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Prison Legal News: January, 2019

Issue PDF
Volume 30, Number 1

In this issue:

  1. Sex Crimes and Criminal Justice: Formerly Incarcerated Sex Offenders Say Civil Commitment Programs Deny Proper Rehabilitation (p 1)
  2. Seventh Circuit Vacates ADA Summary Judgment Against Cook County Sheriff (p 8)
  3. From the Editor (p 10)
  4. $750,000 Settlement for Family of Man Who Died in Illinois Jail (p 11)
  5. A Jailbreak of the Imagination: Seeing Prisons for What They Are and Demanding Transformation (p 12)
  6. $32,000 Settlement in Excessive Force Case Involving Mentally Ill Alabama Prisoner (p 16)
  7. Alabama DOC Ordered to Remedy Overcrowded, Understaffed Prisons in Mental Health Suit (p 16)
  8. Prisoners File Environmental Lawsuit Against Proposed Federal Prison in Kentucky (p 18)
  9. Lawsuits Filed Over South Dakota Replacing Prison Law Libraries with Tablets (p 20)
  10. $550,000 Settlement for Detainee Rendered Quadriplegic by Guard’s Excessive Force (p 21)
  11. Alaskan Native American Company Profits from Immigrant Detention (p 22)
  12. Connecticut Passes Law to Protect Women, Transgender Prisoners (p 22)
  13. Seventh Circuit Remands Lawsuit Over Book Confiscation at Cook County Jail (p 23)
  14. Ohio County Jail Faces Increased Liability Due to Numerous Lawsuits (p 24)
  15. Thurgood Marshall, Jr.’s Controversial Position on Board of Private Prison Firm (p 26)
  16. Settlement in HRDC Suit Against Solitary Confinement of Juveniles at Florida Jail (p 28)
  17. Report Highlights Shortcomings of New York’s Parole Board (p 30)
  18. $3.279 Million in Costs and Fees Awarded in Wrongful Death Suit Involving Epileptic Prisoner (p 30)
  19. Guards Face Federal Charges for Smuggling Drugs, Cell Phones Into Idaho Prisons (p 30)
  20. Alabama Sheriff Pockets Excess Jail Food Funds, Buys Beach House, Loses Re-election Bid (p 32)
  21. First Step Act Passes – Includes Federal Sentencing, Prison Reforms (p 34)
  22. Virginia DOC Called Out for Use of Solitary Confinement (p 38)
  23. Book Seller Sued for Defrauding Federal Prisons (p 39)
  24. Second Circuit: Prisoners Have the Right Not to Snitch (p 40)
  25. New York Prisoner Entitled to Vegetarian, 
Dairy Tolerant, Kosher Diet Under RLUIPA (p 40)
  26. Seventh Circuit: Illinois Prisoner Entitled to Retrial After Appointment of Counsel Denied (p 42)
  27. $5 Million Settlement in Lawsuit Over Preventable Death of New Mexico Jail Prisoner (p 42)
  28. Trump Establishes Federal Interagency Council on Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry (p 43)
  29. Shareholder Resolutions Would Stop Private Prison Firms from Housing Separated Immigrant Families (p 44)
  30. Harvard Student Group Advocates for Prison Education, Reform (p 45)
  31. Colorado County Pays $800,000 for Latest Excessive Force Settlement (p 46)
  32. Audit Criticizes Milwaukee County Jail’s Contracted Medical Services (p 46)
  33. Class-Action Suit Against CoreCivic ICE Detention Center Allowed to Proceed (p 48)
  34. DOJ Launches Investigation into Abuse at Florida Women’s Prison (p 50)
  35. Washington State Prisoners Protest Poor Food (p 50)
  36. New Mexico DOC Guards Receive $2.5 Million Settlement for Sexual Harassment (p 52)
  37. Maine Constitution Mandates “Prisoner Mailbox Rule” (p 52)
  38. Prisoner Loses Suit Against Jail Officials for Disclosure of His Medical Condition (p 53)
  39. Vera Institute Announces Increase in Federal 
Funding to House Former Prisoners (p 54)
  40. Florida Prisoner’s Suit Proceeds Against Guards for Use of Force, Retaliation (p 54)
  41. $1 Million Award for Two Women Sexually Assaulted by Florida Jail Guard (p 55)
  42. Prisoners Face Retaliation for Raising Concerns 
About Criminal Justice System (p 56)
  43. Illinois Federal Jury Awards Prisoner $252,100 
for Beating and Denial of Medical Care (p 57)
  44. Illinois Ends Medical Co-Pays for Prisoners, 
But DOC Healthcare Criticized (p 58)
  45. Former Guard Who Scalded Florida Prisoner 
to Death Hired, Fired by Police Department (p 59)
  46. Aging Prison Population Finds Parole Elusive (p 60)
  47. Tennessee Sheriff, Captain Arrested 
for Improper Use of Prisoner Labor (p 61)
  48. News in Brief (p 62)
  49. Metropolitan Detention Center Guards Convicted in Sex Abuse Scandal (p 62)

Sex Crimes and Criminal Justice: Formerly Incarcerated Sex Offenders Say Civil Commitment Programs Deny Proper Rehabilitation

by Barbara Koeppel, The Washington Spectator

Responding to several highly-publicized sex crimes and public fears, legislatures across the country have adopted statutes that allow the continued imprisonment of sex offenders after they have completed their sentences. Veteran investigative reporter Barbara Koeppel has spent the past 12 months reporting on this ...

Seventh Circuit Vacates ADA Summary Judgment Against Cook County Sheriff

by Derek Gilna

On July 30, 2018, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a partial summary judgment order issued by a district court that found the Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois liable for various violations of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

After holding an evidentiary ...

From the Editor

by Paul Wright

Prison Legal News published its first issue in May 1990. The month before that, Washington became the first state in the nation to enact a civil commitment process for sex offenders and to create a sex offender registry. Those laws were passed shortly after a mentally ill ...

$750,000 Settlement for Family of Man Who Died in Illinois Jail

by David M. Reutter

Illinois’ Whiteside County Jail (WCJ) agreed to pay $750,000 to settle a civil rights action alleging jail officials failed to treat Walter E. Divers, Jr. for severe alcohol withdrawal, resulting in his death.

Divers, 28, was arrested for failing to pay fines or appear in court ...

A Jailbreak of the Imagination: Seeing Prisons for What They Are and Demanding Transformation

by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes, Truthout.org

Our current historical moment demands a radical re-imagining of how we address various harms. The levers of power are currently in the hands of an administration that is openly hostile to the most marginalized in our society (Black people, Native people, the poor, ...

$32,000 Settlement in Excessive Force Case Involving Mentally Ill Alabama Prisoner

A settlement was reached in a civil rights action alleging guards at Alabama’s Madison County Jail (MCJ) used excessive force on a mentally ill prisoner during a cell extraction.

Haraesheo Rice, 31, was well known to MCJ staff, who were aware he suffered from mental health problems that included schizophrenia ...

Alabama DOC Ordered to Remedy Overcrowded, Understaffed Prisons in Mental Health Suit

by Kevin W. Bliss

A U.S. District Court has ordered the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) to come up with an acceptable solution to address deplorable living conditions in the state’s prison system before the federal government steps in and does it for them. Alabama prisons have long been plagued ...

Prisoners File Environmental Lawsuit Against Proposed Federal Prison in Kentucky

by Panagioti Tsolkas

More than three years after a controversial environmental review process for a new federal prison, conducted by the federal Bureau of Prisons and its consulting firm Cardno, attorneys filed suit in November 2018 on behalf of 21 federal prisoners spread across the country. The plaintiffs claim they ...

Lawsuits Filed Over South Dakota Replacing Prison Law Libraries with Tablets

by Derek Gilna

Two federal lawsuits were filed by South Dakota prisoners in May and June 2018 against the state Department of Corrections (DOC) over the introduction of tablet computers to replace prison law libraries and paralegals and attorneys who assist prisoners. Billed as a cost-saving measure, the tablets are ...

$550,000 Settlement for Detainee Rendered Quadriplegic by Guard’s Excessive Force

The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee agreed to pay $550,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging a guard at the Davidson County Male Correctional Development Center (CDC) used excessive force on a pretrial detainee, leaving him a quadriplegic.

Edgar Mhoon was arrested in April 2015 following a search ...

Alaskan Native American Company Profits from Immigrant Detention

by Christopher Zoukis

Under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), guards at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas are provided by Ahtna Support and Training Services – a subsidiary of Ahtna, Inc., which is one of 13 Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) created by Congress for the ...

Connecticut Passes Law to Protect Women, Transgender Prisoners

by Dale Chappell

In May 2018, Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy signed into law SB-13, a bill that will bring fairness and dignity to women and transgender prisoners, his office said.

The bill, which received unanimous votes in both chambers of the General Assembly, specifies that women prisoners will not ...

Seventh Circuit Remands Lawsuit Over Book Confiscation at Cook County Jail

by Derek Gilna

In an August 23, 2018 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed in part and remanded a district court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a former Cook County, Illinois prisoner who alleged jail officials had confiscated books and magazines sent to him ...

Ohio County Jail Faces Increased Liability Due to Numerous Lawsuits

by Ed Lyon

The Montgomery County Jail in Dayton, Ohio faces liabilities exceeding $10 million, as lawsuits continue to multiply.

Former chief deputy Scott Landis testified to having no memory of any of the incidents that gave rise to a spate of lawsuits over issues ranging from wrongful deaths and ...

Thurgood Marshall, Jr.’s Controversial Position on Board of Private Prison Firm

by Steve Horn

He’s the descendant of a slave and the son of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who was the lead attorney in the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated U.S. public schools. An attorney who served as White House Cabinet Secretary during President ...

Settlement in HRDC Suit Against Solitary Confinement of Juveniles at Florida Jail

On November 15, 2018, the Human Rights Defense Center, PLN’s parent organization, as well as the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, Florida and the law firm of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, announced a settlement in a lawsuit filed against the sheriff’s office in Palm Beach County.

In ...

Report Highlights Shortcomings of New York’s Parole Board

by Christopher Zoukis

An investigative report issued in August 2018 by two advocacy groups, Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) and the Parole Preparation Project (PPP), found significant problems with the New York State Board of Parole’s (BOP) policies, practices and political dynamics that have led the board to deny ...

$3.279 Million in Costs and Fees Awarded in Wrongful Death Suit Involving Epileptic Prisoner

by R. Bailey

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988, a federal district court was asked to resolve an attorney fees dispute as part of a settlement in a prisoner’s wrongful death case.

Robert Awalt died while in the custody of a jail in Grundy County, Illinois. His wife, Elizabeth Awalt, ...

Guards Face Federal Charges for Smuggling Drugs, Cell Phones Into Idaho Prisons

by Dale Chappell

The FBI arrested seven people, including five Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) guards, for conspiring to smuggle drugs, tobacco and cell phones into state prisons.
In January 2017, an undercover FBI agent approached an IDOC contract nurse who had previously been caught smuggling contraband. The nurse put ...

Alabama Sheriff Pockets Excess Jail Food Funds, Buys Beach House, Loses Re-election Bid

by Kevin W. Bliss

In June 2018, Sheriff Todd Entrekin withdrew from his re-election campaign in Etowah County, Alabama, conceding to his only opponent, Rainbow City Police Chief Jonathon Horton. Entrekin will serve out the rest of his second term and hand over the position in January 2019. He withdrew ...

First Step Act Passes – Includes Federal Sentencing, Prison Reforms

by Steve Horn

On December 21, 2018, President Donald Trump signed into law the 56-page First Step Act (S. 756), a bill that will usher in an array of reforms within the federal criminal justice system. The bill went to the president’s desk just days after passing the Senate on ...

Virginia DOC Called Out for Use of Solitary Confinement

by Kevin W. Bliss

After releasing a 67-page investigative report in May 2018 on the use of solitary confinement by the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) and the effects of solitary on prisoners, especially those with mental health issues, the ACLU of Virginia called on Governor Ralph Northam to curb ...

Book Seller Sued for Defrauding Federal Prisons

In June 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reached a $75,689 settlement with a couple accused of trying to scam the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) into buying textbooks it had not ordered.

The civil complaint alleged John P. Ryan and Marie Motz Ryan operated Scholars in Print, a sole proprietorship ...

Second Circuit: Prisoners Have the Right Not to Snitch

by Christopher Zoukis

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has held that the First Amendment protects both a prisoner’s right not to snitch and his or her right not to provide false information to prison officials. The May 9, 2018 opinion established new precedent in the Second ...

New York Prisoner Entitled to Vegetarian, 
Dairy Tolerant, Kosher Diet Under RLUIPA

On July 10, 2018, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) had violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) by refusing to accommodate dietary restrictions required by a prisoner’s Nazarite Jewish faith.

As part of his ...

Seventh Circuit: Illinois Prisoner Entitled to Retrial After Appointment of Counsel Denied

by Derek Gilna

On August 20, 2018, the Seventh Circuit granted a new trial to a prisoner whose multiple motions for appointment of counsel were denied in a federal lawsuit against guards employed by the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Fredrick Walker, incarcerated at the maximum-security Pontiac Correctional Center, claimed that ...

$5 Million Settlement in Lawsuit Over Preventable Death of New Mexico Jail Prisoner

by Matt Clarke

In January 2018, Cibola County, New Mexico agreed to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of a jail prisoner who was repeatedly denied medical treatment despite vomiting and defecating blood.

Douglas Edmisten, 50, was arrested on misdemeanor charges and booked into the Cibola ...

Trump Establishes Federal Interagency Council on Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry

by Monte McCoin

On March 7, 2018, President Trump issued an executive order that launched the Federal Interagency Council on Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry. The order revoked a presidential memorandum that had established a similar Federal Interagency Reentry Council as a U.S. Department of Justice initiative during the Obama ...

Shareholder Resolutions Would Stop Private Prison Firms from Housing Separated Immigrant Families

In November 2018, shareholder resolutions were filed with CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America, and The GEO Group – the nation’s two largest private prison companies – that would prohibit them from housing immigrant detainee children who have been separated from their parents, or parents separated from their ...

Harvard Student Group Advocates for Prison Education, Reform

by Monte McCoin

The Harvard Organization for Prison Education and Advocacy, a student-led group known as HOPE, was established in the 1950s as part of Harvard University’s Phillips Brooks House Association. Since its inception the organization has provided tutoring and educational programs for incarcerated men, women and juveniles, but in ...

Colorado County Pays $800,000 for Latest Excessive Force Settlement

by Derek Gilna

Philippa Grace McCully, a 21-year-old college student and cancer survivor arrested in 2014 for erratic driving that she blamed on a reaction to various prescription psychiatric drugs, was taken to a jail in El Paso, Colorado for processing.

There, the 100-pound, 5-foot-tall woman was slammed to the ...

Audit Criticizes Milwaukee County Jail’s Contracted Medical Services

by Derek Gilna

In August 2018, a comprehensive audit report revealed that the private healthcare provider at Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County Jail and House of Correction (HOC) was not in compliance with the terms of a court-ordered consent decree requiring specific staffing levels for medical personnel. The time period under review ...

Class-Action Suit Against CoreCivic ICE Detention Center Allowed to Proceed

by Christopher Zoukis

A lawsuit alleging that private prison operator CoreCivic violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) by forcing immigrant detainees to work at one of the company’s detention centers will proceed in federal court. The class-action claim withstood a motion to dismiss on August 17, 2018.

CoreCivic, formerly ...

DOJ Launches Investigation into Abuse at Florida Women’s Prison

Prompted by claims of sexual abuse highlighted in a 2015 Miami Herald news report, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an investigation into Florida’s Lowell Correctional Institution (LCI), the largest prison for women in the state and the second-largest in the nation.

The DOJ’s probe of LCI mirrors ...

Washington State Prisoners Protest Poor Food

by Ed Lyon

During April 2018, prisoners in six housing units at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla participated in a hunger strike that lasted up to 10 days. Over 1,300 prisoners reportedly took part – around half the facility’s population, excluding those who were elderly or ill. Their ...

New Mexico DOC Guards Receive $2.5 Million Settlement for Sexual Harassment

by Derek Gilna

Six female prison guards employed by the New Mexico Corrections Department (DOC) at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility (CNMCF) in Los Lunas entered into a $2.5 million settlement with the department in late January 2018, though the terms of the agreement were not made public until ...

Maine Constitution Mandates “Prisoner Mailbox Rule”

by Mark Wilson

On July 24, 2018, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court held the state’s constitution requires adoption of a modified version of the “prisoner mailbox rule” when filing petitions for judicial review of prison disciplinary orders.

Maine prisoner Charles M. Martin was found guilty of a disciplinary infraction on ...

Prisoner Loses Suit Against Jail Officials for Disclosure of His Medical Condition

by Ed Lyon

Joseph Leiser was in an Illinois jail pending extradition to Coffey County, Kansas. Because Leiser had been Tased by federal marshals, Coffey County jail administrator Shannon Moore asked Illinois officials to have him thoroughly examined, including chest X-rays and a CT scan, to see if he suffered ...

Vera Institute Announces Increase in Federal 
Funding to House Former Prisoners

by Derek Gilna

On August 30, 2018, the Vera Institute of Justice announced an expansion of federal assistance to provide housing for prisoners who are reentering society. The “Opening Doors to Public Housing Initiative,” a program funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), seeks to ...

Florida Prisoner’s Suit Proceeds Against Guards for Use of Force, Retaliation

by Dale Chappell

On March 14, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida ruled that a prisoner’s lawsuit against Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) guards could move forward, denying the FDOC’s motion for summary judgment.

Christopher Sanders filed suit in federal court under 42 U.S.C. § ...

$1 Million Award for Two Women Sexually Assaulted by Florida Jail Guard

A Florida federal jury awarded $1 million to two women who were sexually assaulted by a guard at the Bay County Jail (BCJ).

Brandy Carnley and Virginia Lindsey alleged in a May 2017 civil rights complaint that they were forced into sex acts by guard Pedro Reyes. Both women were ...

Prisoners Face Retaliation for Raising Concerns 
About Criminal Justice System

by Ed Lyon

Prisoners who peacefully advocate for their rights, such as by filing lawsuits and grievances, and engaging in non-violent protests, regularly risk retaliation by prison officials.

That was the case following a nationwide work strike that was called by Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS) – a prisoners’ rights advocacy ...

Illinois Federal Jury Awards Prisoner $252,100 
for Beating and Denial of Medical Care

by Ed Lyon

During the noon meal on February 5, 2014, Illinois prison guard Nathan Berry found alcohol and an altered TV in a property box in a cell shared by Osbaldo Jose-Nicolas and Edgar Diaz at the Menard Correctional Center.

Both prisoners were directed to a holding cell when ...

Illinois Ends Medical Co-Pays for Prisoners, 
But DOC Healthcare Criticized

by Derek Gilna

In June 2018, Illinois lawmakers voted to end the practice of charging $5.00 co-payments to state prisoners for each medical visit – a disproportionate fee, since prison wages in the state range from $0.09 to $0.89 per hour. The move came shortly before the release of a ...

Former Guard Who Scalded Florida Prisoner 
to Death Hired, Fired by Police Department

by David Reutter

On June 23, 2012, Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) guard Roland Clarke placed Darren Rainey, a prisoner at the Dade Correctional Institution (DCI), into a shower and locked the door. He then turned on the hot water using specially-rigged controls in another room. The 50-year-old Rainey, who ...

Aging Prison Population Finds Parole Elusive

by Matt Clarke

According to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Justice, about 11% of the state and federal prison population in 2016 was over age 55. Of those prisoners, numbering roughly 160,000, around 38,000 were 65 or older. The share of prisoners over age 50 is expected ...

Tennessee Sheriff, Captain Arrested 
for Improper Use of Prisoner Labor

by Kevin W. Bliss

Sheriff Jimmy Brown and Captain Adam Brewer, with the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, were arrested in May 2018 following an investigation into inappropriate conduct.
At the request of 22nd District Attorney General Brent Cooper, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury ...

News in Brief

Alaska: Illness among state prisoners exposed to tainted lettuce was key to solving a nationwide E. coli outbreak in April 2018. Eight prisoners at the Anvil Mountain Correctional Center were stricken by an especially nasty strain of the bacteria, though none were hospitalized or died. The outbreak sickened more than ...

Metropolitan Detention Center Guards Convicted in Sex Abuse Scandal

by Monte McCoin

PLN previously reported the 2017 arrests of a trio of Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) guards for repeatedly and violently sexually abusing at least six female prisoners who had been housed at the federal jail in Brooklyn, New York. [See: PLN, Nov. 2017, p.1; Jan. 2018, p.63].

On ...