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Human Rights Watch Condemns Indiana Control Units by Daniel Burton-Rose In October, 1997 the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) released Cold Storage: Super-Maximum Security Confinement in Indiana , a report on the Maximum Control Facility at Westville and the Secured Housing Unit at the Wabash Valley Correctional …
Article • June 15, 1998 • from PLN June, 1998
California Prison Psychologist Kills Child, Self by Tracy Lynn Johnson, 33, worked as a prison psychologist at the California Medical Facility (CMF, Vacaville) until she went on "stress leave" on September 5, 1997. [CMF, Vacaville is at the center of a long-running class action suit over inadequate mental health care]. …
New Jersey Mental Health Class Action Gains Momentum by Steve Vaccaro Afederal district court in New Jersey has upheld the claims of a statewide class of mentally ill prisoners against defendants' motions to dismiss and for summary judgment. The defendants are: officials of the New Jersey Department of Corrections; Correctional …
Article • May 15, 1998 • from PLN May, 1998
Deliberate Indifference Applies to Detainees by The court of appeals for the tenth circuit held that county jail officials have a constitutional duty to protect the health and wellbeing of prisoners in their custody. The appropriate standard of liability under these circumstances is deliberate indifference, not objective reasonableness. Under the …
No Immunity in Jail Suicide for Medical Contractor by Afederal district court in Florida held that genuine issues of fact existed as to whether a jail psychologist and the private corporation that employed him had acted with deliberate indifference to a pretrial detainee's health needs, obviating summary judgment on the …
Article • April 15, 1998 • from PLN April, 1998
$9,500 Award for Involuntary Psychotropic Drugging Affirmed by $9,500 Award for Involuntary Psychotropic Drugging Affirmed The court of appeals for the eighth circuit affirmed an award of $9,500 in damages to an Arkansas state prisoner who was forcibly drugged with anti-psychotic medications without due process. The court also held that …
BOP Sentence Reductions Cannot Be Denied Based Upon Firearm Enhancements by The court of appeals for the third circuit held that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) cannot use a firearm enhancement under the Sentencing Guidelines, by itself, as the basis for declaring a prisoner ineligible for a statutorily authorized …
BOP Exceeds Statutory Authority in Denying Sentence Reduction by Afederal district court in the District of Columbia held that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had exceeded its statutory authority by defining "violent" offenses to preclude a sentence reduction for convictions the courts have consistently defined as "non-violent." In 1994 congress …
Health Care Contractor Subject to Monell Liability by The court of appeals for the eleventh circuit held that private companies performing traditional government functions are liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 but enjoy the protection of Monell v. Dept. Of Social Services of New York , 436 U.S. 658, 98 …
Spanish Speaking Prisoners Entitled to Interpreters by In a wide ranging and extensive ruling a federal court in the District of Columbia held that by failing to provide interpreters to non English speaking Hispanic prisoners the DOC violated the plaintiffs' eighth and fourteenth amendment rights. As the first published ruling …
VI Decree Modification Denied Under PLRA, DOC Held in Contempt by 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 …
Article • December 15, 1997 • from PLN December, 1997
Supreme Court Rulings Trickle Down: Washington Civil Commitment by 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 …
Uprisings in New York State Prisons by Julia Lutsky 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 …
AA Still Violates the Establishment Clause by 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 …
Article • November 15, 1997 • from PLN November, 1997
BOP Sentence Reductions Cannot Be Denied Retroactively by The court of appeals for the ninth circuit held that a Bureau of Prisons (BOP) policy which created a new definition of "non-violent" offense could not be applied retroactively to deny a one-year sentence reduction to prisoners who had successfully completed a …
New York AA Program Violates Establishment Clause by The court of appeals of New York (the highest state court) held that the establishment clause of the U.S. constitution is violated when an atheist prisoner was deprived of family visits for refusing to participate in a religious oriented Alcohol and Substance …
Managed Care Infects Prison Health Services by by Adrian Lomax In September, 1996, Melody Bird complained to guards at Florida's Pinellas County Jail that she was experiencing severe chest pains and having trouble breathing. Nurses at the jail, finding no discernible blood pressure, concluded that Bird was suffering a heart …
Court Reduces Jury Award in Beating Suit by A federal district court in New York entered a jury verdict awarding compensatory and punitive damages to a prisoner beaten and tranquilized by guards, it then reduced the punitive damage award. Donovan Blissett, a New York state prisoner, filed suit claiming his …
Prisoner's Death Throws Utah DOC into Turmoil by On March 19, 1997, Michael Valent--a schizophrenic prisoner housed in the mental health wing of a Utah prison--died while confined in a "restraining chair." Valent was strapped into the device for 16 hours without a break, his arms and legs immobilized. Preliminary …
Article • August 15, 1997 • from PLN August, 1997
Supreme Court Upholds Kansas Civil Commitment Law by Dan Pens In a chilling 5-4 ruling, the U.S. supreme court reversed a Kansas supreme court which invalidated the Kansas Sexually Violent Predator Act after holding that the Act ("civil commitment" of "sexually violent predators" who suffer from a "mental abnormality" or …
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