Kansas Prisoners Entitled to Halfway House Credits by The Kansas court of appeals held that prisoners whose halfway house status is revoked are entitled to credit for the time spent in the facility, but are not entitled to credit for time spent on house arrest. Bradley Cordill, a Kansas state …
Kansas Prisoners Entitled to Notice of Prison Rules by The Kansas state court of appeals held that Kansas prisoners have a due process liberty interest in their good time credits and are entitled to notice of prison rules before they can be punished for violating them. Xuan Hiep Le is …
Prisons Promoting Tourism by Alex Friedmann As states spend an increasing amount of their budgets to expand their prison systems they increasingly seek ways to replenish impoverished state coffers. One major source of revenue is tourism, and some states are well-known for their tourist attractions -- such as Disneyworld and …
Failure to Protect Informant Claim Set for Trial by A federal district court in Kansas held that disputed facts required a trial to resolve whether prison officials were deliberately indifferent to a prisoner's safety. Mark Dowling is a prisoner informant in Lansing, Kansas. On August 11, 1994, Lt. Gordon Brown …
U.S. Liable for Loss of Prisoner's Property by Afederal district court in Kansas held that federal prisoners can properly seek damages for the negligent loss of their property by prison employees pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b), 2671, et seq. Warren Melvin, a federal …
KS S.Ct. Affirms Trust Account "Service Fee" by KS S.Ct. Affirms Trust Account "Service Fee" In two separate cases the Kansas supreme court affirmed a state DOC policy, KAR 44-5-115, which imposes a $1 monthly surcharge on prisoners for administering their prison trust accounts. A state district court held that …
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 …
Un-Happy Meal Provider Pulls Out of Kansas Prisons by In the March '97 Reader Mail section we printed a letter from a Kansas prisoner asking for information about a North Carolina corporation, Canteen Correctional Services, which had a contract to serve (un-happy) meals to (very un-happy) Kansas prisoners. An alert …
Kansas Ad Seg Hearing Required by The supreme court of Kansas held that a prisoner was entitled to a hearing to determine if three years in administrative segregation (ad seg) has become a prohibited punishment. Rodney Murphy, a Kansas state prisoner, was placed in ad seg in 1993 for investigation …
Canteen Corp. Info Wanted by Anthony Palacioz The Canteen Corporation of North Carolina has a five-year contract with Kansas to provide food services state-wide. After mere months in operation, Canteen Corp. has caused trouble by starving Kansas prisoners and serving shit for food. [See: "Un-Happy Meals in Kansas," PLN Vol.7 …
Kansas Prisoners Lose Welfare Fund Suit by A federal district court in Kansas held that state prisoners were not entitled to injunctive relief regarding how money from the Inmate Benefit Fund (IBF) was spent by the DOC. Kansas state prisoners filed a class action suit challenging how the Kansas DOC …
Right to Witnesses and Court Access Well Established by A federal district court in Kansas held prisoners had a well established rights in 1984 to call witnesses at disciplinary hearings and to be free from retaliation for exercising their right of access to the courts. Jerry Smith, a Kansas state …
Un-Happy Meals in Kansas by G.C. On May 19, 1996, the Kansas DOC turned over the kitchens of all the prisons to Canteen Correctional Services (CCS), a private for-profit contractor. It is worth noting that despite the contract to feed the prisoners, prisoner labor is still required, and the prisoner …
U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Kansas Civil Commitment Case by In 1990, the year PLN began publishing, the Washington State legislature passed the country's first civil commitment law. Dubbed the 'Sexual Predator Law," it empowered the state to institute civil proceedings against prisoners nearing the end of their terms of …
Military Prison Locked Down by On March 2, 1996, Pfc. Thomas Enochs, a prison guard, told a prisoner at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas not to wear a T-shirt on his head. The unidentified prisoner then assaulted Enochs, who set off a body alarm to summon other …
Sending State Responsible for Legal Materials by The ninth circuit has agreed with other circuits, holding that when a state prisoner is transferred to another state, the sender is responsible for ensuring the prisoners' access to the courts. James Boyd is a Kansas state prisoner who was transferred to the …
Kansas Ad-Seg Plan Clarified by In 1980 prisoners and prison officials in the Kansas state prison system entered into a consent decree designed to improve the living conditions of prisoners confined to administrative segregation (ad seg). In 1988 the case was reactivated when the prisoners sought the court's intervention claiming …
Habeas Doesn't Bar Section 1983 by Ronald Rhodes is a Kansas state prisoner. He was placed in segregation by prison officials claiming he was planning an outbreak of racially motivated violence in the prison mess hall. He was never given written notice of the grounds for placing him in segregation. …
No Right to TV Interviews by Walter Johnson is a Kansas state prisoner. The television news program Hard Copy sought to conduct a face-to-face interview with Johnson. Johnson had communicated with the program by phone and mail. After initially being denied access to the prison, Hard Copy reiterated its request …
Statement of Claim Must Rely Solely on Complaint by Scott Swoboda was a jail detainee in Doniphan County, Kansas. He filed suit under § 1983 over numerous conditions of confinement at the county jail. The district court dismissed the suit pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.12(b)(6), concluding that the lawsuit failed to state …
