In twentieth century America, coerced confessions to criminal acts are not technically admissible as evidence in courts of law. Since the 1980's, however, a movement against the enforcement of such "technicalities" has developed within the federal courts. As more forms of questionable evidence become admissible, we must begin to ask ...
I'm a prisoner at the Washington State Penitentiary. I've filed a few lawsuits over the years against prison officials, prison employees and prison conditions with some success.
Recently, I had a case dismissed on the state's motion for summary judgement. After the court granted the state's motion, Assistant Attorney General ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 4
Howard Awalt is a federal prisoner. He was placed in administrative segregation (ad seg) pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 541.22 (a)(8) after prison officials received an anonymous note stating his life was in danger. He filed a Bivens action against prison officials claiming that his ad seg placement and denial ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 4
Tillman Farr was a prisoner at the Washington State Penitentiary (WSP) at Walla Walla. Prison officials placed Farr in Administrative Segregation (ad seg) based on information from confidential informants which claimed Farr and others were going to assault a guard. Based on this information Farr spent several months in the ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 5
The citizens of Washington state will have a chance to make real progress in the area of drug law reform if the Washington Citizen's for Drug Policy Reform (WCDPR) is successful in getting Initiative 595 on the state General Election ballot this fall. It will be necessary to gather more ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 5
The winter, 1993, issue of the ACLU's National Prison Project contains a status report of nationwide prison litigation for 1992. Forty states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are under court order or consent decree to limit population and/or improve conditions in either the entire ...
Taking Responsibility for the Future
By Ed Mead
For many years I have railed against the approach taken by the Department of Corrections (DOC) in connection with its role vis-a-vis the public's interest in being free from current levels of criminal victimization. It has been my position that the Department's ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 8
William Lyle is a Bureau of Prisons (BOP) prisoner serving a sentence for firearms and explosives violations. At his pre-release classification review his unit team recommended Lyle be placed in a halfway house for 60 days to ease his reentry into the community. The prison warden rejected the recommendation and ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 8
James Cameron is a federal prisoner. While at the penitentiary at Terre Haute he suffered a massive heart attack. Prison doctors stated he should receive a low sodium diet. The prison at Terre Haute could not provide a special diet and the warden requested that Cameron be transferred to a ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 8
Richard Young is a federal pretrial detainee. While awaiting trial he was housed at the US Penitentiary in Lewisburg, PA. He filed suit claiming that the conditions of confinement violated his right to be free from punishment. The conditions included being confined 23 hours a day, with ten other men, ...
[Editor's Note: (May 1, 1993) What follows is a chronology of events as they unfolded at Lucasville, Ohio, during the April uprising at that facility. It was written by a Lucasville segregation prisoner who wasn't an actual part of the riot, but who was close enough to witness many of ...
Traditionally, August 10th has been commemorated by prisoners in Canada as Prisoners' Justice Day (PJD). During the twenty-four hours of August 10th prisoners fast and refuse to work as a show of solidarity in memory of those who have died unnatural deaths in prisons; victims of murder, neglect and suicide. ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 11
Henry Benitez is a New York state prisoner. He was infracted in a four page disciplinary report for allegedly violating eight different rules. A few hours later he was given another infraction report consisting of an additional four charges. A few hours later Benitez was placed in segregation and not ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 11
Roland Pettengill is an Arkansas state prisoner. While in segregation he went to yard. Before entering the yard he alerted sergeant George Veasey that an enemy of his was in the yard. Veasey gave Pettengill the choice of going to yard with his enemy or refusing. Pettengill went to yard ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 11
A recent report prepared for the Pennsylvania State Commission on Sentencing found that a dramatic increase in the state's prison population has not reduced violent crime.
The report, Incarceration and Crime: Facing Fiscal Realities in Pennsylvania, by Penn State University Professor Darrell Steffensmeier, found that between 1980 and 1991 the ...
From the Editor
Welcome to another issue of PLN. As you will have noticed, PLN has a new look. We are trying out this new, expanded format because we had pretty much exhausted the newsletter format and had a backlog of material. This new magazine format costs us about the ...
By Paul Wright
The March 9, 1993, edition of the Seattle Times reports that Arizona businessman Walter McCay made his fortune growing massive amounts of marijuana. What was interesting about McCay is that he is a prominent Republican businessman and banker who worked for several years as Ronald Reagan's advance ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 13
Samuel Hamm is a Missouri state prisoner. While employed as a prison law clerk he claims prison officials threatened and harassed him in retaliation for the performance of his duties. The defendants' conduct included threatening him with administrative segregation, infracting him for fictitious conduct, violating his due process rights at ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 14
On January 31, 1993, five Basque political prisoners in the Spanish prison of Caceres-2 began a hunger strike protesting their abysmal conditions of confinement. They have presented prison officials with a list of 22 demands, all of them relating to their living conditions. After the first ten days, the prisoners ...
All too often we hear about the physical mistreatment and abuse of prisoners, political and social. The impression we are given by the mainstream media and the governments of the western industrialized countries is that such abuses only occur in places like the Middle East, South America, etc., and that ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
by RC
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 15
I am in receipt of your March issue of PLN, and find that the info is/will be very useful.
In regards to Access to the Courts (Casey v. Lewis), I feel I should inform you of some facts about the above. This thing, access to the courts, all started with ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
June, 1993, page 15
On January 13, 1993, the Costa Rican Constitutional Court issued a ruling suspending application of its 1982 extradition treaty with the US because of a June, 1992, US Supreme Court ruling which authorizes the US to kidnap individuals in other countries in order to bring them to trial. Since extradition ...
Members of The Moorish Science Temple of America, who are incarcerated in the penal institutions in the state of Indiana, have received much opposition and are being continuously denied the right to practice our religious beliefs, to hold religious services by the Indiana Department of Corrections as Moslems and followers ...
