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Prison Legal News: February, 2020

Issue PDF
Volume 31, Number 2

In this issue:

  1. The Private Option (p 1)
  2. New York County to Pay $440,000 Settlement in Wrongful Jail Death Suit (p 12)
  3. Corizon Settles EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit for $950,000 (p 13)
  4. Deaths and Abuse During Private Prisoner Transport Trips (p 14)
  5. From the Editor (p 14)
  6. Prosecutors Get Real Look at Life After Prison (p 16)
  7. Former Nevada Prison Guard Who Fatally Shot Handcuffed Prisoner Enters Alford Plea (p 16)
  8. L.A.’s Court-Ordered Community Supervision Enslaves and Impoverishes (p 18)
  9. New Jersey County Not Entitled to Defense or Indemnification by the State in Suit Alleging Exposure of Jail Detainees (p 20)
  10. South Carolina: Former Prison Employees Charged, Plead Guilty in Contraband Investigation (p 20)
  11. Weaker Job Screening Could Make North Carolina Prisons More Dangerous (p 22)
  12. A Place for Released Prisoners to Go Home (p 22)
  13. Getting Out of Jail After Dark Can Be Dangerous – and Sometimes Deadly (p 24)
  14. California Begins Weaning Itself from Private Prisons – More or Less (p 26)
  15. Members of Congress Investigate Private Equity Firms that Own Companies Providing Prison Services (p 27)
  16. CoreCivic Booted from LGBT Chamber of Commerce in Hometown (p 28)
  17. Graphic Violence, Deaths in Alabama Prison Shown in Leaked Photos (p 28)
  18. Prisoners Suffer and Die as Kentucky Overcrowds County Jails (p 30)
  19. Arizona Prisoners Required to Pay Medical Expenses for Overdoses (p 32)
  20. Georgia: Doctors and Nurses Warn Prison Medical Care is in Jeopardy (p 32)
  21. New York City Prisoner Shackled While Giving Birth; $610,000 Settlement (p 34)
  22. Prisoner Suicide Rates Highest in California (p 34)
  23. $750,000 Settlement in Suit Over Prisoner Beaten and Raped for Three Days (p 36)
  24. Alaska: Juvenile Justice Official Sentenced for Possession of Child Pornography (p 36)
  25. Missouri Requires County Jails to House State Prisoners, Then Doesn’t Pay for Them (p 38)
  26. Prisoner Wins Preliminary Injunction Against PADOC Policy Banning Islamic Fezzes (p 38)
  27. California Department of Corrections Tries End-Run Around Federal Court (p 40)
  28. BOP to Implement Paperless Mail System in Attempt to Stop Drugs (p 40)
  29. Ohio Prisoner Killed by Cellmate Who Mistakenly Thought He Was a Child Molester (p 41)
  30. Texas Attorney General Secretly Sabotages Compensation Payments to Man Exonerated of Killing Police Officer (p 42)
  31. Growing Concerns Over Medical Debt Leading to Jail Time (p 43)
  32. Ministry Worker Banned from Mississippi Prisons After Asking About Plumbing Problems (p 44)
  33. To Decrease Prison Population, Texas Must Increase Parole Rate (p 44)
  34. Third Circuit: Failure to Make PLRA Findings Moots Appeal (p 45)
  35. Washington State Pays Prisoners Slave Wages While Suing Others for Doing the Same (p 46)
  36. Video Documentary Reports on Florida Prisons – From the Inside (p 46)
  37. Update: Montgomery County, Ohio Pays $10 Million to Settle Jail Lawsuits (p 48)
  38. Utah Supreme Court Reinstates Lawsuit Over Man Held 17 Days Without Hearing or Formal Charges (p 48)
  39. Prison Mailbox Rule Applies to Civil Detainees (p 49)
  40. Indiana Prisoner Granted Leave to Proceed in First Amendment Retaliation Suit (p 49)
  41. Illinois Jail Detainee Dies, Lawsuit Settles for $2.2 Million (p 50)
  42. 20 Years Sees No Improvement in California Prison’s Mental Health Care; Suicide Results in $1.5 Million Settlement (p 50)
  43. Jury Awards Former Virginia Prisoner Over $1 Million After Finding of Medical Malpractice against Prison Doctor (p 51)
  44. New Mexico Prison Guards Win $700,000 Age Discrimination Settlement (p 52)
  45. Maryland to Pay $1.4 Million Settlement and Provide Assistance to Blind Prisoners (p 52)
  46. $45,000 Settlement for Pennsylvania Prisoner Subjected to Excessive Force (p 53)
  47. California County Settles Failure to Protect Lawsuit for $90,000 (p 54)
  48. Oregon Prison Guard, Guilty of Pocketing $10,811 in Falsified Overtime, Sues for Racism (p 54)
  49. Attorney Fees and Costs Awarded in HRDC Suit Against Juvenile Solitary Confinement (p 55)
  50. Washington State Prisoner’s Suicide Leads to $350,000 Settlement (p 56)
  51. $102,500 Settlement in Lawsuit Over Alaska DOC’s Discrimination Against Muslims (p 56)
  52. Exonerated Kentucky Man’s High Bail Prevented His Release for Six Years (p 57)
  53. Orange County Pays $299K to Settle Claim that Deputy Forbade Nurse to Treat Prisoner (p 58)
  54. State of New York 50 Percent Liable for Prisoner’s Injury Sustained from Table Saw (p 58)
  55. New York City Department of Correction Attempts to Humanize Prisoners (p 59)
  56. Terminal Texas Prisoner’s Morphine Withdrawn After He Filed Sexual Harassment Complaint (p 59)
  57. Federal Class-Action Lawsuit Seeks Hepatitis C Treatment for Texas Prisoners (p 60)
  58. Taft Correctional Institution Scheduled to Close in 2020 ... Maybe (p 60)
  59. Oklahoma County Settles Jail Death Lawsuit for $3.2 Million (p 61)
  60. News in Brief (p 63)

The Private Option

One company has become the biggest provider of jail health care. Sheriffs are worried: “If you’re the only dance in town, you can pretty much call your own shots.”

Story by Marsha McLeodThe Atlantic

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – In the span of 24 days in May 2017, two men died in Forsyth County’s jail. Both were fathers. Both were black. The first man, Deshawn Lamont Coley, had written request after request begging for his asthma inhaler – accurately predicting that his sporadic access to it was putting his life at risk. The second, Stephen Antwan Patterson, was found without a pulse about a week after he was booked with a blood-pressure reading that would likely have led any free person to the emergency room. The deaths came at an uncomfortable time for Forsyth County: Patterson died just four weeks before the Board of Commissioners sat down to decide whether to renew a contract with the private health-care company that had cared for the two men, then called Correct Care Solutions and now Wellpath, or sign with someone else.

What might have been a routine board meeting turned tense. “Correct Care Solutions makes the sheriff’s office look bad, makes ...

New York County to Pay $440,000 Settlement in Wrongful Jail Death Suit

by Kevin Bliss

Onondaga County, New York agreed to a $440,000 settlement in a wrongful death claim filed by attorney Richard Priest on behalf of Rebeka Kwiatkowski after her daughter, Chanel Lakatocz, died at the Onondaga County Justice Center (OCJC) from opioid and alcohol withdrawal.

Lakatocz was arrested on August ...

Corizon Settles EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit for $950,000

by Scott Grammer

On September 18, 2018, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) filed suit in Arizona against Corizon Health, Inc. and Corizon LLC. The purpose of the litigation was “to correct Corizon’s nationwide unlawful employment policies and practices that discriminate on the basis of disability and to provide appropriate ...

Deaths and Abuse During Private Prisoner Transport Trips

by Matt Clarke

Many prisoners transported by Prisoner Transportation Services of America, LLC (PTS) report being denied restroom breaks, food, liquids and essential prescription medications such as insulin, occasionally with fatal results. Others say they were physically or sexually abused by PTS staff. At least five prisoners have died while ...

From the Editor

by Paul Wright

This month’s cover story reports onWellpath, formerly known as Correct Care Solutions, a hedge fund-owned private prison health care company. PLN has long reported on prison medical care in general and privatized care in particular, with what is now a lengthy history of medical neglect, deaths, maimings ...

Prosecutors Get Real Look at Life After Prison

by Dale Chappell

A dozen prosecutors and other criminal justice workers got a real life look at what it’s like to re-enter society after being in prison – ­­and every one of them failed to get everything done as required by their “probation officers.”

The Reentry Simulation took place at ...

Former Nevada Prison Guard Who Fatally Shot Handcuffed Prisoner Enters Alford Plea

by Matt Clarke

On October 29, 2019, a former probationary Nevada prison guard entered a plea of nolo contendre to a felony charge of attempted performance of an act or neglect of duty in willful or wanton disregard of safety of persons or property resulting in death. The charge was ...

L.A.’s Court-Ordered Community Supervision Enslaves and Impoverishes

by Matt Clarke

When a 33-year-old man was cited for littering for tossing trash and beer cans on a South Los Angeles sidewalk in 2013, an interpreter helped him plead no contest, and he was fined just $100 because the court recognized his inability to pay more. In lieu of ...

New Jersey County Not Entitled to Defense or Indemnification by the State in Suit Alleging Exposure of Jail Detainees

by Douglas Ankney

In an unpublished decision, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, held that Salem County is entitled to neither defense nor indemnification by the state in a class-action lawsuit brought by former jail detainees who allege the county intentionally required them to expose their breasts and ...

South Carolina: Former Prison Employees Charged, Plead Guilty in Contraband Investigation

by David M. Reutter

At least 19 employees from eight different prisons operated by the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDOC) have been convicted or face charges of smuggling drugs, liquor, jewelry or cell phones into the facilities where they worked. [See: PLN, July 2019, p.29]. At the same ...

Weaker Job Screening Could Make North Carolina Prisons More Dangerous

by David M. Reutter

In an effort to reduce its 18 percent guard vacancy rate, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (DPS) has eliminated the requirement that all applicants go through psychological testing.

“We are trying to make it easier for the applicants to get through the hiring process,” ...

A Place for Released Prisoners to Go Home

by Ed Lyon

A new program that began in 2018 in Alameda County, California aims to assist former prisoners with housing needs. The Homecoming Project matches newly released prisoners with hosts who are subsidized in what founder Alex Busansky describes as an Airbnb-style solution to the acute need to house ...

Getting Out of Jail After Dark Can Be Dangerous – and Sometimes Deadly

Nighttime is the worst possible time to release prisoners. So why do so many jails do it?

by Madison Pauly, Mother Jones

The last bus of the day pulls away from the parking lot outside the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California, at 8:43 p.m. Twenty minutes later, a young woman pulls up the hood of her dark jacket, pushes open the jail lobby’s heavy door, and steps out into the night, looking for a cigarette.

Leah, as I’ll call her, is not the only just-released prisoner trying to score a smoke. “Who’s got a fucking cigarette?” yells a man bursting through the door behind her. Near the bus stop, Leah finds a butt burned almost all the way to the filter. Clutching it, she approaches me for a lighter. I don’t have one; I offer her my cell phone instead. Leah, whose voice is shaking, wants to call her mom. She’s planning to take the train home. It’s a 35-minute trek, in the dark, to the station.

When her call goes to voicemail, Leah becomes distraught. “I don’t want to walk this path, but I will,” she says into the phone. “I love you, and I’ll see you ...

California Begins Weaning Itself from Private Prisons – More or Less

by Ed Lyon

California governor Gavin Newsom entered office in early 2019 vowing to end the use of private prisons – including those in which federal immigration authorities detain asylum seekers – because for-profit prisons “lead to over-incarceration” and “do not reflect our values.” For many years, California sent prisoners ...

Members of Congress Investigate Private Equity Firms that Own Companies Providing Prison Services

by Matt Clarke

On September 30, 2019, U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Representatives Mark Pocan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sent letters to five private equity firms – BlueMountain Capital Management, H.I.G. Capital, American Securities, Apax Partners and Platinum Equity.

The firms own companies that provide support services ...

CoreCivic Booted from LGBT Chamber of Commerce in Hometown

by David M. Reutter

Nashville’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) has removed for-profit prison company CoreCivic from its membership rolls. The October 8, 2019 decision to return the company’s membership fee came after a vocal outcry from the local LGBT community.

“The voices at our meeting last night were very ...

Graphic Violence, Deaths in Alabama Prison Shown in Leaked Photos

by David M. Reutter

Over 2,000 photos taken by staff at Alabama’s St. Clair Correctional Facility paint a graphic picture of violence in the prison that was previously described only in words. But after the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) received the leaked images in early 2019 – from someone ...

Prisoners Suffer and Die as Kentucky Overcrowds County Jails

by David M. Reutter

In October 2019, the Kentucky Department of Corrections (KDOC) announced plans to lease a privately-owned prison in Floyd County that has sat idle since 2012. State Justice Secretary John Tilley, who oversees the KDOC, hopes the prison’s 650 beds will make a “serious dent” in overcrowding ...

Arizona Prisoners Required to Pay Medical Expenses for Overdoses

by Douglas Ankney

On March 15, 2019, the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADOC) implemented a change to its disciplinary procedures for prisoners. Policy No. 803 now mandates that prisoners requiring hospital treatment for substance abuse must repay the cost of “all medical related expenses,” including ambulance transport, as well as ...

Georgia: Doctors and Nurses Warn Prison Medical Care is in Jeopardy

by David M. Reutter

As previously reported in PLN, a 2017 investigation found the 1,326-bed Augusta State Medical Prison (ASMP), operated by Georgia Correctional Health Care (GCHC) under a $190 million annual contract for the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC), had “a myriad of unsafe and unsanitary conditions.” State ...

New York City Prisoner Shackled While Giving Birth; $610,000 Settlement

by Ed Lyon

A New York City resident, identified as Jane Doe in a lawsuit, gave birth on February 8, 2018 at 6:14 a.m. Although ordinarily not an unusual event, the circumstances leading up to and subsequent to this birth were anything but routine.

Doe was arrested on February 7, ...

Prisoner Suicide Rates Highest in California

by Ed Lyon

While an estimated 40 percent of all prisoners have a diagnosed mental health condition, the number of prisoners suffering from a serious mental illness reached 14 percent of the general prison population by 2018. Mentally ill prisoners are much more likely to commit suicide.

The three largest ...

$750,000 Settlement in Suit Over Prisoner Beaten and Raped for Three Days

by Matt Clarke

On May 17, 2019, the federal government settled a lawsuit brought by a man formerly incarcerated by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), who had been placed in a segregation cell with another prisoner who previously threatened him, even though they were supposed to be kept apart.

This ...

Alaska: Juvenile Justice Official Sentenced for Possession of Child Pornography

by Kevin Bliss

David Weston, Jr., 55, was one of several Anchorage officials with authority over juvenile offenders who have been charged with possession of child pornography.

A sting operation in 2017 had an undercover FBI agent post an advertisement on Craigslist looking for a babysitter for his 10-year-old daughter ...

Missouri Requires County Jails to House State Prisoners, Then Doesn’t Pay for Them

by David M. Reutter

The state government in Missouri owes counties more than $33 million for housing and transporting state prisoners during fiscal year 2019. Although state law places no cap on the number of prisoners sent to county jails, the legislature has also not made allowance in the state ...

Prisoner Wins Preliminary Injunction Against PADOC Policy Banning Islamic Fezzes

by The Human Rights Coalition

In August 2019, a federal magistrate judge recommended granting a preliminary injunction against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PADOC) to require prison officials to allow prisoners to purchase and wear Nation of Islam (NOI) prayer caps, known as fezzes.

While incarcerated at SCI-Rockview in Bellefonte, ...

California Department of Corrections Tries End-Run Around Federal Court

by Kevin Bliss

U.S. District Court Judge Kimberly J. Mueller stated in an October 2019 evidentiary hearing that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) knowingly presented misleading information to the court to appear more compliant with a prior ruling that found its mental health program was insufficient and ...

BOP to Implement Paperless Mail System in Attempt to Stop Drugs

by Dale Chappell

Soon, federal prisoners will not be able to receive any paper correspondence but will have to read letters on “kiosks” in housing units. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials say the move is needed in order to stop the flow of drugs coming in through the mail, including ...

Ohio Prisoner Killed by Cellmate Who Mistakenly Thought He Was a Child Molester

by Scott Grammer

Kevin Nill, 40, was serving 18 months at the Lebanon Correctional Institution for attempted domestic violence involving an adult family member. On April 23, 2018, prison staff thought it would be a good idea to put 33-year-old Jack Welninski in the same cell as Nill. Welninski, serving ...

Texas Attorney General Secretly Sabotages Compensation Payments to Man Exonerated of Killing Police Officer

by Matt Clarke

Alfred Dewayne Brown spent over a dozen years in prison, including nine on death row, before suppressed exculpatory evidence emerged that supported his alibi and proved he did not murder Houston Police Department Officer Charles Clark.

Brown had been convicted of killing Clark during a botched robbery ...

Growing Concerns Over Medical Debt Leading to Jail Time

by Kevin Bliss

Watchdog organizations are becoming concerned with medical costs and collections due to practices such as balanced billing and debt collections court, where thousands of dollars of unexpected medical expenses overwhelm patients, and those who fail to pay must submit to periodic court hearings or find themselves facing ...

Ministry Worker Banned from Mississippi Prisons After Asking About Plumbing Problems

by Scott Grammer

In August 2019, businessman Bryan Shaver worked as a volunteer prison minister at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. On the 23rd of that month, he was told that the water in Parchman Unit 29 had been turned off and prisoners were relieving themselves on the floor ...

To Decrease Prison Population, Texas Must Increase Parole Rate

Gritsforbreakfast, a Texas criminal justice blog known for its fearless reporting, recently analyzed Texas parole and prison population statistics between 2006 and 2018. It noted that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles (Board) has adjusted parole rates to keep the prison system full, but not overcrowded. The blog concluded ...

Third Circuit: Failure to Make PLRA Findings Moots Appeal

by David M. Reutter

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that a district court’s failure to make findings as to the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s (PLRA) “needs-narrowness-intrusiveness criteria” mooted all injunctive enforcement actions that occurred 90 days after the court entered a preliminary injunction.

The ruling came in an ...

Washington State Pays Prisoners Slave Wages While Suing Others for Doing the Same

by Ed Lyon

The GEO Group is one of the largest private prison companies in the United States. Its primary reason for existence is to generate profit by warehousing people for the states and federal government. One of GEO’s many prisons is the 1,575-bed Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. ...

Video Documentary Reports on Florida Prisons – From the Inside

by David M. Reutter

"We finna show y’all some real shit, man, on how we live here that y’all ain’t seen.”

With that introduction, a Florida prisoner begins a video that is being proclaimed the first documentary on prison conditions produced by a prisoner. Shot on a series of contraband ...

Update: Montgomery County, Ohio Pays $10 Million to Settle Jail Lawsuits

by Ed Lyon

On May 19, 2017, Sgt. Thomas Freeham forcefully shoved Tonya Varney into a cell at a jail in Montgomery County, Ohio; Varney was reluctant to enter the cell because it appeared to have urine on the floor.

She was taken to the Miami Valley Hospital later that ...

Utah Supreme Court Reinstates Lawsuit Over Man Held 17 Days Without Hearing or Formal Charges

by Matt Clarke

On June 3, 2019, the Supreme Court of Utah held that a district court erred when it applied an incorrect standard in dismissing a man’s lawsuit alleging his state constitutional rights were violated when he was held in a county jail for 17 days without being brought ...

Prison Mailbox Rule Applies to Civil Detainees

by David M. Reutter

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held on September 18, 2019 that the “prison mailbox rule” applies to detainees held in a civil commitment center.

The ruling resulted from an appeal by Rayvon Boatman, a detainee at the Florida Civil Commitment Center (FCCC), which holds civilly ...

Indiana Prisoner Granted Leave to Proceed in First Amendment Retaliation Suit

by Ed Lyon

Ty Evans is an Indiana state prisoner. He is also an accomplished freelance writer who regularly submits articles about prison life that are often printed in different publications.

In August 2018, Evans was given the job of being a “suicide companion” for depressed prisoners. He signed a ...

Illinois Jail Detainee Dies, Lawsuit Settles for $2.2 Million

by Ed Lyon

Hoopeston, Illinois citizen Richard J. Gonzalez was convicted of a non-violent felony for theft of $3,000 from an ATM machine. He was detained at the Ford County jail on May 15, 2012, pending a transfer to prison to begin serving a four-year sentence.

On May 18, Gonzalez ...

20 Years Sees No Improvement in California Prison’s Mental Health Care; Suicide Results in $1.5 Million Settlement

by Kevin Bliss

In a wrongful death lawsuit filed by attorney Lori Rifkin on behalf of the family of Erika Rocha, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agreed to pay $1.5 million to Rocha’s sisters, Geraldine and Freida, and her stepmother, Linda Reza.

The complaint claimed that Rocha’s ...

Jury Awards Former Virginia Prisoner Over $1 Million After Finding of Medical Malpractice against Prison Doctor

by Douglas Ankney

On July 19, 2019, a federal jury in Richmond, Virginia awarded former prisoner John Kinlaw $708,671 in compensatory damages plus $625,000 in punitive damages after finding in his favor on claims of medical malpractice and negligence against Armor Correctional Health Services (Armor) and its employee, Dr. Charles ...

New Mexico Prison Guards Win $700,000 Age Discrimination Settlement

by Ed Lyon

Several long-time employees of the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) filed age discrimination and retaliation complaints against that agency with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Senior Warden Anthony Romero was 38 years old when he reviewed three candidates for promotion to a vacant major position; ...

Maryland to Pay $1.4 Million Settlement and Provide Assistance to Blind Prisoners

by Douglas Ankney

On June 5, 2019, the State of Maryland agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by current and former blind prisoners housed at the Roxbury Correctional Institution (RCI). The terms of the settlement also require the state to provide blind prisoners with assistance to ...

$45,000 Settlement for Pennsylvania Prisoner Subjected to Excessive Force

by David M. Reutter

Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County Prison (LCP) has paid $45,000 to settle a civil rights action alleging a guard used excessive force on a prisoner.

Multiple guards approached prisoner Marquice Gatewood on December 9, 2017, and told him that he would be taken to “medical” and then to ...

California County Settles Failure to Protect Lawsuit for $90,000

by Dale Chappell

Contra Costa County has settled a lawsuit filed in federal court by Suneel Kumar, agreeing to pay him $90,000 after guards at the county jail allowed another prisoner to attack him while he was performing his job duties within the facility, and failed to intervene before he ...

Oregon Prison Guard, Guilty of Pocketing $10,811 in Falsified Overtime, Sues for Racism

by Mark Wilson

An Oregon prison guard’s 37-year career came to an inglorious end when he was caught stealing $10,881 from the Department of Corrections by falsifying his time cards. After a failed attempt to dismiss the prosecution as being racially motivated, the guard pleaded guilty and paid back his ...

Attorney Fees and Costs Awarded in HRDC Suit Against Juvenile Solitary Confinement

by David M. Reutter

A Florida federal district court has awarded $420,683.53 in attorney fees and costs in a class-action suit challenging the use of solitary confinement and lack of educational opportunities for juvenile offenders held at the Palm Beach County Jail.

PLN previously reported the facts and settlement in ...

Washington State Prisoner’s Suicide Leads to $350,000 Settlement

by Ed Lyon

Shannon Rose Jefferson, a Native American, was a frequent resident at the Whatcom County Jail (WCJ) in Washington State. During the last 16 years of her life, Jefferson was held at the WCJ over 20 times. Jail records covering those prior detentions indicated she had attempted suicide ...

$102,500 Settlement in Lawsuit Over Alaska DOC’s Discrimination Against Muslims

by Matt Clarke

On September 3, 2019, the Alaska Department of Corrections (DOC) settled a lawsuit brought by two Muslim prisoners who had been given inadequate food or no food during the fast of Ramadan, were denied religious congregation rights, and were denied the right to hold religious services and ...

Exonerated Kentucky Man’s High Bail Prevented His Release for Six Years

by David M. Reutter

After nearly six years of languishing in jail because he could not afford a quarter-million dollar bond, a jury in Jefferson County, Kentucky acquitted Eugene “Red” Mitchell.

The jury’s September 18, 2019 acquittal of Mitchell on charges that he raped, sodomized and murdered Sheila Devine showed ...

Orange County Pays $299K to Settle Claim that Deputy Forbade Nurse to Treat Prisoner

by Douglas Ankney

On August 13, 2019, the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved a $299,000 settlement in a suit brought by a jail nurse who alleged a deputy refused to allow her to treat a prisoner.

In August 2016, Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) Jennifer Westfield was passing out medications ...

State of New York 50 Percent Liable for Prisoner’s Injury Sustained from Table Saw

by Douglas Ankney

On January 31, 2019, a New York State Court of Claims found the state 50 percent liable for the injuries that prisoner Ralph Whedon sustained when operating a table saw at the Franklin Correctional Facility (FCF).

In August 2015, while Whedon was assigned to the work program ...

New York City Department of Correction Attempts to Humanize Prisoners

by Kevin Bliss

New York City Department of Correction (DOC) Chief of Department Hazel Jennings issued an order to all employees on October 8, 2019 that “prohibited [referring] to persons in ... custody using terms such as i.e. packages, bodies, etc.,” in a move intended to create a more humane ...

Terminal Texas Prisoner’s Morphine Withdrawn After He Filed Sexual Harassment Complaint

by Matt Clarke

A Texas prisoner with a rare and virtually untreatable form of leukemia filed a sexual harassment complaint against a medical provider. Then the morphine he was being given for the pain caused by his terminal cancer was cut off, he alleged in a pro se lawsuit.

Jeremy ...

Federal Class-Action Lawsuit Seeks Hepatitis C Treatment for Texas Prisoners

by Matt Clarke

A Texas prisoner has filed a federalclass-action lawsuit seeking the current standard of care for treatment of hepatitis C.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prisoner Matthew Roppolo, 53, has the hepatitis C virus, a serious illness that can eventually lead to liver failure and death. Despite ...

Taft Correctional Institution Scheduled to Close in 2020 ... Maybe

by Kevin Bliss

In October 2019, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) announced that it planned to close the Taft Correctional Institution (TCI) by January 31, 2020. The prison in California has had an increasing number of infrastructure problems over the past 15 years. Seismic and geological concerns have affected the ...

Oklahoma County Settles Jail Death Lawsuit for $3.2 Million

by Dale Chappell

The family of a man who was neglected to the point that he died in jail in Carter County, Oklahoma has settled a lawsuit against the county for $3.2 million, plus interest, after new and damaging evidence was uncovered.

Michael Manos was no stranger to staff at ...

News in Brief

Arizona: Prisoners at ASPC-Douglas, just north of the Mexican border, had to drink bottled water and use portable toilets in early June 2019 after a dry well and a leak caused a water system failure. Cochise County supplies water to the prison, which shares the system with the Bisbee-Douglas ...