convicted of a felony or aggravated ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 23
Florida Bans Sex Offenders from
Hurricane Shelters
A new Florida policy bans sex offenders who are not allowed contact with children from public hurricane shelters. Instead, they will be shuttled to their own shelters-prisons across Florida.
The rule applies to offenders not allowed contact with children as a condition of ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 24
As we predicted, Washington's sentencing reform" has sharply increased the state's prison population to approximately 17,6001,400 prisoner's overcapacityadding 2,100 prisoners within the last two years alone.
Worse yet, nothing, including slashing sentences by up to 50 percent for a few hundred prisoners, has stemmed the flow and there is no ...
On March 14, 2005, a court of claims in White Plains, New York, awarded $377,200 to the mother of a suicidal state prisoner who died while in custody.
While serving time at New York's Green Haven Correctional Facility for automobile-related crimes, William E. Newborn Jr. became concerned about the outcome ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 25
On July 27, 2004, the Court of Claims in Rochester, New York, awarded Noel Atkinson, a New York state prisoner, $5,250 for past pain and suffering due to an injury he received while working in a welding shop at the Cape Vincent Correctional Facility. During the bench trial, Judge Phillip ...
The state of Hawaii has agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a class action federal lawsuit involving hundreds of wrongfully imprisoned individuals. The state also agreed to implement measures ensuring the timely release of prisoners.
The lawsuit, brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by the American Civil Liberties Union ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 27
On September 1, 2004, a court of claims in White Plains, New York, awarded $1,000 to a state prisoner because prison personnel failed to timely clean his prosthetic eye, causing him pain and suffering.
Lionel Walker, a prisoner at the Fishkill Correctional Facility, went to the infirmary on July 14, ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 28
by John E. Dannenberg
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Michigan defendants convicted pursuant to a plea of nolo contendre or to a plea bargain are constitutionally entitled to appeal their convictions to the Michigan Court of Appeals, and if indigent, are entitled to a state appointed attorney. In so ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 29
by Michael Rigby
The failure of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (MDOC) to address the special needs of women in prison impedes the effective maintenance of family ties, according to a March 2005 research report by the University of Massachusetts's Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy.
In 2003, ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 30
A New Jersey jury took only three hours to declare William Victor not guilty of spitting on a Northumberland County Prison (NCP) guard in 2003. NCP's warden called the verdict ridiculous." Considering Victor proceeded through trial representing himself, incredible is a more fitting adjective.
Charged with aggravated harassment by a ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 30
by John E. Dannenberg
Although California law has since 1998 required all county jails that provide inpatient medical or psychiatric care to have a correctional treatment center license, only one (Los Angeles) has obtained one. The issue was highlighted when the San Jose Mercury News wrote that the Santa Clara ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 31
A Florida federal district court has approved a $6.25 million settlement in a lawsuit alleging thousands of female prisoners were illegally strip searched at the Miami-Dade County Correctional Facilities.
The settlement entitles l0,000 women who were strip searched after being picked up on prostitution or other minor charges to receive ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 31
California State Assembly Member Rudy Bermudez, himself a member of the powerful prison guards union (CCPOA) while on leave from his prison job to serve elective office, sharply criticized the practice of solving word puzzles used by California prison guards to complete part of their annual training requirement.
It's unbelievable ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 32
A New Jersey state appellate court issued an unpublished opinion reversing a lower court's grant of summary judgment to Correctional Medical Services (CMS) and the New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC).
On November 7, 1996, Craig Szemple, a prisoner at the New Jersey State Prison, under went two surgeries to ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 32
California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) local chapter president Chris Trott, of Calipatria State Prison in Imperial, admitted his union placed a rat trap on the prison CCPOA bulletin board in an intimidating retort to three union members having been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation regarding their ...
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a Michigan Department of Corrections policy prohibiting male guards from holding certain positions in the state's female prisons did not violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
For many years, the problem of sexual abuse and mistreatment ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 36
In a decision that further restricts the already limited movement of sex offenders, the en banc U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that banning a convicted child molester from all public parks in the City of Lafayette, Indiana, did not violate the offender's constitutional rights under the First ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 36
In an unpublished decision, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a grant of summary judgment to a prison doctor, holding that the doctor manifested a substantial departure from accepted professional judgment in the treatment of a prisoner's cluster headache condition.
Illinois prisoner James Edens suffers from cluster headaches, which ...
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a preliminary injunction prohibiting an Arizona sheriff from displaying live video of prisoners in the Maricopa County Jail on the internet.
This case arises from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's latest publicity stunt. Already known for humiliating prisoners by dressing them ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 38
Confiscation of "New Afrikan" Literature May Violate First Amendment
The Second Circuit Court o Appeals reversed a New York district court's dismissal of a prisoner's complaint alleging violation of his rights under a Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and his rights to free exercise and free speech ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 39
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal has affirmed a Michigan District Court's order denying a guard's qualified immunity defense in a suit filed by prisoner David J. Scott, a prisoner at Carson City Regional Facility. Scott's complaint alleged guard Philip Bair retaliated against him for filing grievances.
On July 6, ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 40
The Washington Court of Appeals, Division I, upheld a prisoner's disciplinary plea agreement even though his punishment was more extensive than what he had agreed to. The agreement was only upheld, however, because no good time was taken.
Garridan Nelson, a Washington state prisoner in the Airway Heights Correctional Center, ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2005, page 40
Rehabilitated California Ex-Cons Have No Privacy Protection From Media Productions Based Upon Public Court Records
by John E. Dannenberg
The California State Supreme Court, reversing its 33 year old precedent, held that privacy rights of a former prisoner were trumped by the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of television producers ...
