US Supreme Court Holds Media Ride-Alongs Unconstitutional by A unanimous United States Supreme Court held that police violate the Fourth amendment of the U.S. constitution when they allow members of the news media to ride along with them while executing search and arrest warrants. The court also held police were …
Prisoner Can Attend His Civil Trial at Government Expense by A federal district court in Maryland held that it would permit a federal prisoner, confined in Pennsylvania, to personally attend his three-day civil rights trial in Greenbelt, Maryland, at government expense. In separate incidents in 1993 and 1994, Anthony Hawks …
BOP Exceeds Statutory Authority in Denying Sentence Reductions 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 …
Open Society Institute Funds College Classes in Maryland Prisons by When the Clinton Crime Bill gutted federal Pell Grants for prisoners, some states' prison education programs were hit harder than others. Many states funded post-secondary education entirely with state money. Maryland prisoners, though, were the hardest hit. Virtually all of …
Maryland Indigent Court Cost Suit Settled by On July 1, 1997, U.S. district court judge Marvin Garbis approved the settlement of a class action suit involving the collection of previously waived indigent court costs. In 1991 the Maryland legislature enacted a Budget Reconciliation Act, 1991 Md. Laws, Ch. 3, § …
ADA Roundup by After the U.S. Supreme Court granted review in Yeskey v. Pennsylvania DOC to decide whether the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applied to state prisoners we stopped running articles on the ADA until the supreme court resolved this important question. Below are cases that were decided before …
Failure to Remove Sutures States Claim by A federal district court in Maryland held that a prisoner raised a genuine issue of material fact, requiring a trial, because prison doctors did not remove wire sutures from his abdomen. Nicholas Jones, a Maryland state prisoner, underwent hernia surgery. Afterwards, suture wires …
PLRA 'Strike' Removed by A federal district court in Maryland issued an order removing a PLRA "strike" against a prisoner litigant. The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) added section (g) to 28 U.S.C. § 1915. The new section states that whenever a prisoner has had three suits dismissed as frivolous …
Prison Visitor Allowed to Refuse Search by The court of appeals for the state of Maryland held that prison visitors cannot be searched once they agree to turn back from a guard booth; detention of a prison visitor requires probable cause based on a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the visitor …
Maryland Lifers Denied Parole by Rocky Hines In 1993, the Maryland DOC instituted a policy which denied all lifers a security status below medium. Those lifers who were then in minimum security facilities, pre-release, and work release were checked in and transferred to maximum and medium security prisons. This was …
Parole Change Violates Ex Post Facto Clause by In the July, 1995, issue of PLN we reported the supreme court's ruling in Morales v. California Department of Correction, 115 S.Ct. 1597 (1995) which held that legislatively extending the time in which a prisoner can appear before a parole board does …
Fourth Circuit Rules on IFP Statute, Again by In the July, 1995, issue of PLN we reported Nasim v. Warden, Maryland House of Correction, 42 F.3d 1472 (4th Cir. 1995) in which the fourth circuit court of appeals reversed a district court's dismissal of a prisoners' § 1983 suit as …
Maryland Medical Co-Pay Policy Upheld by In the November, 1995, issue of PLN we discussed case law and litigation strategy on challenging state laws requiring prisoners to pay for medical services. As more states pass such laws we foresee more litigation on the issue. A federal district court in Maryland …
4th Cir. Clarifies IFP Dismissal Standard by The court of appeals for the fourth circuit has limited the discretion of district courts to dismiss suits filed in forma pauperis (IFP) on grounds of frivolousness where the court believes the complaint is untimely. The court also discussed when a cause of …
Court Declines to Define "Frivolous" Suits by Anthony Brown is a Maryland state prisoner. After telling prison medical staff he had already been vaccinated, he was given another tuberculosis inoculation and broke out in a rash. Brown filed suit under §<%0> 1983 claiming that the vaccination violated his eighth amendment …
Lack of Shower/Bathroom Curtains Violate Privacy by Douglas Arey is a Maryland State prisoner. While at a recently built pre release center he complained that the lack of shower curtains and bathroom partitions, which allowed female guards to observe his genitals, violated his right to privacy. Prison officials took no …
The Black Political Voice by Gerald D Fuller by Gerald D. Fuller Maryland's disenfranchisement statute has its roots in the federal constitution. The state would have its citizens believe that Maryland's election laws which govern disenfranchisement are fair and impartial and are not discriminatory where blacks are concerned. It is …
Informal Brief Acts as Notice of Appeal by William Smith is a paraplegic Maryland state prisoner. He filed suit against various prison guards, doctors and officials claiming they were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs by denying him use of a wheelchair. Before trial the district court dismissed several …
Jailhouse Lawyers Win One by On January 14th the U.S. Supreme Court issued a modest victory for jailhouse lawyers and other poor litigants, ruling that a technical problem with filing a legal appeal does not necessarily void a court from considering the case. The court, in a unanimous ruling, said …
