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Washington Jail Settles Conditions Lawsuit by On October 6, 2003 officials in Jefferson County, Washington settled a class action lawsuit filed by a Jefferson County Jail prisoner. The suit alleged inhumane living conditions and resulted in sweeping changes in jail policy. On February 25, 2002 Shawn Orndorff, a prisoner at …
Montana BMPs Are Cruel and Unusual Punishment by Mark Wilson The Montana Supreme Court held that the use of Behavior Modification Plans (BMPs) and the living conditions of A-Block (Max) at the Montana State Penitentiary (MSP) constituted "an affront to the inviolable right of human dignity possessed by [prisoners] and …
New Trial Ordered in Washington Strip Cell Conditions Suit by The Ninth circuit court of appeals has reversed for a new trial a Washington state prisoner's claim that he was placed in barbaric strip cell conditions for ten days because the district court allowed prejudicial hearsay testimony to be admitted …
No Constitutional Right to Privacy for Naked Woman Arrestee by In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed a U.S. District Court's grant of relief on three federal privacy claims but upheld judgment under state law for an Iowa arrestee who was strapped naked …
CYA Suit Alleges Abuse of Juveniles by Anne Mania The California Youth Authority (CYA) houses 6,000 juvenile offenders and was once considered a model for juvenile justice in this country. However, after decades of declining funding and worsening conditions, the California Youth Authority has deteriorated to where severely mentally ill …
Stun Gun, Four-Point Restraint Use Curtailed in Virginia Prisons by Because Connecticut's prisons were overfull, Lawrence Frazier was sent to Virginia to serve his time. He didn't go home alive. He died in a Richmond hospital of cardiac arrhythmia after prison guards repeatedly shocked him with an Ultron II stun …
Conditions of Confinement: Washington State Prisoner Sues Over Twelve Harsh Days in Strip Cell by Silja JA Talvi In the early morning hours of February 2, 1998, at Clallam Bay Correctional Center (CBCC), Washington State prisoner Sylvester Mahone felt like he had had enough. Locked up in isolation in one …
Article • January 15, 2002 • from PLN January, 2002
Denial of Clothing to Arrestees States Claim for Relief; Suit Settles for $31,500 by A Michigan Federal District Court has ruled that arrestees detained in a city jail without any clothing or covering for between six and eighteen hours as a suicide prevention method, with limited exposure to viewing by …
Blind Ohio Prisoner Spends Months in Strip Cell by Ronald Young Blind Ohio Prisoner Spends Months In Strip Cell by Ronald Young An investigation by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) revealed that a blind prisoner at the Orient Correctional Institution in Pickaway County was subjected to three …
Deadly Nostalgia: The Politics of Boot Camps by Christian Parenti The short, stout eighth grader Gina Score, was never much of an athlete. But that didn't matter to the staff at South Dakota's Plankinton boot camp for girls, where militarystyle discipline and calisthenics were the modus operandi and, as staff …
Leave to Amend Complaint Improperly Denied by The court of appeals for the ninth circuit held that a district court erred in refusing to allow a pro se prisoner to amend his complaint. Fred Bennett, a California state prisoner, filed suit against various prison officials. The district court dismissed the …
DC Prisoners Sue VA Over Restraints by Since 1998, about 1,200 District of Columbia prisoners have been caged at the Sussex II highsecurity state prison in Virginia when D.C. closed its aging Lorton Correctional Complex. On August 29, 2000 a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of those prisoners claims …
$47,500 Settlement in Pennsylvania Restraint Suit by In May, 1999, the Northampton County Prison (NCP) paid Maria Merced $47,500 to settle a "hogtying" lawsuit she had filed. In August, 1996, while awaiting trial in the NCP, Merced argued with a guard and eventually spat on him. A number of guards …
Pretrial Cold Cell Violates Fourteenth Amendment by Ronald Young A federal district court in Illinois held that a pretrial detainee's alleged exposure to low temperature in a detention cell, while naked and with no alternative means of protecting himself from the cold, supported a claim of inadequate shelter against county …
California Guards Abuse Young Prisoners by Willie Wisely by W. Wisely In a developing investigation eerily reminiscent of the abuse, corruption, and cover-ups at Corcoran prison, California Youth Authority guards stand accused of beating, and setting up fights between, youthful offenders at Youth Correctional Facility (YCF) in Chino, California. A …
CDC Settles Excessive Force Suit for $1,000 by John Gann On October 26, 1998, the California Department of Corrections (CDC) paid $1,000 to settle an excessive force suit filed by pro se prisoner John Gann against nine named prison officials. On January 7, 1994, Gann, Alex Bermudez and Carlos Ramirez …
Suicides Plague Florida Women's Prison by Alex Friedmann Florence Krell, a 40-year-old mother of two serving an 18-month sentence for grand theft after she failed to return her boyfriend's rental car, hanged herself from her cell door at the Jefferson Corr. Institution on October 11, 1998. She had been at …
MT Prisoners Win Damages and Fees in Riot Suit by On April 2, 1998, a federal jury in Montana ruled that state prison officials had violated the Eighth amendment rights of 13 prisoners. In September, 1991, a riot occurred at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. Five prisoners in …
PLRA Attorney Fee Restrictions Not Retroactive by A federal district court in New York held that the restrictions imposed on recoverable attorney fees by the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996 (PLRA) do not apply retroactively and are not applicable to claims by attorneys retained prior to the PLRA's enactment …
Montana Paying for 1991 Prison Uprising by The state of Montana agreed to pay $60,000 to the parents of a prisoner killed during a 1991 uprising at the maximum security Deer Lodge prison. It was the second settlement among 13 state court cases filed against prison officials. In January 1995, …
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