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Unsentenced Convicted Prisoners Subjected to Sandin v. Conner

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Liberty Interests, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement

Unsentenced Convicted Prisoners Subjected to Sandin v. Conner by The Fifth Circuit court of appeals held that prisoners, who have been convicted, but not yet sentenced, are to be treated the same as sentenced prisoners with regards to their entitlement to due process under Sandin v. Conner. Terry D. Tilmon, …

Louisiana Sheriff Sues Parish For Revenue Generated From Jail Operation

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Civil Procedure, Standing, Mootness, Telephone Rates

Louisiana Sheriff Sues Parish For Revenue Generated From Jail Operation by Bob Williams By Bob Williams On December 1, 2004, the Louisiana Supreme Court held the Caddo Parish Sheriff's (Steve Prator) state court lawsuit against Caddo Parish was decided in error by the State appellate court. Prator alleged in his …

$50.00 Awarded in Due Process Violation

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Disciplinary Hearings, Witnesses (Disciplinary Hearings), Prompt Hearings

$50.00 Awarded in Due Process Violation by On March 31, 1993, two home-made knives were found in the crack of the wall of Louisiana prisoner Robert Odom's Angola Penitentiary cell. After being found guilty by a disciplinary board, Odom was placed in punitive lockdown. Despite being granted a rehearing to …

Retaliation Claims Must Be Based On Constitutional Rights

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Retaliation for Filing Grievances, Mail Regulations, Media, Censorship

Retaliation Claims Must Be Based On Constitutional Rights by Louisiana State Prisoner Darryl Crockett filed a complaint alleging improper censorship of outgoing mail and retaliation which was dismissed by the district court. Crockett appealed contending that his complaint was erroneously dismissed because he alleged facts in support of a direct …

Minor Injury Suit Against Police Dismissed

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Police, Excessive Force (Police)

Minor Injury Suit Against Police Dismissed by The plaintiff was forcibly arrested after an hour long stand off with the police, in which he variously threatened suicide and invited the police to kill him while pointing a gun at them. He complained of being beaten in the ambulance taking him …

Exposure to Smoke, Retaliatory Discipline and Dish Washing Claims Dismissed

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Prison Labor, Retaliatory Discipline, Conditions of Confinement, Smoking, Frivolous Litigation, Administrative Exhaustion

Exposure to Smoke, Retaliatory Discipline and Dish Washing Claims Dismissed by Complaints of "sporadic and fleeting" exposure to second hand smoke on bus rides were properly dismissed as frivolous absent "competent evidence that [the plaintiff's] intermittent exposure to smoke during bus rides was an unreasonable risk to his health." (498) …

9/11 Immigration Detainee Challenges Denial of Counsel, Religious Diet

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Sexual Harassment, Staff-Prisoner Harassment, Strip Searches, Arrestee Searches, Body Cavity Searches, Appointment of Counsel, Public Defenders, Attorney, Required Religious Programming, Religious Diet, Denial of Religious Services, Religious Practices

9/11 Immigration Detainee Challenges Denial of Counsel, Religious Diet by The plaintiff was arrested on September 12, 2001, on the belief that he was connected with the 9/11 hijackers, and transferred to a federal prison, where he was subjected to a visual body cavity search viewed by multiple male and …

Reflections on Katrina’s First Year: The Story of Chaos and Continuing Abuse in One of America’s Worst Justice Systems

Article • April 15, 2007 • from PLN April, 2007

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Guard Misconduct, Jail Misconduct, Government Misconduct, Failure to Protect (General), Overcrowding, Toilets, Sewage, Sanitation, Exposure to Heat, Public Defenders, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Pepper Spray/Tear Gas

Reflections on Katrina’s First Year: The Story of Chaos and Continuing Abuse in One of America’s Worst Justice Systems by Bob Williams Reflections on Katrina's First Year: The Story of Chaos and Continuing Abuse in One of America's Worst Justice Systems by Bob Williams As America reflected on Hurricane Katrina's …

High Ranking Louisiana Prison Official Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges

Article • February 15, 2007 • from PLN February, 2007

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, DOC/BOP misconduct, Prison Industries, Prison Labor, Criminal Prosecution

High Ranking Louisiana Prison Official Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges by Gary Hunter On June 29, 2006, Louisiana prison administrator James H. Leslie, 55, was formally indicted on federal charges of tampering with a witness. The indictment was returned on February 16, 2006 but remained sealed so as not to …

Louisiana Work-Release Prisoners Used by Sheriff in Chop Shop

Article • July 15, 2006 • from PLN July, 2006

Filed under: Classification, Work Release, Retaliation against Staff, Whistleblowing, Prison Labor, Criminal Prosecution

Louisiana Work-Release Prisoners Used by Sheriff in Chop Shop by Gary Hunter Louisiana sheriff Ronald Gun Ficklin faces 22 counts on charges of conspiracy, trafficking in motor vehicles with removed or altered vehicle identification numbers (VINs), removing or altering VINs, aiding and abetting the possession of a firearm by a …

Virginia Governor Warner Restores Felons' Voting Rights, Ignites Controversy

Article • December 15, 2005 • from PLN December, 2005

Filed under: Organizing, Voting

Virginia Governor Warner Restores Felons' Voting Rights, Ignites Controversy by by Matthew T. Clarke Then Virginia Governor Mark Warner restored the voting rights of 1,892 felons who had served their sentences, 1,110 of them in 2004. Opposition politicians have accused him of "rubber-stamping" the restoration process. Virginia is one of …

Louisiana's 2002 Exhaustion Requirement (Act 89) Not Retroactive

Article • December 15, 2005 • from PLN December, 2005

Filed under: Louisiana Correctional Services, Kidney, Civil Procedure, Administrative Exhaustion

Louisiana's 2002 Exhaustion Requirement (Act 89) Not Retroactive by The Louisiana Supreme Court held that retroactive application of a 2002 law, requiring exhaustion of administrative remedies by prisoners before bringing a state tort action, would unconstitutionally deprive prisoners of a vested right. Therefore, the court held that the law has …

Louisiana Prisoners Obscenity Conviction for Masturbation Vacated

Article • December 15, 2005 • from PLN December, 2005

Filed under: Crime/Demographics, Criminal Prosecution

Louisiana Prisoners Obscenity Conviction for Masturbation Vacated by The Louisiana Court of Appeals vacated a prisoner's obscenity conviction and sentence for masturbating in a public shower, within view of a female guard. Louisiana prisoner, Bobby Holmes, was charged with two counts of obscenity in violation of La.R.S. 14:106. The first …

Jail Policy Barring Abortion Without Court Order Upheld

Article • November 15, 2005 • from PLN November, 2005

Filed under: Medical, Abortion

Jail Policy Barring Abortion Without Court Order Upheld by The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Louisiana jail's policy prohibiting elective medical procedures, including abortions, without a court order. It also concluded that plaintiff failed to sufficiently show the requisite culpability and causation. When Victoria W. began serving a …

Louisiana Prison Writer Free After 44 Years

Article • August 15, 2005 • from PLN August, 2005

Filed under: Crime/Demographics, Criminal Prosecution, Wrongful Conviction, Wrongful Imprisonment, Death Penalty, Prisoner Media

Louisiana Prison Writer Free After 44 Years by Michael Rigby Award-winning prison journalist and civil rights figure Wilbert Rideau, once described as “the most rehabilitated prisoner in America,” is free after spending more than four decades behind bars. Ironically, Rideau’s freedom came not from being exonerated, but from being found …

Summary Judgment Reversed in Louisiana Jail Conditions Case

Article • July 15, 2005 • from PLN July, 2005

Filed under: Toilets, Sewage, Sanitation, Physical Injury Rule, Civil Procedure, Damages, Administrative Exhaustion

Summary Judgment Reversed in Louisiana Jail Conditions Case by by Robert H. Woodman The Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit, reversed summary judgment granted by the Twenty-Third Judicial District Court of Ascension Parish (Louisiana) to the Ascension Parish sheriff in a case involving conditions of confinement at the Ascension …

Louisiana Jail Settles Suicide Suit For $3 Million

Article • April 15, 2005 • from PLN April, 2005

Filed under: Mental Health, Suicides

Louisiana Jail Settles Suicide Suit For $3 Million by On June 10, 2004, the City of Shreveport, Louisiana, agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit arising from the suicide death of a prisoner in. the city's jail. Frances Loggins, 48, was arrested for public drunkenness and taken to …

Thirty-Two Years of Resistance: Free the Angola Three!

Article • April 15, 2004 • from PLN April, 2004

Filed under: Prisoner-Prisoner Assault, Political Prisoners, Hunger Strikes, Crime/Demographics, Criminal Prosecution, Prison/Jail Murders, Failure to Protect (General)

Thirty-Two Years of Resistance: Free the Angola Three! by Shana Griffin by Shana Griffin and Brice White Thirty two years in solitary confinement would be enough to drive many of us to despair. Yet as of April 17, 2004, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3 have each …

Thirty Years in Segregation May State Claim

Article • April 15, 2004 • from PLN April, 2004

Filed under: Disciplinary Hearings, Liberty Interests, Qualified Immunity, Ad-Seg Hearings

Thirty Years in Segregation May State Claim by Michael Rigby The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the denial of prison authorities' motion to dismiss based on qualified immunity because no proper determination was made as to whether prisoners' over 30 years of confinement in extended …

The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry

Article • September 15, 2003 • from PLN September, 2003

Filed under: Out of State Transfers, Private Prisons, Louisiana Correctional Services, Overcrowding

The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry by by Peter Wagner, Prison Policy Initiative and Western Prison Project, 2003, 48 pages Review by Paul Wright As a prison journalist, one of the most challenging things is reporting the facts and putting those facts into a bigger …