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Tape Recorded Depositions' Intent: Cost Efficiency

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Civil Procedure, Discovery, Transcripts, Depositions

Tape Recorded Depositions' Intent: Cost Efficiency by A federal district court in Illinois has held that the intent of Fed.R.Civ.P. 30(b)(4) is to make a significant contribution to the efficient and economic administration of justice. The Court outlined several principles for promulgating guidelines to safeguard the non-stenographic record. First, allocation …

Tape Recorded Depositions Useful to Prisoners

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Civil Procedure, Depositions

Tape Recorded Depositions Useful to Prisoners by A federal district court in Washington has held that in addition to making the required two recordings of a witness's deposition, the requestor may make an additional unofficial recording for use as a work product. This procedure may be useful to pro se …

Telephonic Depositions Useful to Prisoners

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Civil Procedure, Witnesses, Depositions

Telephonic Depositions Useful to Prisoners by A federal district court in North Carolina has held that Fed.R.Civ.P. 30 (b)(7) should be liberally construed to allow a telephonic deposition of a witness. The plaintiff sought such a deposition because she was unable to afford the cost to do a face-to-face deposition …

Visitor has Right to Due Process Hearing Before Termination of Visit Privileges

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Disciplinary Hearings, Disciplinary Litigation, Body Cavity Searches

Visitor has Right to Due Process Hearing Before Termination of Visit Privileges by The Oregon Court of Appeals has held that a visitor, who had her privilege to visit her husband permanently revoked after he was found with a balloon full of marijuana in his rectum in a post visit …

Writ Deemed Filed When Handed to Prison Officials

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Disciplinary Litigation, Disciplinary Appeals, Limitations, Mandamus, Mail, Mail Regulations, Legal Mail

Writ Deemed Filed When Handed to Prison Officials by The Florida First District Court of Appeal has quashed a trial court's order dismissing as untimely a prisoner's petition for mandamus challenging a disciplinary hearing conviction. The prisoner's grievance denial was rendered on April 11, 1997, and the mandamus petition bore …

Injunction and Contempt Sanction Issued Against Disciplinary Proceedings Due Process Violations

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Disciplinary Litigation, Witnesses (Disciplinary Hearings), Civil Procedure, Injunctions, Contempt (Civil Procedure)

Injunction and Contempt Sanction Issued Against Disciplinary Proceedings Due Process Violations by Injunction and Contempt Sanction Issued Against Disciplinary Proceedings Due Process Violations In the review of a district court's enforcement of an injunction governing disciplinary proceedings at New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility (BHCF) for women, the Second Circuit …

Pre-Trial Detainees Must Pay Cost of Expert Testimony

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Nervous System, Civil Procedure, Costs, Expert Witnesses

Pre-Trial Detainees Must Pay Cost of Expert Testimony by The Third Circuit Court of Appeals held, in a medical neglect claim, an expert's medical testimony fees, except in criminal cases, will be paid by the pre-trial detainee. A pre-trial detainee at Pennsylvania Allegheny County Jail (County) suffering from ulna nerve …

Retaliatory Harassment and Transfer of Law Clerk Nets $2,100 Award

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Classification, Transfers, Retaliation for Litigating, Retaliatory Transfers, Prisoner Legal Assistance

Retaliatory Harassment and Transfer of Law Clerk Nets $2,100 Award by A federal district court in Tennessee, after a bench trial, held that the Warden at Tennessee State Prison (TSP) violated a prisoner's right to access to the courts for taking retaliatory action against the prisoner. After the prisoner helped …

Security Threat Must be Shown to Transfer NY Prisoner Elected as Representative

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Classification, Transfers

Security Threat Must be Shown to Transfer NY Prisoner Elected as Representative by The New York Supreme Court has held that under section 139 of the Correction Law a prisoner elected to be a prisoner representative on the Inmate Grievance Resolution Committee (IGRC) had a right to not being transferred …

State Prisoner Transfer To Federal Prison Constitutional

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Classification, Transfers

State Prisoner Transfer To Federal Prison Constitutional by The U.S. Supreme Court held that the transfer of a Vermont prisoner to a federal prison for security reasons was constitutional. Vermont, having no maximum security prison, opted to transfer a prisoner convicted of violent crimes to a federal prison under 18 …

WA Guard's Denial of Out-of-Cell Exercise to Prisoner for 105 Days States 8th Amendment Claim

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Exercise, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement

WA Guard's Denial of Out-of-Cell Exercise to Prisoner for 105 Days States 8th Amendment Claim by WA Guard's Denial of Out-of-Cell Exercise to Prisoner for 105 Days States 8th Amendment Claim John Headrick, a Washington state prisoner, sued the superintendent of the state penitentiary after guards in the segregation unit …

IL DOC is Not a Joint Public Employer

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Wexford Health Services, Private Contractors, Guards/Staff, Employee Litigation, Guard Unions

IL DOC is Not a Joint Public Employer by The Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) farms out its prisoner-medical-services to subcontractors such as Wexford Health Sources, Inc. (Wexford). During an unfair labor practices case before the State Labor Relations Board (Board), the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees …

Washington DOC Exonerated in Negligent Supervision Case

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Wrongful Death, Accidents, Murder by Parolees

Washington DOC Exonerated in Negligent Supervision Case by On April 11, 1998, Cynthia Bordon died in an auto accident caused by Richard Jones, a Washington State parolee, who was driving while intoxicated. Jones was on parole, in part, for attempting to elude police. He was not to drive without a …

Federal Probation Officers Can't Order Probationers to Drug Treatment

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Searches, Drug Testing, Parole

Federal Probation Officers Can't Order Probationers to Drug Treatment by Manuel Carrera, a federal prisoner in Puerto Rico, was sentenced to five years' supervised release after completing a 78-month prison sentence for drug sales. As a condition of his release, the district court directed Carrera's probation officer to set up …

TX Private Prison Guard Can't Sue Under § 1983 For Bogus Employment Termination

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Correctional Services Corp., Retaliation against Staff, Whistleblowing, Civil Procedure, Parties, Employee Litigation

TX Private Prison Guard Can't Sue Under § 1983 For Bogus Employment Termination by TX Private Prison Guard Can't Sue Under § 1983 For Bogus Employment Termination Harold Cornish was employed as a guard at a Texas private prison owned and operated by Correctional Services Corp. (CSC). He blew the …

Arkansas Jailers Not Responsible for Prisoner's Beating

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Classification, Failure to Protect (General), Overcrowding, Staffing

Arkansas Jailers Not Responsible for Prisoner's Beating by Scott Crow, a state prisoner in Arkansas' Faulkner County Detention Center (jail), had his jaw broken by a prisoner in his cell during a fight. He sued several jail administrators under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in federal district court. Although the defendants …

OH DORC Liable for Property Damage Done by Prisoners

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Prisoner Property, Immunity/Liability, Contractor Liability, Sovereign Immunity

OH DORC Liable for Property Damage Done by Prisoners by K. Michael Deem Investment Corp., Inc. (Deem Inc.), an Ohio corporation, allowed the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DORC) to operate a pallet-restoration industry on its property. While working there, prisoners damaged a cinder block wall, a dumpster and …

BOP Must Disclose Part of Investigation Manual

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Civil Procedure, Disclosure of Records, Freedom of Information Act, Guard Unions

BOP Must Disclose Part of Investigation Manual by The federal prison at Forrest City, Arkansas (prison) suspended for one day an employee represented by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). The AFGE requested that the prison produce a copy of its Special Investigative Supervisor Manual (manual), which the prison …

IL Prisoner Fails to Show Unreasonable Application of Federal Law on Habeas Review

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Sentencing, Parole, Habeas Corpus

IL Prisoner Fails to Show Unreasonable Application of Federal Law on Habeas Review by IL Prisoner Fails to Show Unreasonable Application of Federal Law on Habeas Review Andrew Lockhart, an Illinois state prisoner, pled guilty to murder. He received a 35-year prison sentence and 3 years' mandatory supervision release (MSR). …

OH Prisoner Wins $50 in Personal Injury Suit

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Conditions of Confinement, Failure to Protect (General)

OH Prisoner Wins $50 in Personal Injury Suit by Earl Starks was an Ohio state prisoner at the Toledo Correctional Camp. In the early morning hours of January 1, 2004, a riot broke out in Starks' dorm. Guards refused his request to leave the dorm, after which he was hit …