Weight Lifting Info Available on the Internet by Past issues of PLN have reported on the efforts to halt or curtail weight lifting in prison. Strength Tech, Inc., a supplier to the prison weight lifting industry, has created and dedicated an Internet web site to the issue of prison weight …
Death Row Prisoners Keep Right to Contact Visits with Counsel by The court of appeals for the tenth circuit has held that condemned and maximum security prisoners held in an Oklahoma control unit are entitled to contact visits with their attorneys. The court also held that all violations of prisoners' …
Detainees Entitled to Exercise and Law Library by Pretrial detainees, like convicted prisoners, retain a right of access to the courts and to outdoor exercise. Jim Housley was a pretrial detainee in the Custer County jail in Oklahoma. He filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claiming that his constitutional …
DA Liable for Preventing Court Appearance by Tobin Lemmons is an Oklahoma state prisoner. While in jail he filed a workers compensation complaint against his former employers with the aid of an attorney and law firm he hired for this purpose. On two occasions in 1991 the state judge before …
OK Prisoners Have Disciplinary Hearing Remedy by In the May, 1994, issue of PLN we reported Waldon v. Evans, 861 P.2d 311 (Okl. Cr. 1993) which held that Oklahoma state courts could hear prisoners challenges claiming due process violations in prison disciplinary hearings. In a new ruling, the Oklahoma Court …
OK Early Release Law Legal by In response to prison overcrowding, the Oklahoma state legislature has passed the Oklahoma Prison Overcrowding Emergency Powers Act, Oklahoma Statute 57, § 570-576. The act permits the prison system to release prisoners with less than medium custody convicted of lesser crimes in order to …
Transferee Entitled to Sending State Case Law by James Clayton is an Oklahoma state prisoner subjected to an involuntary out of state transfer to New Mexico. Clayton had several pro se legal matters pending in Oklahoma state courts at the time of his transfer. The New Mexico prison system did …
Amnesty Criticizes OK Control Unit by On June 14, 1994, Amnesty International (AI) released a report harshly criticizing the control unit at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary (OSP) at McAlester. An AI investigation team toured the prison's H. Unit in March, 1994, and found that some 350 prisoners are held 23 …
Prisoner Litigants Have Right to Out of State Citations by Rick Petrick is an Oklahoma state prisoner. The sentence he is serving in Oklahoma was enhanced as a result of prior convictions from Minnesota and North Dakota. While confined at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary (OSP) he sought to bring collateral …
OK State Courts Can Hear Prison Suits by Dennis Waldon is an Oklahoma state prisoner. He was infracted and punished in a prison disciplinary hearing resulting in the loss of one hundred days of good time credits. Waldon filed a writ of habeas corpus and/or mandamus in the Alfalfa County …
Death Row Prisoners Entitled to Limited Contact Attorney Visits by This case involves a class action suit filed by Oklahoma death row prisoners and prisoners in the control unit of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. The case provides a revealing look at the mentality driving the construction of control units. The …
Retaliatory Denial of Parole Actionable Under Section 1983 by Isa Shabazz is an Oklahoma state prisoner. He filed suit under § 1983 alleging that the Oklahoma parole board has a policy, practice and custom of denying parole to prisoners who choose to exercise their civil rights by suing prison officials. …
Temp Workers Come to Prison by The warden at the John Lilly Correctional Center in Boley, Oklahoma, has initiated a program of using temporary workers (he calls them "Temp Cops") to save money. The temp cops are off-duty policemen used to supplement the guard staff. The American labor movement has …
Damages Awarded in Beating Case by Rickke Greene is an Oklahoma state prisoner. While in a segregation unit Greene was scalded by another prisoner and received second degree burns. After not being treated at the prison infirmary he was returned to his cell, knocked to the floor, kicked and beaten …
Preliminary Injunction Issued Against Grooming Code by Three Oklahoma state prisoners filed suit challenging the Oklahoma DOC's policy of banning any facial hair or hair longer than 3 inches in length. The prisoners claimed their religious beliefs forbid the cutting of their hair. In two cases requests for preliminary injunctions …
Court Upholds Pulling of Bear Teeth by A native American inmate does not have a right to wear a sharp bear tooth necklace, even if it is religiously motivated, according to a federal appeals court. Kenneth Hall sued Oklahoma prison officials after they confiscated his necklace, arguing this violated his …
Dismissal of Religious Freedom Suit Reversed by Dismissal Of Religious Freedom Suit Reversed Robert McKinney is an Oklahoma state prisoner who was infracted for refusing to cut his hair and who was not allowed to practice his Native American religion. His religious beliefs forbid him from cutting his hair. McKinney …
Detainee's Beating is Cruel and Unusual by Detainee's Beating Is Cruel And Unusual Marcus Miller was a detainee in the Tulsa, OK, jail when he was ordered out of the jail law library. Miller refused and jail guards knocked him to the floor, handcuffed him and put him in a …
Oklahoma Must Provide Adequate Funds for Its Public Defenders by In a highly significant case the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that by failing to adequately fund it's appellate public defenders the Oklahoma State Legislature deprives prisoners of their right to due process and equal protection of law under …
Right to Practice Religious Beliefs by Right To Practice Religious Beliefs C.D. Mosier, an Oklahoma state prisoner, is a practitioner of Native American religious beliefs which prohibit him from cutting his hair. The Oklahoma DOC has a grooming code which requires that it's prisoners have short hair, however, exemptions can …
