In mid-August, Acting Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci personally directed prison guards to conduct a shakedown of several state prisons. And what contraband were the guards instructed to root out? Weapons? Drugs? No, something much more sinister and threatening to public safety -- voter registration cards! Campaign literature!
Massachusetts is one ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 2
We are proud to announce the creation of the Massachusetts Prisoners Association, a newly registered Political Action Committee working on behalf of the more than 20,000 prisoners currently confined within the Massachusetts Prisons and Houses of Correction and their family members, addressing the concerns of prisoners in the political arena. ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 3
A federal district court in New York held prison officials were not entitled to qualified immunity in a prisoner's lawsuit claiming he was retaliated against for suing them and that a trial was required to resolve the claims. Nathan Brown, a New York state prisoner, filed suit claiming prison guards ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 3
In the June, 1997, issue of PLN we reported the lengthy, tortured history of efforts by the Arizona DOC to eliminate holiday packages [On the Edge of Midnight]. The ruling cited in that article, Hook v. State of Arizona, 98 F.3d 1177 (9th Cir. 1997) has been withdrawn on the ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 5
Washington Civil Commitment La.: In the November, 1995, issue of PLN we reported Young v. Weston, 898 F. Supp. 744 (WD WA 1995) where a district court in Washington struck down as unconstitutional that state's civil commitment law. The case was on appeal when the supreme court decided Hendricks v. ...
Greetings and welcome to another issue. Last May, PLN received two $10,000 grants to use for outreach mailings of sample issues to attract new subscribers. From May through November we printed and mailed an average of 7,000 extra copies per month. The resulting new subscription orders have not been numerous ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 5
In the February, 1996, issue of PLN we reported Gotcher v. Wood, 66 F.3d 1097 (9th Cir. 1995) where the ninth circuit held that Washington prisoners have a protected liberty interest in their good time credits. The supreme court vacated Gotcher at 117 S.Ct. 1840 (1997) [PLN, July, 1997]. On ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 5
PLN has previously reported how the death row chain gang in Arizona has resulted in numerous incidents of violence, including prisoners being wounded by shotgun blasts to quell fighting.
On July 9, 1997, the violence took a bizarre and deadly turn. On that date, Rebecca Lynn Thornton, 38, who had ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 5
In the April, 1997, issue we reported the seventh circuit's ruling in O'Leary v. Mack, 80 F.3d 1175 (7th Cir. 1996) where the appeals court interpreted the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The U.S. supreme court has vacated that ruling for reconsideration in light of City of Boerne v. Flores, 117 ...
By John Midgley
A tool used in many prison and jail cases, especially by defendants, is a summary judgment motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56. If you lose a summary judgment motion brought by the defendant, you have lost your case (unless you can get the summary judgment ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 7
According to a report in the Columbus Dispatch, overtime pay for Ohio state employees is expected to reach an all-time high of $72 million in 1997. Among the 68 Ohio state agencies, employees of the state's burgeoning prison system account for $23.7 million, about a third of the total.
A ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 7
Leon County, Florida, sheriff Larry Campbell beamed with pride as he watched one of his campaign promises come true. Fourteen zebra-striped prisoners filed onto a bus waiting to take them to their first day of forced labor clearing brush along county roads. Campbell was especially proud of the lurid black ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 8
The New Mexico state DOC contends that Corrections Corporation of America has overcharged the state by nearly $2 million since the CCA-operated Women's Correctional Facility at Grants N.M. opened some eight years ago. State officials also say that CCA is not living up to a deal struck in the 1997 ...
By John Emry
Graylon Bell was placed in the Plainfield Correctional Facility operated by the Indiana Department of Correction in January of 1994. Shortly after, another prisoner, Grady Vaxter, started hitting on Bell hinting Vaxter was interested in Bell and wanting Bell to cooperate. Bell did what he could to ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 9
The court of appeals for the seventh circuit held that the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), Public Law No. 104-132, which amended the federal habeas corpus statutes, applies to habeas petitions challenging prison disciplinary hearings. The court also held Indiana prisoners have a state created liberty interest in ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 9
Wall Street recently celebrated an initial public offering (IPO) and welcomed the addition of a spanking new growth-oriented corporation: CCA Prison Realty Trust.
This Nashville-based corporation is a spin-off of the world's largest private prison corporation -- another Wall Street darling, Corrections Corporation of America -- whose stock is one ...
By Julia Lutsky
Brutality by guards lay behind a major uprising at the Mohawk Correctional Facility in upstate New York in July 1997. Josea Benefield, a 22 year-old African-American prisoner in solitary confinement was reported to have hung himself with a bed sheet on Thursday, July 17. He had been ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 11
The U.S. adult population increased 19 percent from 1980-95 (from 163.5 million to 194 million), while the U.S. adult prison population increased 237 percent during the same period (from 319,598 to 1,078,545).
According to Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) figures, "drug offenders" constituted 26 percent of all state and federal ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 11
On July 31, 1997, New Jersey state prisons were locked down after a guard was fatally stabbed and angry union leaders told guards for the next shift not to report for work unless the state agreed to purchase body armor vests.
Bayside State Prison guard Fred Baker, 35, was stabbed ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 12
The court of appeals for the second circuit held that the imposition of a mandatory surcharge against prisoners found guilty of certain rule violations did not violate due process, that the failure to provide a hardship waiver for indigents did not violate equal protection, and that the surcharge satisfied a ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 12
In a 1997 Utah state budget bill, the legislature directed that an "inmate construction and building maintenance" program be developed.
"The purpose of this program should be to expand inmate employment in construction-related fields in order to provide training for the inmate and a cost savings to the state," according ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 13
A federal district court in New York reaffirmed its earlier decision holding that a condition of probation requiring an atheist to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment. A nominal damage award of $1 was reinstated.
This case was initially reported in the July 1995 ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 13
A new 59-nation study by The Sentencing Project reveals that Russia and the United States have reached record levels of incarceration and are far ahead of other nations in their use of imprisonment.
The study also found that a 92% increase in the U.S. rate of incarceration had little overall ...
By James Quigley
The court of appeals for the eleventh circuit held that the provisions of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) apply to cases pending prior to its enactment; that the filing fee requirements of the Act do not violate equal protection; and to the extent that the filing ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 15
The court of appeals for the fifth circuit held that prisoners denied In Forma Pauperis (IFP) status in the district courts and whose lawsuit is dismissed as frivolous under 28 U.S.C. § 1915 can appeal that ruling. The court also backed away from recent rulings it had made holding that ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 16
In the May, 1996, issue of PLN we reported Crowder v. Kelly, 928 F. Supp. 2 (D DC 1996) where the district court granted a preliminary injunction ordering District of Columbia prison officials to place the prisoner plaintiffs in non smoking living quarters and to enforce its no smoking policy. ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 17
In the April '97 issue of PLN we reported "Ohio Jail Construction Corruption?" about questionable contract provisions and cost overruns by a construction firm owned by Ohio governor George Voinovich's brother. That article was about the firm's $9 million renovation of the Franklin county jail.
The construction company, the V ...
By Paul Wright
The court of appeals for the eighth circuit held that a prisoner's demotion from administrative to punitive segregation did not implicate any federal due process liberty interest. We would not normally report this case because it involves no new or novel legal concepts, what makes this case ...
By Julia Lutsky
GAO Reports Available
Federal and State Prisons: "Inmate Populations, Costs and Projection Models," November 1996, GAO/GGD-97-15
Private and Public Prisons: "Studies Comparing Operational Costs and/or Quality of Service," August 1996, GAO/GGD-96-158
Reflecting both the relatively recent "get tough on crime" and the age-old theme of corporate profit ...
Federal and State Prisons: "Inmate Populations, Costs and Projection Models," November 1996, GAO/GGD-97-15
Private and Public Prisons: "Studies Comparing Operational Costs and/or Quality of Service," August 1996, GAO/GGD-96-158
Reflecting both the relatively recent "get tough on crime" and the age-old theme of corporate profit there are two new GAO reports, ...
Research Review: "Use of Force Policies and Training Recommendations: Based on the Medical Implications of Oleoresin Capsicum," by Darrell Ross, PPCT Director of Research.
Oleoresin Capsicum (OC; pepper spray) is now widely used by police departments throughout the country for the control of "resistant individuals." Spicy oils have been used ...
Angela Thompson, a 17-year-old with no prison record participated in a single sale of 2 oz and 33 grains of crack cocaine to an undercover officer for which she received a 15-year-to-life sentence.
Cruel and Usual : "Disproportionate Sentences for New York Drug Offenders," A Human Rights Watch Report, March ...
It is really like this dirty little secret that everyone in corrections knows about and doesn't want to talk about. It is a huge problem." The words are those of Brenda Smith, senior counsel of the National Women's Law Center quoted in the December 1996 Human Rights Watch report, All ...
By James Quigley
The court of appeals for the fourth circuit, sitting en banc, held that there is no constitutional violation when unarmed prison guards fail to immediately intervene to protect a prisoner from assault by an armed prisoner; that the failure of prison officials to immediately confiscate the alcoholic ...
By Danny Arledge
The Montana state supreme court held that state law creates a liberty interest for prisoners accused of misconduct in prison classification hearings. Daniel Orozco, a prisoner at the Montana State Prison, was accused of conspiring to traffic in drugs. He was given a "Due Process Notification" and ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 21
In an unpublished ruling, the court of appeals for the ninth circuit held prison officials were not entitled to qualified immunity for intentionally withholding a prisoner's video taped court transcript. Robert Wrinkle a Washington state prisoner at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center, sought to submit a pro se brief to ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 22
A federal district court in the Virgin Islands made specific factual findings under the terms of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) holding that prison and jail conditions on the island were unconstitutional and required federal court intervention to resolve via enforcement of an existing consent decree. While many observers, ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 23
The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) plans to build a 2,000-bed prison in California's Mojave Desert -- on speculation. CCA President David L. Meyers said his private prison corporation has no guarantee the California Department of Corrections (CDC) will send prisoners the proposed facility, nor has CCA yet held any ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 23
Reputed Mafia mobsters reportedly turned Brooklyn's Federal Metropolitan Detention Center (M.D.C.) into a cozy social club -- with the help of corrupt guards. Detainees hosted visiting business associates and dined in high style with smuggled in meatballs, manicotti and chicken cutlets, washed down with vodka and wine, according to federal ...
By Dan Axtell
On June 20, 1997, over 5,000 prisoners in Lurigancho prison in Peru took over the prison during the course of a riot. According to Peruvian congressman Daniel Espichán Tumay, the riot was triggered by overcrowding, outcry over illegal transfers, and bad food. Espichán, president of the Congressional ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 25
The federal district court for the western district of Washington has issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the state from retroactively applying the provision of Washington's Community Protection Act of 1990 calling for the "community notification" of recently released sex offenders.
The plaintiff, identified only as "John Doe," was recently released ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 25
The court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the criminal contempt conviction of District of Columbia official Sylvia Young. Young was convicted after she harassed and retaliated against women DOC employees who had filed suit claiming that sexual harassment and retaliation against women employees was rampant throughout ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 26
Seventeen former detainees of the Sussex County (NJ) Jail settled a lawsuit alleging a pattern and practice of guard brutality, inadequate medical and psychiatric care, and inadequate legal access. As part of the settlement, the county agreed to pay $372,000; install video surveillance cameras throughout the jail, including in the ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 26
An Olympia, WA, man was jailed in mid-March 1997, for refusing to take his tuberculosis medicine. Kenneth Elkins, 44, was living homeless in Olympia after having been released from McNeil Island Corr. Ctr. in the summer of 1996.
In November, 1996, Elkins was diagnosed with infectious TB and the state ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 27
A federal jury in Bangor, Maine, awarded damages to 25-year-old Billy Williams for being beaten by two guards while imprisoned in Maine's Supermax prison in 1994. A seven-member jury deliberated for two and a half hours before deciding to award $30,000 in punitive damages. They also awarded $1 in compensatory ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 27
The court of appeals for the ninth circuit held that when guards falsely accuse prisoners of misconduct in retaliation for the exercise of constitutional rights, the guard's accusation is not entitled to deference under the "some evidence" standard of review normally used in prison disciplinary decisions. The court also held ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 28
A federal district court in Illinois held a prison counselor could be found liable for denying a prison snitch protective custody when the informant was later attacked by his many enemies. Hubert Hill is an Illinois state prisoner who has informed on numerous prison gang members on many occasions over ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 28
In two separate rulings, federal district courts in Ohio and Michigan held that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 42 U.S.C. § 12131 and the Rehabilitation Act (RA), 29 U.S.C. § 794, apply to county jails.
Leonard Raufman was imprisoned in the Kalamazoo county jail on a parole violation warrant, ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 29
Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor and state Prison Commissioner Joe Hopper went into federal courts across the state July 2, 1997, moving (under provisions of the PLRA) to dissolve consent decrees governing conditions at three state prisons and 14 county jails. This action was accompanied by an orchestrated campaign of ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 29
The court of appeals for the sixth circuit held that a prison investigator's report indicating a prisoner was at risk of attack was sufficient to establish eighth amendment liability on the part of supervisory prison officials, if they read it. The court also held that a prison warden's efforts to ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1997, page 30
AK: In October, 1997, Alaska state police announced they were searching for Virginia parolee Wil Adams, AKA Skip Adams Taylor, on felony gun charges. Adams served 16 years in Virginia prisons for murdering a young woman. Paroled in 1995 Adams moved to Barrow and was hired as a clerk in ...
