By Jill Brotman
Throughout the AFSC's decades of prison work it has encouraged reconciliation and nonviolent alternatives to conflict. But Massachusetts Governor William Weld has declared that a stay in prison should replicate a tour of the circles of hell. Current prison management is supposed to be part of the ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 2
This lengthy (76 pages) opinion deals with a DOC-wide class action suit filed by Arizona state prisoners challenging the medical and dental care, treatment available for seriously mentally ill prisoners, and unequal medical treatment provided to females compared to that provided male prisoners. District court judge Muecke ruled in favor ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 2
In conjunction with the New Jersey American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) former prisoners have set up a Prisoner's Resource Center (PRC) to provide services and advocacy for both current and former prisoners in New Jersey.
Among the services provided for prisoners are: assistance with parole plans, letters of assurance for ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 3
San Francisco, March 10, 1994 -- Despite a demonstration of over 100 people at the gates of Chowchilla prison on January 29 for better health care, the daily medical neglect and abuse continues unabated. Since the beginning of the year, three women prisoners, two of whom had AIDS, have died ...
By David Gilbert
Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading infectious killer in the world. Long considered conquered in the industrialized nations, TB is now making a comeback in the U.S. Prison is one danger zone for this disease which can be spread by airborne bacteria. In recent mass screenings (with the ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 4
According to Florida corrections officials, AIDS is the leading cause of death in Florida prisons and many prisoners are released without knowing if they are infected. Half of the people who die in Florida prisons die from AIDS. Prison officials estimate about 8 percent of that state's 50,000 prisoners are ...
By Dude J. Rose
Prisoners have an eighth amendment right to adequate medical treatment. When bringing a claim of inadequate medical treatment, the plaintiff/prisoner must allege and show deliberate indifference on the part of the defendants towards the prisoner's medical needs and treatment.
The Supreme Court has adopted the "deliberate ...
By Paul Wright
The Washington Citizens for Justice are the right-wingers headed by Dave LaCourse, of the Public Policy Institute in Bellevue, WA; John Carlson, of KVI radio and Seattle Times columnist and Ida Ballasiotes, Republican state representative for Mercer Island. [Editor's Note: writing for the Times plugging I-593 Carlson ...
By Paul Wright
As consistently reported in PLN, most recently in the March, 1994, issue, prisoners at the Washington State Reformatory (WSR) have been involved in nearly 13 years of litigation involving prison officials' challenge to the consent decree they entered into in 1981. The decree mandated that prison officials ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 7
A survey conducted by the Washington State Supreme Court's task force on diversity in the judiciary yielded not very surprising results. Out of 451 state judges in Washington 95 percent, all but 22, are white. Only three of those 22 are in courts other than King County (Seattle). Eastern Washington, ...
By Dawud Halisi Malik
On January 5, 1978, the superior court of the county of Walla Walla accepted my petition for name change as I had adopted Al-Islam as my religion. On May 8, 1990, I arrived at the Clallam Bay Correction Center (CBCC). I requested that I be acknowledged ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 8
In 1988 Arlen Smith and several other Oregon state prisoners sought judicial review of Oregon DOC administrative regulations in Oregon state courts. Shortly before the briefs were due, Smith, the initiator of the litigation, was transferred to the Nevada state prison system. Upon his transfer Smith was moved without any ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 9
Over eight years ago, lawyers from the Michigan Attorney General's office sent interrogatories directly to prisoners about the Knop v. Johnson case without notifying the plaintiffs' lawyers. Judge Enslen entered a protective order on February 19, 1986, and he later relied upon that conduct by the defendant's counsel as one ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 9
For almost two years, prisoners at Criminal Justice Complex have been locked up for 23 hours a day in overcrowded, filthy, rat and roach infested cells. They are only allowed out for a short period each day to shower and for an hour of recreation twice a week. Cells designed ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 9
[Editor's Note: In the June, 1994, issue of PLN we reported on a lawsuit f led by BOP prisoners Joe Mohwish and Duane Olson alleging racketeering and other illegal labor practices by UNICOR. We received the following from Joe.] We would like to hear from federal prisoners who have any ...
By Marc Lee
Many lawsuits have been filed throughout this country addressing the problems in indigent defense programs. Although many of these lawsuits have been successful in showing the inadequacies in the indigent defense programs, for the most part they have been unsuccessful in obtaining relief. On May 12, 1994, ...
By Noelle Hanrahan
Sunday May 15th, 1994: The New York Times ran an AP article "From Death Row: A Radio Show" highlighting the next day's premier of Mumia Abu-Jamal's radio commentaries on All Things Considered (ATC). Most major dailies ran the article. That same day, NPR News Managing Editor Bruce ...
By O'Neil Stough
Arizona has joined the ranks of many other prisons nationwide where oppressive and tried-and-failed barbaric methods of the distant past are being re-instituted.
Governor Fife Symington, up for reelection this year, and Director of Corrections, Sam Lewis whose experience is in law enforcement and kowtowing, both with ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 11
FBI agent Kenneth Withers stole one hundred pounds of high quality heroin from FBI evidence lockers and then sent mail solicitations with a one ounce sample packet of heroin, to drug dealers whose names he had acquired from FBI files. Withers, a seven year FBI veteran, instructed drug dealers to ...
By Susan Blaustein
With its myriad new death penalty offenses, "three-strikes" provisions, mandatory minimums and moneys for prisons and police, Congress left only one thing out of its much-vaunted new crime package: any protection for Americans' most basic constitutional rights. In their poll-driven stampede to look tough on crime and ...
By Dale Gardner
The method used by the FBI to calculate the frequency of a DNA match has been questioned in a recent paper. It is reported that the FBI calculates match probability based upon a database of large pools of "Caucasians" or "Blacks". In an article in Science, Volume ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 13
Michigan's corrections department recently released a five-year study of its paroled prisoners that reached the same conclusion as a similar six-year Louisiana study released last year: 55.2% of Michigan's 1986 parolees never returned to prison (nor did 56% of Louisiana's 1987 released prisoners).
5-year follow-up study on first-time Michigan parolees ...
By A Georgia Reader
On Sunday, June 19, 1994, prisoners at Hancock Correctional Institution in Sparta, Georgia revolted in one of the worst prison riots in Georgia history. Damages were estimated at over one million dollars. Establishment media reports erroneously blamed the disturbance on "faulty showers". In fact, captors at ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 14
AIDS in WA DOC
Beth Anderson, health services administrator for the Washington DOC, said that since 1985, 7,604 WA DOC prisoners have been tested for the HIV virus and 135 have tested positive. Currently, the DOC claims there are 63 HIV positive prisoners in custody, with 38 not yet showing ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 14
The 11 day rebellion at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) in Lucasville, OH, which began on Easter day, 1993, left cell block L in ruins. So far it has cost the state $19.2 million to repair cellblock L alone. It cost $32.5 million to build the entire maximum security ...
By Paul Wright
North Coast XPress is a magazine for people who care about Constitutional issues, U.S. foreign policy, the criminal "justice" system, labor news, animal rights, global and domestic economics, the environment and other topics that the mainstream media won't touch. Each issue has prisoner art, poetry, and articles ...
How To Win Disciplinary Hearings (Book Review)
Reviewed by Mark Cook
HTW is a manual for federal prisoners written by former federal prisoner Allan Parmelee. This gives the manual integrity from the git go but keep in mind that the undercurrent directions of how to beat a valid "shot" (rule ...
From the Editor
By Paul Wright
Welcome to another issue of PLN. As we reported last month, the ACLU has filed suit against the Washington state parole board over their no-contact parole condition on Ed Mead, PLN's former coeditor, which terminated his involvement with PLN. So far the case has ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 16
In July, 1992, different groups from around the world meeting in Munich, Germany over the 500th anniversary of the Columbus Encounter, formed a group called "Libertad!" around the goal of organizing an International Day of Action around the issue of political prisoners. The primary organizers of Libertad! are the Movimiento ...
The Human Rights Watch Global report On Prisons
Edited by Aryeh Neier 303 pp. 1993. New York: Human Rights Watch. $20.00 (pb).
Review by David Gilbert
The Brazilian Military Police's wanton murder of 111 prisoners involved in a disturbance is just one of the grim realities presented in The Human ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 17
An international campaign has been launched to obtain better conditions of confinement and medical care for Swiss militant Marc Rudin, who is currently serving an eight year prison sentence for alleged robbery in Denmark. Rudin is better known as Jihad Mansour, the movement name he adopted while working with the ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 17
On June 10, 1994, prisoners in seven South African prisons rebelled, taking prison officials hostage and destroying prisons. Prisoners demanding an amnesty held a warden captive for nearly 24 hours at the Modderbee prison east of Johannesburg before releasing him. One prisoner was killed and at least 30 escaped from ...
"In the eyes and ears of the sinister power, all of us are under suspicion." Oiga Magazine Feb 21, 1994, p.5
To defend political prisoners in Peru is a delicate matter. The war that has been going on in the Andean country since 1980 has atrophied the legal institutions because ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1994
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1994, page 19
The American media was recently awash over the case of Michael Fay, an American youth sentenced to four months in jail and 6 lashes of a cane for vandalism by a court in Singapore. Singapore's laws and justice system received a fair amount of scrutiny resulting from the Fay case. ...
