Failure to Treat Transsexual for Self-Mutilation States Claim by The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held the failure of prison officials to treat a prisoner for self-mutilation states an Eighth Amendment claim. The civil rights action was filed by Virginia prisoner Ophelia Azriel De'Lonta, who suffers from gender identity disorder …
District of Columbia May Be Liable for Prisoner's Inadequate Medical Care by District of Columbia May Be Liable for Prisoner's Inadequate Medical Care The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, reversing and remanding the district court, held that a D.C. prisoner incarcerated in a Virginia state prison …
Actual Damages Required to Maintain Suit Under Federal Privacy Act by Actual Damages Required to Maintain Suit Under Federal Privacy Act The United States Supreme Court recently held that a showing of actual damages is required in order to maintain a civil action brought under the Privacy Act of 1974. …
Hepatitis C Guidelines, VA DOC Office of Health Services Unit, 2004 Hepatitis C Guidelines DISCUSSION Recently, questions have arisen regarding the use of the non‐formulary protease inhibitors, telaprevir and boceprevir in the management of offenders with Chronic Hepatitis C. In the October 2011 issue of Hepatology, the American Association for …
Virginia Prison Vendors Lose Contracts to Out-of-State Supplier by Gary Hunter Three Virginia retailers who made their money from prisoner earnings now find themselves in financial trouble. In August 2003, when the Virginia Department of Corrections (DOC) relinquished management of prison commissaries to St. Louis-based Keefe Supply Co., three Virginia …
Virginia Legislature Awards Wrongfully Convicted Man $1.5 Million by The Virginia legislature has passed a bill awarding nearly $1.5 million to a man who spent 15 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Marvin Anderson was convicted by a Virginia court in December 1982 of abduction, sodomy, …
PLRA Fee Payments Cease Upon Release from Prison by PLRA Fee Payments Cease Upon Release from Prison The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held a prisoner who was granted in forma pauperis (IFP) status is not required to continue filing fee payments upon release from prison. Prisoner Keith William DeBlasio …
Virginia Drug Treatment Program Still Violates Establishment Clause by Virginia Drug Treatment Program Still Violates Establishment Clause A federal district court in Virginia held that the Therapeutic Community Program (TCP) of the Virginia Department of Corrections violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The court also held, however, that …
Virginia Downsizing Overbuilt Supermaxes by Critics have long claimed that Virginia grossly overestimated its need for supermaxesprisons that ostensibly house "the-worst of the worst." Early in 2003, Virginia undertook actions which reduced the number of beds classified as supermax from 2,400 to 550. This seems to confirm the criticism. "I …
$210,000 Awarded in Virginia Jail Conditions Suit by The court of appeals for the Fourth circuit affirmed a district court in Virginia's order denying qualified immunity and judgment notwithstanding the verdict to Virginia jail officials. Virginia jail prisoners filed suit claiming overcrowding, poor sanitation, understaffing, and lack of a law …
Bad Medicine, No Oversight, Total Secrecy: ACLU Reports on VA DOC Medical Care by Bad Medicine, No Oversight, Total Secrecy: ACLU Reports on Virginia DOC Prisoner Medical Care by Matthew T. Clarke In May 2003, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia issued a report on the status of …
Virginia: Stun Gun Implicated In Death, CMS Implicated In Coverup by by Michael Rigby Documents filed as part of a $204 million lawsuit directly, contradict the Virginia Department of Correction's (DOC) initial assertion that a stun gun played no role in the death of Lawrence James Frazier, and may implicate …
Injunction Prohibits Virginia Grooming Policy Enforcement on BOP Prisoners by A federal district court for the District of Columbia granted an injunction to a class of Rastafarian and Muslim prisoners holding the requirement that those prisoners must cut their hair or shave their beards imposes a substantial burden on their …
Gay Prisoners Not Entitled to Double-Occupancy Cell by Gay Prisoners Not Entitled To Double-Occupancy Cell The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that legitimate penological interests supported a prison policy to restrict homosexual male prisoners to single celled housing while at the same facility yet permitting homosexual female prisoners …
Ninth Circuit Affirms Constitutionality of RLUIPA by by John E. Dannenberg In a case of first impression, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court ruling that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) (42 U.S.C. § 2000 cc et seq.) passes constitutional …
Over 100 Prisoners Exonerated Through DNA, Government Cuts Funding by Rex Bagley Bruce Godschalk became a free man on February 14, 2002,after fifteen years of incarceration for a crime he refused to admit to. In May, 1987 he was convicted in Philadelphia for the rape of two women and indecent …
Virginia Law Repeals Phone Rate Ruling by Matthew T. Clarke Effective July 1, 2002, the Virginia legislature has enacted a law specifically designed to undercut a favorable ruling on prison phone rates by the State Corporation Commission (SCC). Robert Lee Jones, a Virginia state prisoner, filed a complaint with the …
Home Detainee Has Fourth Amendment Rights by The Supreme Court of Virginia has held that a defendant who entered the Fairfax County Sheriff's Electronic Incarceration Program (Program) did not automatically waive his right to privacy of his home by agreeing to enter the Program. Upon entering the Program, Michael L. …
Connecticut Pays $1,850,000 in Deaths of Two Prisoners Transferred to Virginia by John E Dannenberg by John E. Dannenberg The Connecticut Department of Corrections (CDC) settled two claims in March 2002 totaling $1,850,000 for the wrongful deaths of a mentally ill prisoner and a severely diabetic prisoner who were transferred …
Virginia Guards Acquitted of Assaulting Prisoner by Michael Rigby Three former prison guards were acquitted March 27, 2002 on charges of beating a shackled prisoner at the Wallens Ridge State Prison, a Virginia supermax. Lt. Jeffrey Compton, Sgt. Mathew Hamilton and Michael Bliley were charged with felonious assault and fired …
