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Article • June 15, 1998 • from PLN June, 1998
Filed under: Sentencing, Parole
Colorado Prisoners Passing Up Parole by More than 2,500 Colorado state prisoners opted to stay in prison rather than ask for parole during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1997. More than 20 percent of those who waived parole hearings were close to ending their full sentence, usually within six …
Article • June 15, 1998 • from PLN June, 1998
Filed under: Sentencing, Good Time
Washington Good Time Cap Clarified by AWashington state court of appeals held that prisoners convicted of violent class B felonies were entitled to a one third good time sentence reduction and not the fifteen percent reduction calculated by the Washington DOC. Craig Mahrle was convicted of solicitation to commit second …
No Ex Post Facto Violation in Permanent Loss of Forfeited Good Time by The court of appeals for the fifth circuit held that a Texas Board of Criminal Justice (TBCJ) directive forbidding prison officials from restoring good time credits previously lost did not violate the ex post facto clause. Since …
Louisiana DOC Defiance Rule Unconsitutional by The court of appeals for the fifth circuit held that the Louisiana DOC rule prohibiting "defiance" was facially invalid to the extent that it proscribes prisoners from threatening prison employees "with legal redress during a confrontation situation." The court also held that habeas corpus …
Article • May 15, 1998 • from PLN May, 1998
Florida Finally Learns the Meaning of Ex Post Facto by In a one paragraph memorandum opinion the Supreme Court of Florida held that the retroactive cancellation of provisional credits, previously awarded pursuant to statute, violates the ex post facto restrictions of the state and federal constitutions. As a result of …
Article • May 15, 1998 • from PLN May, 1998
Filed under: Organizing, Work Strikes, Parole
Work Strike Suppressed and Sabotaged in Ohio by Daniel Burton-Rose The October 16th, 1997, issue of the Cleveland black community newspaper The Call and Post printed a letter announcing a statewide work strike by Ohio prisoners on November 1st. The letter was signed by Prisoners United For Equal Justice. The …
Article • April 15, 1998 • from PLN April, 1998
MA and WA Parole Suits Not Cognizable Under § 1983 by The first and ninth circuit courts of appeal have applied Edwards v. Balisok , 117 S.Ct. 1584 (1997)[ PLN , July, 1997] to bar section 1983 actions challenging decisions by state parole boards, holding the § 1983 claims are …
Heck Applied to Segregation Claims by The court of appeals for the seventh circuit held that a prisoner's claim that his due process rights were violated at a prison disciplinary hearing was not cognizable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and had to be brought as a habeas corpus challenge, even …
Community Notification Upheld by Three Circuits by In the December, 1997, PLN we reported Doe v. Gregoire , 960 F. Supp. 1478 (WD WASH. 1997), wherein a district court ruled that Washington's "community notification" statute violates the ex post facto clause insofar as releasing information to the public regarding sex …
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 …
Evidence Must Support Disciplinary Ruling by Afederal district court in Indiana granted an Indiana state prisoner's petition for habeas corpus, finding that no evidence supported a disciplinary committee's "guilty" finding of possessing intoxicants. Timothy Hayes was infracted for possessing intoxicants after a guard found a bottle of an "orange substance" …
Article • March 15, 1998 • from PLN March, 1998
Filed under: Reviews, Sentencing
Doing Life: Reflections of Men and Women Serving Life Sentences. Portraits and Interviews by Dan Pens by Howard Zehr Book Review by Dan Pens What does it mean to face a life prison sentence? That question holds a unique meaning in Pennsylvania, where more than 3,000 men and women are …
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 …
Article • March 15, 1998 • from PLN March, 1998
Sixth Circuit Discusses Habeas IFP by The court of appeals for the sixth circuit has outlined the procedures habeas corpus petitioners seeking In Forma Pauperis (IFP) status must follow. Every circuit to consider this issue has held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act's (PLRA) filing fee provisions do not apply …
Article • March 15, 1998 • from PLN March, 1998
BJS Reports on Sentencing and Imprisonment by The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released two reports that may interest PLN readers: Prisoners in 1996 (NCJ 164619, June 1997) and Felony Sentences in the United States, 1994 (NCJ 165149, July 1997). The report on prisoners provides state-by-state (and federal) prison population …
Article • March 15, 1998 • from PLN March, 1998
Zain Fallout Continues by Fred Zain was a crime lab serologist, who tested evidence for the West Virginia state police from 1979 to 1989, and was chief of serology his last five years. During that time Zain falsified evidence and testified about the results of tests he never performed. In …
No Immunity for Florida Private Jail by The district court for the middle district of Florida held that the sheriff, the county and a private corporation operating the county jail were liable for detaining an arrestee for 30 days without a probable cause hearing. The court also held that monetary …
Article • February 15, 1998 • from PLN February, 1998
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 …
Article • February 15, 1998 • from PLN February, 1998
Damages Suit Stayed While Habeas Pursued in Disciplinary Hearing Challenge by As the courts grapple with the question of when prisoners can sue for money damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 when challenging disciplinary hearings that result in lost good time and when they must pursue habeas corpus remedies, the …
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