Sexual assault, rape, indecency, deviance. These terms represent reprehensible behavior in our society. They also represent recurring themes in our nation’s prisons – not only by prisoners, but also by guards and other staff members.
PLN’s August 2006 cover story, Guards Rape of Prisoners Rampant, No Solution in Sight, profiled ...
On March 20, 2009, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency gave Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Incarceration, the third PLN anthology on mass imprisonment its respected PASS (Prevention for a Safer Society) Award. The purpose of the award is to honor the role of the media in ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 12
Billionaire-Funded California Voter Initiative Triples Lifer Parole Denial Intervals, Imposes Restrictions on Parole Violators
In the November 2008 elections, California voters narrowly passed Proposition 9 by a 53 to 47% margin. Prop. 9 was a state Initiative Act that 1) tripled the statutory intervals permitted by the Board of Parole ...
Prisoner’s Death, Abusive and Incompetent Guards Give Black Eye to Maryland Prisons & Jails
by Gary Hunter
On June 27, 2008, Ronnie L. White, 19, was arrested for the death of Maryland State Police Cpl. Richard S. Findley after hitting him with a truck. Police reports claim that White “intentionally ...
Unlock the Box: Documenting the Struggle to Shut Down Prison Control Units, Reel Soldier Productions / MIM (www.abolishcontrolunits.org) 2008, 2:00 hours
Reviewed by David Preston (DP_Editor@comcast.net)
The new documentary Unlock the Box is the upshot of two public conferences: “Unlock the Box,” held in 2005, in San Francisco, and “StopMax,” ...
State Auditor: Texas Prisoners Face Retaliation for Airing Grievances
by Matt Clarke
In September 2008, the Texas State Auditor released a report on the investigation and resolution of complaints in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The report found that while grievance administrators filled out investigation forms properly and ...
Washington’s Top Prison Doctor Resigns Over Executions; Entire Execution Team Later Quits Following PLN Records Request
by Mark Wilson
Washington State death row prisoner Darold Ray Stenson was scheduled for execution in December 2008. He got an unlikely stay, however, when the top physician for the Washington Department of Corrections ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 19
New York Prisoner Receives $3,732 for Medical Neglect/Lost Property Claim
A New York Court of Claims awarded a prisoner $3,500 for medical neglect by prison medical officials’ failure to treat the prisoner’s deviated septum for 20 months. The prisoner also received a $232.68 settlement for lost property.
Before the Court ...
Caging Kids for Cash: Two Pennsylvania Judges Guilty of Selling Out Juvenile Justice System
by Matt Clarke
Judges are supposed to be the protectors of our constitutional rights. They are expected to be fair and impartial, and to safeguard vulnerable members of society who are unable to protect themselves. Admitting ...
Wisconsin Prisoners Sexually Assaulted by 20 Staff Members Over Five Years
by Gary Hunter
According to John Dipko, public information director for the Wisconsin Dept. of Corrections, twenty state prison employees have faced charges of rape or sexual assault involving prisoners since 2003. Several recent cases are detailed below.
Dwight ...
$1 Million Settlement Fund Established in New Mexico Jail Strip Search Settlement
by David M. Reutter
A $1 million settlement fund has been established in a class action lawsuit alleging an unconstitutional blanket strip search at the Hidalgo County Detention Center (HCDC) in New Mexico violated the rights of the ...
Administrators at the already-troubled Texas Youth Commission (TYC) have succeeded in creating a new scandal. Only 18 months ago, Texas citizens and lawmakers were rocked by revelations that two senior TYC officials, Ray Brookins and John Paul Hernandez, had been molesting young boys at the West Texas Youth Facility in ...
California County’s 2005 Purchase of Private Prison Still Clouded in Conflict of Interest Questions
by Marvin Mentor
Investigative journalism by the San Bernardino Daily Bulletin has revealed that the April 2005, $31.2 million purchase of a private prison by San Bernardino County remains under a conflict-of-interest cloud because the lobbyist ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 26
CA Jail Deputies Allegedly Provoke Murder of Misidentified Child Molester by Other Prisoners; Wrongful Death Suit Settled for $600,000
A prisoner booked into the Theo Lacy jail in Orange County, California on domestic battery and child pornography charges was falsely labeled a child molester by deputies, and as a result ...
by Matt Clarke
On October 22, 2008, U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake issued an 83-page order with findings of facts and conclusions of law in a long-running civil rights lawsuit against Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and other county officials. The order held that conditions of confinement ...
Hawai’i Supreme Court Holds Takings Clause Requires Payment of Interest on Prisoner Trust Accounts
by David M. Reutter
The Hawai’i Supreme Court has held that prison officials have no statutory authority to divide a prisoner’s trust account into two accounts, one of which was restricted as to withdrawals. More importantly, ...
Study Shows Treating HCV in Prisons with Pegylated Interferon Is Cost-Effective
by Matt Clarke
A new study published in the November 2008 issue of the medical journal Hepatology found that treating hepatitis C-infected prisoners with the standard therapy of pegylated interferon and ribavirin was cost-effective. Savings were as high as ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The California Court of Appeal upheld a Superior Court verdict of $21,800 against state prison officials in a lawsuit filed by a prisoner whose eventually-corrected good time credit earning rate resulted in his being released nine months late. Suing under a theory of false imprisonment, he ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 31
On April 16, 2008, the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a woman killed by a drunk driver under DOC community supervision for $850,000.
Charles Roberson III was placed on community supervision by the DOC in 2003 for possession of a controlled substance. ...
by Matt Clarke
In July 2008, Louisiana-based private prison company LCS Corrections Services agreed to remove junked cars, appliances and other debris inhibiting the flow of Petronila Creek, which runs close to LCS’s newly-built 1,100-bed Coastal Bend Detention Center near Robstown, Texas.
The company had applied to the Texas Commission ...
On January 23, 2009, Chevaliee Robinson was sentenced to 15 years by a U.S. District Court in Ohio after pleading guilty to drug conspiracy and money laundering charges. Robinson’s arrest was one of 30 made by federal agents in connection with an undercover sting operation that lasted more than three ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 33
Oregon Jail Oversight Committee Disbanded After Sheriff Resigns
In 2006, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners in Portland, Oregon responded to a scathing prosecutor’s report about dangerous and costly conditions in the county’s jails by creating a special advisory committee. [See: PLN, Jan. 2008, p.12].
The committee was designed to ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 33
U.S. Military Uses Small Wooden Boxes for Segregation Cells of Iraqi Prisoners
The U.S. military has taken the meaning of segregation back to the most draconian periods in human history. The military’s answer to dealing with violent Iraqi or Al Qaeda loyalist prisoners is to place them in small wooden ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 34
Last year, prisoners participating in a work release program were hired by Choices Group, a contractor, to register voters in Nevada. Residents of the Casa Grande Transitional Housing Facility in Las Vegas were used to canvass neighborhoods and sign up voters by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now ...
Double Standard of Punishment for Supervisors, Line Staff in Colorado DOC
by Gary Hunter
Records show that supervisors who break the rules at the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) are punished less severely, if at all, in comparison with low-level prison employees.
In 2006, Director of Prisons Gary Golder was ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 35
Before his release in 2003, Ronald L. Cuie had served almost three years in Pennsylvania prisons for aggravated assault, robbery and criminal conspiracy. However, it was his successful work under two previous Philadelphia mayors that convinced Mayor Mike Nutter to appoint him over an office created to help former prisoners ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 36
Florida Prison Officials’ Failure to Timely Respond to Grievances Results in Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that Florida prison officials failed to timely respond to a prisoner’s grievance, which satisfied exhaustion of available remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA).
The U.S. District ...
Mock Prison Disaster Program Discontinued; Mock Prison Riot Training Remains
by Gary Hunter
Practicing for prison riots has been big business in Moundsville, West Virginia for years. The West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville gained notoriety in 1986 when prisoners took control of the facility for 53 hours, holding seventeen ...
Prisons and Jails Preparing for Switch to Digital TV Broadcasting ... or Not
by Matt Clarke
On February 17, 2009, over-the-air television broadcasters were scheduled to complete the switch from analog to digital signals. Following the changeover, analog televisions will no longer receive over-the-air stations without a converter, as all ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 38
California Prison Fined $40,000 for (Another) Raw Sewage Spill
California water officials fined the California Men’s Colony State Prison (CMC) in San Louis Obispo $40,000 for a 20,000 gallon raw sewage spill into Chorro Creek on January 27, 2008. This was just the latest such spill into Chorro Creek, which ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 38
Washington State, for only the second time ever, has unconditionally released a prisoner from the Special Commitment Center (SCC), a facility for civilly-committed sex offenders located on McNeil Island near Tacoma.
John Henry Mathers, 56, was civilly-committed in July 1997. He was initially incarcerated at SCC but graduated to a ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 38
New Jersey Judge Denied Sex Offender a Fair Hearing, Appellate Court Finds
Questioning a lower court’s ability to conduct a fair hearing, a New Jersey appellate court ordered a new hearing before a different judge for a sex offender confined under the state’s Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA).
On March ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 39
The Supreme Court of New York held that the Court of Claims erred when it dismissed a prisoner’s damages claim for injuries suffered when he was not placed in protective custody as had been ordered by the Criminal Court.
Kenneth H. was arrested on September 15, 1998 for grand larceny; ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 40
The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has held that the Missouri Department of Corrections’ (MDOC) blanket policy of prohibiting the transport of female prisoners to outside medical facilities for elective, non-therapeutic abortions violated the Fourteenth Amendment.
An anonymous MDOC prisoner identified as Jane Roe (and later, a class of ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 41
South Dakota Jail Prisoner Awarded $1.1 Million for Rape by Guard
A South Dakota federal jury awarded a former female pretrial detainee $1.1 million in damages for being raped by a guard at the Pennington County Jail. The detainee, Mindy Kahle, was a former stripper awaiting disposition of robbery and ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 42
Los Angeles County Pays $850,000 for Police Misconduct Death and $595,000 in Jail Medical-Related Death
Los Angeles County settled two lawsuits in July 2008 for a total of $1,445,000. Of that amount, $850,000 went to the survivors of a man shot to death by sheriff’s deputies following a car chase, ...
by John E. Dannenberg
A former Missouri prison doctor and participant in lethal injections, who was banned from performing executions in that state, is still for hire to conduct executions in other jurisdictions. With over 40 death sentences notched in his belt, he is widely sought after for his purported ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 44
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has held that with respect to 18 U.S.C. § 3624(e), being on supervised release in a state community pre-release center did not toll a state prisoner’s concurrent federal supervised release. Since the plaintiff had therefore served all of his federal probation period while ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 44
California Prisoner-Pay Deductions for Aiding Crime Victims Distributed to Victim Organizations
In December 2008, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) Prison Industry Authority distributed $131,343 collected from prisoner workers’ pay to twelve crime victims organizations. The money, amounting to 20% of the net wages earned in Joint Venture ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 44
$75,000 Settlement in Utah Jail Prisoner’s Suicide
Officials at the Salt Lake City Jail settled a lawsuit involving a prisoner’s suicide for $75,000. The settlement came in the hanging death of Arthur Henderson.
When he was booked on January 28, 2006, Henderson revealed he was depressed and had suicidal ideations, ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 45
Federal Supervised Release Must be Credited for Time Served on Prior Revocations
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the maximum allowable period of federal supervised release following multiple revocations must be reduced by the aggregate length of any prison terms served as a result of prior revocations.
In ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 46
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that a federal prisoner incarcerated at a privately operated prison may not pursue a Bivens action against private prison employees for violating his Eighth Amendment rights.
Luis Francisco Alba, a federal prisoner incarcerated at the McRae Correctional Institution in McRae, ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 46
Ninth Circuit Remands RLUIPA Claim for Group Religious Worship in Maximum Security Jail
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has held that under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a prisoner seeking group worship in the maximum security section of a jail was entitled to have ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 47
$7,025 Award in Slip and Fall From Ohio Prison Bunk
The Ohio Court of Claims has awarded a former Ohio prisoner $7,025 for injuries related to a slip and fall from a prison bunk.
Stacy Rose slipped and fell while climbing down from his bunk at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 48
Court Rejects Federal Prisoner Worker’s Claim of Copyright Infringement
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims dismissed a prisoner’s copyright infringement suit for lack of jurisdiction; the dismissal was upheld on appeal.
Robert J. Walton, a federal prisoner, sued the United States for copyright infringement related to his creation of calendars ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 48
Ninth Circuit: Former Gang Member Entitled to Jury Trial in § 1983 Jail Guard Retaliation Suit
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a prisoner’s lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Jail for intentionally housing him in the jail’s “gang module” as retaliation for his refusal to become ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 49
On March 14, 2008, Multnomah County, Oregon paid $59,422 to the estate of a mentally ill female detainee to settle a suit stemming from her jail suicide.
Berta Ray Lee was a 27-year-old mother of three minor children, ages five, seven and nine. She was arrested on December 17, 2004 ...
by Matt Clarke
In October 2008, Michigan’s Auditor General released a performance audit on selected personnel and other administrative costs at the Department of Corrections (DOC) for the previous fiscal year. The report revealed that the DOC had overspent millions on overtime pay.
As of December 31, 2007, the DOC ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 50
Florida: On October 7, 2008, Dade County circuit court Judge Maria Espinosa Dennis accused fellow judge David Miller of assaulting her when he attempted to use the fax machine in her chambers. Dennis told police that Miller had “grabbed her by her shoulders and pushed her toward her office in ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2009, page 52
Four BOP Guards Sentenced To Prison For Beating, Cover-Up
U.S. District Judge Carol B. Ann has ordered four former Bureau of Prisons (BOP) guards to serve time for the beating of a prisoner and subsequent cover-up.
Jaime Toro and Glenn Cummings, former guards at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, ...
