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Challenge To Washington Felon Disenfranchisement Scheme Remanded For Racial Bias Test

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Racial Discrimination, Voting, Federal Statutory Law, Voting Rights Act

Challenge To Washington Felon Disenfranchisement Scheme Remanded For Racial Bias Test by John E Dannenberg by John E. Dannenberg The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that the broader "totality of the circumstances" standard must be used rather than just a narrower statistical burden when testing for racial bias …

Class Action Challenges Treatment of Florida's "Sexual Predator" Civil Detainees

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Private Prisons, Liberty Behavioral Health Corp., Americans with Disabilities Act, Sex Offender Treatment, Civil Commitment

Class Action Challenges Treatment of Florida's "Sexual Predator" Civil Detainees by David Reutter by David M. Reutter A federal class action has been filed in the Federal District Court in Ft. Myers by eight residents of the Florida Civil Commitment Center (FCCC), seeking to enforce their rights to mental health …

No Restraint, No Consequences: Privatizing Overseas Intelligence Extraction

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Staff-Prisoner Assault, Private Prisons, Titan Corp., Contractor Misconduct, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Stun Guns/Tasers, Restraints, Contractor Liability, Military Prisons

No Restraint, No Consequences: Privatizing Overseas Intelligence Extraction by by Matthew T. Clarke The Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based nonprofit legal center, helped Iraqi prisoners file a class-action lawsuit against private "interrogation services" contractors Titan Corporation and CACI International Incorporated alleging that Iraqi citizens being held without charges …

Gates of Injustice - The Crisis in America's Prisons

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Reviews, Crime/Demographics, Crime

Gates of Injustice - The Crisis in America's Prisons by Tom Murlowski by Alan Elsner, FT Prentice Hall, 256 pp., hardcover Review by Tom Murlowski "Alan Elsner's powerful book demonstrates that our $40 billion corrections system for both adults and juveniles is badly broken. Our jails and prisons and penitentiaries …

Wisconsin PLRA Fee-Limit Does Not Violate Equal Protection

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Disciplinary Hearings, Legality of Rules, Attorney Fees (PLRA), Costs, State Legislation

Wisconsin PLRA Fee-Limit Does Not Violate Equal Protection by The Wisconsin Court of Appeals held that the Wisconsin Prison Litigation Reform Act's (WPLRA) prohibition against the recovery of costs and fees by prevailing prisoners does not violate equal protection. Daniel Harr, a prisoner of Wisconsin's "Supermax prison successfully pursued a …

Alaska Prisoners Cannot Challenge Conditions of Confinement Under State Post-Conviction Relief Statute

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Disciplinary Hearings, Disciplinary Litigation, Habeas Corpus

Alaska Prisoners Cannot Challenge Conditions of Confinement Under State Post-Conviction Relief Statute by Roger Smith The Alaska court of appeals has dismissed a prisoner's suit challenging the conditions of his confinement in an Alaska prison under AS § 12.72.020(c), Alaska's post-conviction relief statute. This ruling came after the court found …

Ohio County Juvenile Facility Not Immune from Suit in Rape Claim

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Prisoner-Prisoner Assault, Immunity/Liability, Municipal Liability, Sovereign Immunity

Ohio County Juvenile Facility Not Immune from Suit in Rape Claim by The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a county juvenile detention center was not entitled to sovereign immunity. S.J., an Ohio juvenile, was referred to the Hillcrest Training Center (Hillcrest) which is a county juvenile facility created …

News in Brief

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: News, News in Brief

News in Brief by News in Brief: Alaska: On August 4, 2004, Charles Rubin, 41, the manager of the Cordova Center, a half way house in Anchorage which is operated by Cornell Corrections, a private, for profit prison company, was arrested in charges that he lured a 23 year old …

Texas Prison Guard's Sentence for Rape Reinstated

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Staff-Prisoner Assault, Guard Misconduct, Crime/Demographics, Criminal Prosecution

Texas Prison Guard's Sentence for Rape Reinstated by Texas Prison Guard's Sentence For Rape Reinstated The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has reinstated the sentence of a Texas prison guard who had impersonated a police officer, using a fake badge to coerce women into sex acts. Charles Melvin Page, a …

Study Shows Boot Camps Are a Failure

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Reviews, Statistics/Trends, Conditions of Confinement, Boot Camps

Study Shows Boot Camps Are a Failure by Study Shows Boot Camps are a Failure A June 2003 study published by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), a division of the U.S. Department of Justice, shows that boot camps are failures in reducing recidivism and prison populations. In the late …

Wrongfully Convicted Pennsylvania Prisoner Settles for $2.3 Million; Forensics Expert Fired

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Police Misconduct, Prosecutor/Attorney General Misconduct, Crime Labs, Sentencing, Wrongful Conviction

Wrongfully Convicted Pennsylvania Prisoner Settles for $2.3 Million; Forensics Expert Fired by A wrongfully convicted ex-prisoner who spent 15-years in a Pennsylvania prison got modest compensation from the government that imprisoned him by winning a $2.3 million settlement in the lawsuits he filed. In Washington state, a forensic scientist was …

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Clarifies Law Crediting "Street Time"

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Sentencing, Ex Post Facto, Good Time, Parole

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Clarifies Law Crediting "Street Time" by by Matthew T. Clarke The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has recently clarified the meaning of the recent statute allowing the award of parole "street time" credits for prisoners convicted of non-violent crimes. Lucian Lee Spann and Andrew Michael …

Connecticut Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit for $2.9 Million

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Transfers, Medication, Excessive Force, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Restraints, Mental Health, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness)

Connecticut Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit for $2.9 Million by Michael Rigby Connecticut Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit For $2.9 Million by Michael Rigby On April 4, 2002, the State of Connecticut agreed to settle for $2.9 million a lawsuit arising from the wrongful death of Timothy Perry, a mentally ill man …

Ohio Prisoners Not Entitled to Memory Typewriters

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Court Access, Writing Implements, Mandamus, Prisoner Property

Ohio Prisoners Not Entitled to Memory Typewriters by The Ohio Supreme Court, affirming an appeals court decision, held that Ohio prisoners have no right to typewriters with more than one line of memory and that prison officials were justified in confiscating a prisoner's typewriter that had a five-page memory capacity, …

New York Prisoners Win Injury Awards, Lack of Expert Testimony Detrimental

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Disabled Prisoners, Injury -- Misc., Muscular, Clothing, Civil Procedure, Damages, Costs, Expert Witnesses, Premises Liability

New York Prisoners Win Injury Awards, Lack of Expert Testimony Detrimental by Michael Rigby New York Prisoners Win Injury Awards, Lack Of Expert Testimony Detrimental by Michael Rigby In two separate cases, New York courts of claims awarded $3,500 to prisoners pursuing pro se personal injury claims against the state. …

$600,000 Settlement in California Prisoner Shooting Death

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Guard Misconduct, Excessive Force, Shootings, Guard Unions

$600,000 Settlement in California Prisoner Shooting Death by Marvin Mentor $600,000 Settlement In California Prisoner Shooting Death by Marvin Mentor California Department of Corrections (CDC) officials settled a wrongful death complaint for $600,000 brought by the survivors of Octavio Orozco, a prisoner at Pleasant Valley State Prison (PVSP) in Coalinga, …

Prison Town Legislators Represent Prisoners' Interests? Not Quite

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Voting, Crime/Demographics, Census, State Legislation

Prison Town Legislators Represent Prisoners' Interests? Not Quite by Peter Wagner On June 7, 2004, talks between the New York State Senate and the Assembly on how to best reform the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws broke down. Publicly, the dispute is over ideological disagreements, but an obscure Census quirk that …

Texas Prisoner's Retaliation Claim Survives Summary Judgment

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Retaliation for Filing Grievances, Prison Labor, Guards/Staff, American Correctional Association

Texas Prisoner's Retaliation Claim Survives Summary Judgment by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth. Circuit reversed a district court's dismissal of a prisoner's complaint that prison officials retaliated against him for exercising his right to file a grievance. Robert Hart, 38, is a prisoner at the 2,800-man Albert …

Nevada Trust Account Interest, Less Accounting Costs, Belongs To Prisoners

Article • November 15, 2004 • from PLN November, 2004

Filed under: Money/Property, Seizure of Prisoner Funds

Nevada Trust Account Interest, Less Accounting Costs, Belongs To Prisoners by In two separate decisions, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals determined whether the Nevada Department of Prisons (NDOP) procedure of reallocating interest earned on prisoner trust accounts constituted an unconstitutional "taking" in violation of the Fifth Amendment or …

Ayala v City of New York Ny Prelim Statement Informant Misinformation Wrongful Raid 2004

Brief • November 15, 2004

Ayala v City of New York Ny Prelim Statement Informant Misinformation Wrongful Raid 2004 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK -------------------------------------------------------------------------------x ROSEMARY AYALA, JOSE AYALA, JR., ANTHONY AYALA, and JOSE AYALA III by his mother and natural guardian ROSEMARY AYALA, Plaintiffs, 04 CV 1102 (DC) -againstTHE CITY …