I. Introduction
Although it is almost invisible to the public, the use of criminal informants is everywhere in the U.S. justice system. From street corners to jails to courthouses to prisons, every year the government negotiates thousands of deals with criminal offenders in which suspects can avoid arrest or punishment ...
More details have emerged about the April 2008 race riot that occurred at the United States Penitentiary (USP) in Florence, Colorado, as prisoners who participated in the violent disturbance have pleaded guilty after being criminally charged.
The riot started after members of the Aryan Brotherhood (AB) began yelling racial epithets ...
As this issue goes to press we are getting settled into our new office in Brattleboro, Vermont. We have successfully consolidated our operations into one location. We also have just hired Adam Cook as our staff attorney who will be representing Prison Legal News in our censorship and public records ...
by Matt Clarke
A U.S. Dept. of Justice memo, released in April 2009, indicated the CIA had 94 people in secret prisons scattered around the world as of mid-2005, and the agency had “employed enhanced techniques to varying degrees in the interrogations of 28” of those prisoners which is the ...
by David M. Reutter
A November 2009 report by Elizabeth Alexander, Director of the National Prison Project of the ACLU, explores the history and effects of over-incarceration in Michigan and how the state has managed to reduce its prison population by roughly 8% during an era of unprecedented national prison ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 14
On May 21, 2010, the Private Corrections Institute, a non-profit citizen watchdog group that opposes prison privatization, issued a statement sharply criticizing a joint report by the Reason Foundation, a California-based libertarian think-tank that promotes the privatization of government services, and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA). The HJTA advocates ...
by Kent Russell
This column is intended to provide “habeas hints” to prisoners who are considering or handling habeas corpus peti-tions as their own attorneys (“in pro per”). The focus of the column is habeas corpus practice under AEDPA, the 1996 ha-beas corpus law which now governs habeas corpus practice ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 18
The City of Scottsdale, Arizona paid $315,000 to settle a lawsuit claiming that a police officer illegally strip searched a citizen after responding to a 911 call.
When Heather Tonarelli, 19, and her friend Chris Smith heard loud knocks on Tonarelli’s apartment door at around 3:00 p.m. on June 15, ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 19
On September 15, 2008, Salt Lake County, Utah agreed to pay $75,000 to the family of an ex-cop who killed himself at the Salt Lake County Metro Jail.
Arthur Anderson was arrested in January 2006 after his wife accused him of ramming his pickup truck into her car and shooting ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 19
Approximately 50,000 felons have been released from Illinois prisons and discharged from probation supervision without having their DNA collected, state officials acknowledged in September 2009.
Illinois law requires all felons sentenced on or after August 22, 2002 to provide a DNA sample. The samples are stored in CODIS, a national ...
The family of Jimmy Haws has settled a federal lawsuit against Monterey County and county officials for $1.85 million, two years after initiating litigation following an assault against Haws who, while a pretrial detainee at a jail in Salinas, California, was attacked by a cellmate and sustained permanent brain damage. ...
Anne-Marie Cusac is probing important questions in her book, Cruel and Unusual: The Culture of Punishment in America. What are the underlying social values that have allowed a prison state as vast as the U.S.’s to thrive? How is this related to the many examples of violence in popular culture? ...
by David M. Reutter
As the prison industrial complex has continued to grow, critics of privatization have adamantly warned that it would lead to financial incentives for for-profit companies to keep people ensnared in the criminal justice system. The privatized probation system in Georgia is the fulfillment of that warning. ...
On September 24, 2009, Suffolk Superior Court Judge John C. Cratsley held in a class-action lawsuit that Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson in Bristol County, Massachusetts was housing prisoners under cruel and unusual conditions.
Originally filed in 1998, the suit alleged that Hodgson was improperly triple-bunking prisoners at the Ash Street ...
by John E. Dannenberg
In a major loss for California lifers, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, in an en banc ruling, held that a second-degree murderer who had served 27 years on a 15-life sentence did not have a right to parole that devolved from either federal law ...
by David M. Reutter
“Dropping out of high school [is] an apprenticeship for prison,” said Illinois State Senator Emil Jones at a 2006 Chicago conference on high school dropouts. An October 2009 report issued by Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies demonstrates the truth of that statement and the ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 25
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections paid $1,500 to settle a prisoner’s lawsuit alleging violations of his Eighth Amendment rights by being subjected to cold cell temperatures.
Waupan Correctional Institution prisoner Jevon D. Jackson filed a civil rights action for being subjected to un-constitutional conditions of confinement. His ordeal began on ...
Forced to trim its budget by $1.2 billion, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is cutting back on rehabilitative programs that help reduce recidivism.
On October 14, 2009, Donovan State Prison closed its “Right Turn” substance abuse program that provided treatment for about 500 prisoners. In so doing, ...
by David M. Reutter
A Pennsylvania U.S. District Court has granted absolute judicial immunity to two former state court judges in a consolidated class-action civil rights suit. That immunity, however, only applied to judicial acts, allowing the case to proceed on the judges’ corrupt actions that were administrative in nature. ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 27
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) paid $2,750 to settle a prisoner’s Eighth Amendment claim for denial of exercise. The May 7, 2008 settlement came in a lawsuit filed by prisoner Terrell Curry.
In his third amended complaint, Curry alleged that seven guards at Salinas Valley State Prison ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 28
The State of Montana and Montana counties may be held liable for mistreatment and injuries caused by private prisoner transportation companies, the Supreme Court of Montana held.
Jaydon Paull was arrested in 2003 by Florida officials after Montana authorities issued a warrant for his arrest due to a probation violation. ...
by Matt Clarke
In September 2009, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) released a 74-page report on the state of America’s drug and mental health courts, reflecting the knowledge gleaned from over 130 expert witnesses who testified at hearings held in seven different states and questionnaires completed by ...
In May 2010, Prison Legal News announced that it had prevailed in a public records lawsuit filed against Florida-based GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections), the nation’s second-largest private prison company.
PLN filed the suit in 2005 under Florida’s public records law after GEO failed to produce documents related to contractual ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 30
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) does not create a cause of action against defendants in their individual capacities. The Court also held that the denial of Christian chapel worship may violate RLUIPA and the First Amendment.
Leroy ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 30
In December 2009, the former sheriff of Page County, Virginia was sentenced to 19 months in federal prison on corruption charges. The sentence was imposed following a guilty plea to an indictment that originally included 22 counts.
The story behind Daniel W. Presgraves, 47, is one of a home-grown politician ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 31
The North Carolina Psychology Board has revoked the license of a prison therapist who had a sexual relationship with a former prisoner – and shot him – upon his release.
While Lamount K. Friend was at Neuse Correctional Institution, he participated in therapy sessions with prison psychologist Kristel K. Rider. ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 32
On April 22, 2010, Prison Legal News announced that it had settled a First Amendment censorship suit against Fulton County, Georgia and former Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman.
The lawsuit, filed by PLN in October 2007, claimed that prisoners at the Fulton County Jail were not allowed to receive subscriptions ...
In May 2007, Katherine Anderson was sentenced to 26 months in prison for embezzling $2,400 from her employer, a non-profit agency. She was sent to Oregon’s Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (CCCF). The 31-year-old mother of four was released 17 months later with a replacement heart valve, a shortened life span ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 33
On July 14, 2009, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a prisoner who was beaten by guards.
On or about April 11, 2006, while being escorted to the Special Housing Unit (SHU) for allegedly assaulting a BOP employee, Kenneth Howard was tripped and ...
On May 28, 2009, a U.S. District Court granted class-action status to prisoners seeking declaratory and injunctive relief for unconstitutional conditions of confinement at the Passaic County Jail (PCJ) in Paterson, New Jersey. At the same time, the court denied a motion to dismiss filed by defendant George Hayman, Commissioner ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 34
A “rising star” at the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) pleaded guilty to six criminal offenses and was sentenced to four months in jail, probation and 160 hours of community service, and ordered to pay $11,500 in restitution. He gave OYA “a black eye that is going to be difficult to ...
by David M. Reutter
Two of the three nominees to be South Florida’s next U.S. Attorney have violated a basic tenet of court administration by acting to hide court records from the public.
In 2002, U.S. Attorney nominee Daryl Trawick, a Miami-Dade Court Judge, instructed the clerk’s office to alter ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 36
The City of New York paid $60,000 to settle a prisoner’s civil rights action. The case was succinctly defined as an incident where New York Department of Corrections (NY DOC) Captain Reginald Patterson not only “gratuitously punched an inmate, but also … generated an elaborate ruse to cover it up.” ...
Faced with an unprecedented budget deficit, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered state workers to stay home three Fridays each month, which amounts to a 14% pay cut. Known as the “Furlough Friday” program, the cost-cutting measure, implemented in February 2009, was supposed to save the state a projected $1.7 billion. ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 37
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part the dismissal of a prisoner’s lawsuit alleging violations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Danny Ray Meeks, a Tennessee prisoner, sued the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) and ...
by David M. Reutter
After 35 years of proclaiming his innocence for the kidnapping and rape of a 9-year-old boy, James Bain, 54, was finally proven innocent and released from a Florida prison on December 17, 2009.
Of the 246 prisoners nationwide exonerated by DNA evidence, Bain served the most ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 38
The Indiana Court of Appeals held that when prisoners “have no intent or plan to flee from detention in the penal facility in which they are confined, they cannot be guilty of the crime of escape when they merely enter restricted areas of the facility without permission.”
That decision came ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 38
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000cc et seq., does not authorize individual capacity damages actions.
The Court’s ruling came in the appeal of prisoner Scott Lewis Rendelman, who brought a RLUIPA claim against the ...
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that prosecutors are absolutely immune for making parole recom-mendations.
Liza Brown shot her husband to death and entered into an oral plea agreement. “During the plea colloquy, the prosecutor stated that, if Brown avoided disciplinary problems while in prison, she would be ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 40
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a mixed verdict in an appeal by New York state prisoner Cesar A. Espinal. Espinal’s § 1983 suit, which was filed pro se, accused a total of 14 guards and other prison officials of the New York State Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 40
In a ruling with potentially wide-ranging implications, the Ninth Circuit held that race-based prison lockdowns fail to meet the strict-scrutiny standard announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in Johnson v. California, 543 U.S. 499, 505-07 (2005) [PLN, July 2005, p.22], at least where no evidence is proffered to show a ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 41
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a federal prisoner’s copyright infringement suit filed against Federal Prison Industries, Inc. (FPI, also known as UNICOR), the prison sweatshop arm of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
While working at the FPI factory at USP Leavenworth in ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 42
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC) Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of a prisoner’s lawsuit for failure to exhaust administrative remedies and for conceding summary judgment by failing to respond to the defendants’ summary judgment motion.
The District of Columbia contracted with Corrections Corporation ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 42
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment to Illinois jail officials stemming from the in-custody suicide of a federal pretrial detainee.
On April 13, 2005, Stanley Bell was confined at the St. Clair County Jail in Illinois. At the time he was admitted ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 43
In a January 28, 2010 ruling, the California Supreme Court held that Prop. 83, a November 2006 ballot initiative also known as Jessica’s Law, may violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection by subjecting sexually violent predators (SVPs), but not other eligible ex-felons, to indefinite post-incarceration civil commitment. The 5-2 ruling ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 44
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the grant of summary judgment to a prison hearings officer in a lawsuit concerning a prisoner’s improper placement in administrative segregation.
On January 3, 2001, New York state prisoner Samuel Davis was incarcerated at the Elmira Correctional Facility when Sergeant Perry recommended ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 44
In a tragic case involving a father who signed a citizen’s arrest for his son who later committed suicide while in pretrial detention, the Ninth Circuit upheld the grant of summary judgment to two sheriff’s deputies and the county that employed them. However, the Court reversed the grant of summary ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 45
In a suit for damages and injunctive relief, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s de-termination that prison prohibitions against “smuggling” and “contraband” were unconstitutionally vague as applied to Mujahid Farid, a New York state prisoner serving a life sentence. Farid was disciplined for possessing and distributing ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 46
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a Utah prisoner had failed to state cognizable due process and equal protection challenges to Utah’s parole scheme.
In 1993, Robert Straley was convicted of sex crimes against a child and sentenced to two concurrent one-to-fifteen year sentences. The sentence was stayed ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 46
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of qualified immunity to Ohio jailers on a detainee’s excessive force, denial of medical care, equal protection and state law claims.
On April 3, 2004, Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Helen McManes stopped William Harris, Jr. for speeding. After smelling alcohol, ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 47
The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) does not allow money damages for violations of that statute, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held on April 24, 2009.
The Court entered its decision in an appeal by Gerald W. Cardinal, a Michigan state prisoner who ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 47
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court’s denial of summary judgment to prison officials who had failed to safeguard a Texas state prisoner, saying their ineffective attempts to protect him were sufficient.
Gregory Moore was incarcerated at the Beto Unit for sex offenses when a guard used ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 48
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s denial of qualified immunity in an Ohio prisoner’s lawsuit raising a failure to protect claim.
Ohio prisoner George Hamilton was the target of a “hit” by the Aryan Brotherhood (AB), “because [a] document from his cell had been used to ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 48
In a lengthy and well-reasoned opinion and order, U.S. District Court Judge Elaine E. Bucklo, for the Northern District of Illinois, denied cross-motions for summary judgment in a class-action suit brought by paraplegics and partially-disabled pre-trial detainees currently and formerly housed at the Cook County Department of Corrections. The plaintiffs ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 49
The City of New York paid $275,000 to settle a prisoner’s lawsuit claiming he sustained serious injuries as a result of a guard’s negligence.
The suit was filed by Ryan Scott, who was incarcerated at the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island on October 17, 2006. Scott claimed that ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 49
Proceeding pro se, California prisoner Earnest C. Woods II survived a summary judgment motion and was awarded $500 in compensatory damages and $1,000 in punitive damages after a jury found that CSP-Solano Appeals Coordinator Santos Cervantes had maliciously violated his Eighth Amendment rights by repeatedly rejecting, on procedural grounds, Woods’ ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2010
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2010, page 50
Argentina: Prisoners Maximiliano Pereyra, 25, and Ariel Diaz, 28, escaped from a maximum security facility in early April 2010. The men eluded capture by stealing full sheep skins and blending in with a large herd of sheep on a nearby ranch. Police said spotting the pair among thousands of sheep ...
