Search | Prison Legal News

Prison May Not Open Identifiable Legal Mail Outside Prisoner's Presence

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Court Access, Legal Mail

Prison May Not Open Identifiable Legal Mail Outside Prisoner's Presence by The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California held that a prison's practice of opening legal mail that was not labeled in a specific manner, but otherwise readily identifiable as legal mail was unconstitutional. Policy at the …

Limits On Medical Malpractice Damages Violates Texas Constitution

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Nervous System, Malpractice, Civil Procedure, Damages

Limits On Medical Malpractice Damages Violates Texas Constitution by The Texas Supreme Court held that statutory limits placed on medical malpractice damages violated the Texas Constitution. Infant Christopher Lucas had a penicillin product injected directly into an artery; a blockage formed causing the blood-starvation of nerve cells. Christopher was permanently …

Mootness Exception Discussed in Law Library Access Case

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Transfers, Law Library Access/Adequacy, Civil Procedure, Mootness

Mootness Exception Discussed in Law Library Access Case by The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that where it is only possible that a prisoner may be returned to a prison that he was transferred from, it is speculative to state the issue in a lawsuit will repeat itself as …

Prisoner Has No Reasonable Expectation Of Privacy In Cell

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Searches, Cell Searches

Prisoner Has No Reasonable Expectation Of Privacy In Cell by The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the search of a prisoner's cell and dissemination of his mail did not violate the Fourth Amendment, but remanded to the district court his First Amendment claims. While a California state …

Jail's Access To Courts Program, Visitation Policies Unconstitutional

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Court Access, Law Library Access/Adequacy

Jail's Access To Courts Program, Visitation Policies Unconstitutional by The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held, among other things, that the access to courts program and certain visitation policies of a Texas county jail were unconstitutional. In 1976, prisoners housed in McLennan County's "old jail" (built in the 1950's) …

Washington Supreme Court Requires Proof of Recent Overt Act in Sexually Violent Predator Case

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Mental Health, Civil Commitment

Washington Supreme Court Requires Proof of Recent Overt Act in Sexually Violent Predator Case by Washington Supreme Court Requires Proof of Recent Overt Act in Sexually Violent Predator Case The Washington Supreme Court held that when a prisoner has been released into the community after completing a sentence for a …

Holding Prisoner Beyond Release Date Violates Due Process

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Parole, Wrongful Imprisonment, Immunity/Liability, Qualified Immunity

Holding Prisoner Beyond Release Date Violates Due Process by A Louisiana Federal District Court has denied qualified immunity to officials of the Louisiana Department of Corrections (DOC), whose actions in calculating a prisoner's release date kept the prisoner past the date he should have been released. All parties were denied …

Second Circuit Partly Reinstates Prisoner's §1983 Claims

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Sexual Harassment, Staff-Prisoner Harassment, Retaliation for Filing Grievances, Administrative Exhaustion (PLRA)

Second Circuit Partly Reinstates Prisoner's §1983 Claims by Second Circuit Partly Reinstates Prisoner's §1983 Claims The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated parts of a New York prisoner's 42 U.S.C. §1983 claims against various staff in New York's Department of Correctional Services (DOCS). In so doing, the court reaffirmed …

Jail Employees Privacy Protection Suit Denied

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Excessive Force, Restraints, Civil Procedure, Disclosure of Records, Employee Litigation

Jail Employees Privacy Protection Suit Denied by by John E. Dannenberg King County, WA jail employees sued Arthur Wallenstein, Director of King County's jails, Jail Commander Michael Graber, the City of Seattle and King County for releasing the employees' names in a report describing their participation in restraining an unruly …

Florida: Prisoner Raped In County Jail Awarded $65,950

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Classification, Prisoner-Prisoner Assault, Damages, Municipal Liability, Sovereign Immunity

Florida: Prisoner Raped In County Jail Awarded $65,950 by In this case published by the Florida Jury Verdict Reporter in April 1990, the plaintiff, a prisoner who was raped by another prisoner, was awarded $65,950. On November 23, 1987, while imprisoned in the medium-security section of the Pinellas County (Florida) …

Florida: County Prisoner Slipped On Wet Floor, Awarded $6,000

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Work Release, Immunity/Liability, Premises Liability

Florida: County Prisoner Slipped On Wet Floor, Awarded $6,000 by On August 18, 1994, a former prisoner in Florida's Escambia County Jail was awarded $6,000 for injuries she sustained when she slipped and fell on the wet floor in a holding area. Plaintiff, Sandra James, a prisoner in the jail's …

Ohio: Wrongfully Convicted Man Awarded $641,858 Against Attorney

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Attorneys, Attorney Misconduct, Malpractice (Attorneys), Wrongful Conviction

Ohio: Wrongfully Convicted Man Awarded $641,858 Against Attorney by On August 22, 2002, an Ohio jury awarded a man who spent four years in prison $641,858 against the attorney who represented him in his criminal trial. Plaintiff Michael Javorina had been charged with, among other things, attempted murder and felonious …

New York: Nassau County Settles With Assaulted Prisoner For $98,500

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Medical, Skeletal Injury, Failure to Protect (General)

New York: Nassau County Settles With Assaulted Prisoner For $98,500 by On February 27, 2001, Nassau County, New York, settled with a former prisoner who had been assaulted by another prisoner for $98,500. While imprisoned in the Nassau County Correctional Facility on a 90-day sentence for DUI, plaintiff Darrin Rydberg …

New York: State Liable For Damages In Prisoner's Fall

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Conditions of Confinement, Showers, Premises Liability

New York: State Liable For Damages In Prisoner's Fall by On June 6, 2003, the Court of Claims, Rochester, held that the State of New York was liable for injuries a prisoner sustained when he slipped and fell in water that leaked onto his cell floor from the shower. Gary …

New York: State Liable In Prisoner Assault, Prisoner Awarded $250

Article • May 15, 2007

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

New York: State Liable In Prisoner Assault, Prisoner Awarded $250 by On July 2, 2003, the Court of Claims, Rochester, held that the State of New York was liable in a prisoner assault and awarded the prisoner $250. Anatolis Fominas, a prisoner at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New …

New York State Prisoner Awarded $1,000 For Work Related Knife Injury

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Work, Prison Labor, Workplace Injury, Work Conditions/Safety, Injury -- Misc.

New York State Prisoner Awarded $1,000 For Work Related Knife Injury by On June 26, 2002, a state court of claims awarded New York state prisoner Jose Santiago $1,000 for a knife injury he sustained while working in the prison butcher shop. The injury required two stitches. While working in …

California: Parents Of Man Who Died In Custody Awarded $2,000,000

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Excessive Force, Restraints, Police, Excessive Force (Police)

California: Parents Of Man Who Died In Custody Awarded $2,000,000 by On June 17, 2002 the divorced parents of a man who died while being restrained by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies were awarded a gross verdict of $2,000,000, reduced. by 35% based on the jury's finding of decedent's comparative …

California-Based Prison Supplier Awarded $2,250,000 For Fraud, Unfair Competition

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Royalties, Intellectual Property (Immunity/Liability), Mental Health, Suicides

California-Based Prison Supplier Awarded $2,250,000 For Fraud, Unfair Competition by California-Based Prison Supplier Awarded $2,250,000 For Fraud, Unfair Competition On April 30, 2002, a federal jury in San Jose, California, awarded Ferguson Safety Products (FSP)--a small Santa Cruz based manufacturer of jail and prison supplies--$2,250,000 against Defendant Bob Barker Company …

Texas: Sexually Assaulted Boot Camp Prisoners Awarded $2,800,000 Against CSC

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Staff-Prisoner Assault, Correctional Services Corp., Staff-Prisoner Harassment, Boot Camps, Immunity/Liability, Supervisory Liability

Texas: Sexually Assaulted Boot Camp Prisoners Awarded $2,800,000 Against CSC by On December 12, 2001 three former female prisoners who claimed they were sexually assaulted while imprisoned in a privately operated boot camp in Mansfield, Texas were awarded a total of $2,800,000 against the camp's operator. Plaintiffs, Keri Echols Chattha, …

California Lifer Parole Rescission Upheld On One of Five Grounds Alleged

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Sentencing, Parole, Habeas Corpus

California Lifer Parole Rescission Upheld On One of Five Grounds Alleged by The California Court of Appeal held that one of the five causes charged by the Board of Prison Terms (parole board) to rescind a life prisoner's unexecuted grant of parole was properly determined by the Board, and thus …