News in Brief by Arizona: In January 2021, two women who worked at an Arizona state prison operated by Florida-based GEO Group pleaded guilty to having sex with inmates there. Melony Petrovffsky, 50, ran the commissary for the private contractor at a prison in Golden Valley, where she was allegedly …
ICE Detention Facility Deaths Now Highest Since 2005 by Kevin Bliss by Kevin Bliss The number of people who died in federal Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) detention centers during its fiscal year that ended September 30, 2020 — 21 in all — was more than double the previous years’s …
News in Brief by Afghanistan: As fighting continued between Taliban forces and the Afghan military on September 3, 3020, both parties announced they had nearly completed a prisoner exchange negotiated the previous February. According to a report by Japan’s public broadcasting company, HNK, the Taliban said all 1,000 Afghan prisoners …
Federal Judge in Georgia Grants Class Action Status to Prisoners’ Suit Against Global Tel*Link by Monday, November 30, 2020, was a big day for a group of Georgia prisoners suing their phone service provider, Global Tel*Link (GTL), over the company’s allegedly hidden policy of confiscating any unused funds in their …
Global Tel*Link Hit with Sanctions For Discovery Violations in Georgia Prison Call Class Action by Derek Gilna by Derek Gilna Global Tel*Link (GTL) has long been one of the principal beneficiaries of the $1 billion prisoner call industry, through a combination of astute business practices, intense lobbying, and a business …
News in Brief by Alabama: On August 21, 2020, Sylvester Hartley became the seventh prisoner to die of complications from COVID-19 at Alabama’s St. Clair Correctional Facility, according to a report in the St. Clair News-Aegis. The 60-year-old, who was serving a life-without-parole sentence for three counts of first-degree kidnapping, …
Georgia Prisoners Lacked Food, Water, Leading to Melee by Jayson Hawkins by Jayson Hawkins A violent disturbance was reported inside Georgia’s Ware State Prison in early August 2020. A prisoner reporting from inside the prison on an illegal cellphone cited health issues, three meals a day consisting only of cheese …
Transgender Georgia Prisoner Files Second Lawsuit Over Lack of Treatment, Sexual Assaults, After Winning $250,000 Settlement for Same Issues by On November 23, 2020, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) helped Ashley Diamond, a Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) prisoner who is transgender, file …
Jones v. Hill, GA, Order, COVID-19, 2020 Case 1:20-cv-02791-JPB-CCB Document 130 Filed 12/29/20 Page 1 of 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA ATLANTA DIVISION RHONDA JONES, et al., Plaintiffs, v. VICTOR HILL, in his official capacity as Sheriff of Clayton County, Georgia, et al., CIVIL ACTION NO. …
Oldaker v. Giles, GA, Class Action Complaint, Sexual Assault, 2020 Case 7:20-cv-00224-WLS-MSH Document 54 Filed 12/21/20 Page 1 of 160 David N. Dreyer GA Bar No. 411322 Dreyer Sterling, LLC 437 Memorial Dr., SE, Ste. A-2 Atlanta, GA 30312 Tel: (404) 234-4447 david@dreyersterling.com Sirine Shebaya (pro hac vice application forthcoming) …
Blasingame v. Grubbs, GA, Complaint, Excessive Force, 2020 Case 1:19-cv-02047-SCJ Document 52 Filed 12/17/20 Page 1 of 9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA JERRY BLASINGAME, Plaintiff, Case No. 1:19-cv-02047 v. Hon. Steve C. Jones OFFICER J. GRUBBS, #6416; and CITY OF ATLANTA / ATLANTA POLICE DEPT., Defendants. …
News in Brief by Alabama: Chanting “not one more,” about 30 carloads of protesters from “Alabamians Who Care” caravanned to the governor’s mansion in Montgomery on August 1, 2020, protesting a plan by Gov. Kay Ivey (R) to build three new “mega-prisons.” According to a report by Montgomery TV station …
Whistleblower Claims Female Detainees at Privately Run Georgia ICE Facility Had Forced Hysterectomies by Dale Chappell by Dale Chappell A whistleblower at a privately operated federal detention center in Georgia prompted a joint complaint filed in September 2020 with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of …
Githieya v. Global Tel Link, GA, order, breach of contract and unjust enrichment, 2020 Case 1:15-cv-00986-AT Document 276 Filed 11/30/20 Page 1 of 31 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA ATLANTA DIVISION BENSON GITHIEYA, et al., Plaintiffs, v. GLOBAL TEL*LINK CORPORATION, Defendant. : : …
News in Brief by Alabama: The Birmingham News reported that an Alabama prison guard had been arrested for drug trafficking after a search of his vehicle when he arrived for work at the St. Clair County prison turned up 138 grams of methamphetamine and 16 grams of heroin. Ivan Caldwell, …
$420,000 Settlement in Lawsuit Over Opioid Withdrawal Death in Georgia Jail by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke Wilkinson County, Georgia, agreed on January 2, 2020 to pay $420,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the son and estate of a woman who died five years earlier of apparent prescription opioid …
News in Brief by Alabama: In February 2020, a grand jury in Limestone County, Alabama, returned an indictment for “possession/receipt of a controlled substance” against Travis Wales, a former guard at the Limestone County Correctional Facility in Harvest. According to Columbus, Georgia, TV station WBRL, Wales was arrested in September …
News in Brief by California:In June 2020, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) commuted 21 state prisoners’ sentences, a dozen of them were for murder convictions, patch.com reported. Seven were committed when the prisoner was 22 or younger. Half of the prisoners are now 59 or older. One commutation went to …
$550,000 Settlement in Georgia Prisoner’s Starvation Death by David Reutter by David M. Reutter A $550,000 settlement was reached in a civil rights lawsuit alleging 19-year-old Jimmy Lucero laid in a catatonic state at Augusta State Medical Prison (ASMP) as he starved to death with little to no medical care …
Jones v. Ward, GA, Complaint, Retaliation, 2020 Case 5:20-cv-00336-CAR-MSH Document 1 Filed 08/24/20 Page 1 of 6 IN THE UNITED STAT ES DISTR ICT COUR T FOR THE MIDD LE DISTR ICT OF GEOR GIA J\\n<:&Q ·A\\$.-; co/ r i ,, t~ ~~1 " \.) DMS ION f.:- \..l QUES …
