Federal Prison Staff Are Law Enforcement Official For Purposes Of FTCA Claims by Daniel E. Manville by Dan Manville Federal prisoners are no longer able to sue pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) for property that was negligently lost or destroyed by federal prison staff. In Ali v. …
Georgia’s Prison Health System Squeezed by Increasing Population, Decreasing Staff Budget by David Reutter Georgia's Prison Health System Squeezed by Increasing Population, Decreasing Staff Budget by David M. Reutter With an increase in Georgia's prison population, the cost to provide medical care to prisoners has soared. Due to legislative budgetary …
PLN Obtains Injunction Against Fulton County Jail in Censorship Suit by Alex Friedmann On February 4, 2008 the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta Division) granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by Prison Legal News over censorship at the Fulton County Jail. PLN brought …
Overdetention: When Completing a Prison Sentence Just Isn’t Enough by David Reutter Overdetention: When Completing a Prison Sentence Just Isn't Enough by David M. Reutter One of the most basic functions of a prison system is releasing prisoners when their sentences expire. In April 2007, the Massachusetts Department of Correction …
Statute of Limitations May Toll While Prisoner Exhausts Administrative Remedies by In 2003, William Howell, a Georgia state prisoner, sued jail guards in federal district court under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for an incident that occurred over two years before he filed suit. Since the applicable statute of limitations was two …
Prisoner Crashes Jet Ski into Dock in Camden County, Georgia by On September 16, 2006, a Camden County, Georgia jail prisoner crashed a Sheriff?s Department jet ski into a private dock at Harriet?s Bluff on the Crooked River. According to Sheriff Bill Smith, jail trustees were moving the jet skis …
In Forma Pauperis Status Does Not Waive Copying Fees When Requesting Records by Pro se Georgia State prisoner Embery McBride petitioned the Appellate Court to review a 1990 court ruling granting the Columbus, Georgia, police chief's (Chief) motion dismissing his action for the deliberate denial of documents. The court ruled …
Georgia Sheriff Offers Requested Documents After Legal Action Initiated by Georgia attorney Bruce Millar appealed a 1999 state court denial of his motion for an injunction which would require document production for use in his client's federal suit. The court affirmed the denial because Millar was offered the documents after …
PLN Files Censorship Suit Against Fulton County Jail in Georgia by On October 22, 2007, Prison Legal News filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia against Fulton County and Sheriff Myron Freeman, due to a Fulton County Jail policy that prohibits prisoners from receiving …
Document's Exemption From Production Under Act Dependant On Pending Charges Outcome by Georgia State prisoner Byron Parker petitioned for review of a 1986 court ruling denying him access to files for his potential post-conviction relief. A pending rape charge statutorily determined denial. The denial was reversed for a lack of …
Georgia Death Row Prisoner Not Afforded Evidence To Litigate Case by Georgia death row prisoner Ellis Felker appealed by way of mandamus a 1996 court ruling that the Houston County District Attorney (DA) complied with the production of records under the Open Records Act (Act). Additional materials were discovered last …
Settlement Agreement Confidentiality Provisions Maintained, Not Exposed In Courtroom Dispute by Georgia's Savannah College of Art and Design, Inc. (SCAD), appealed a 1998 court order unsealing settlement documents between the SCAD and the School of Visual Arts (SVA). The agreement's provisions stipulated to strict confidentiality. The court reversed the disclosure …
Claims Previously Litigated, Not Directly Appealed, Raised At Trial Barred For Habeas by Georgia State prisoner Jimmy Meders sought review of a 1992 habeas court's partial denial of claims for relief from his 1987 death sentence. Warden Schofield appealed the same court's grant to Meders for ineffective assistance of counsel …
Ingrown Nail Leads to Leg Amputation and $400,000 Georgia Jury Verdict by A Georgia prisoner was awarded $400,000 for inadequate medical care causing amputation of his left leg, below the knee. Mr. Booth, a 45-year-old Georgia prisoner with a long history of vascular disease, was treated by a prison doctor …
Prison Drinking Water and Wastewater Pollution Threaten Environmental Safety Nationwide by John Dannenberg by John E. Dannenberg Aging infrastructure concerns are not limited to America's highways, bridges and dams. Today, crumbling, overcrowded prisons and jails nationwide are bursting at the seams -- literally -- leaking environmentally dangerous effluents not just …
March Madness in Georgia Prisons by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke March 2007 was an unusually bloody month in Georgia prisons, with three murders of prisoners by other prisoners and one severe beating of a mentally ill, handcuffed prisoner by guards. Since 2005 there have been five homicides in the …
$150,000 Settlement in Suit over Atlanta Prisoner’s Fall-Related Death by $150,000 Settlement in Suit over Atlanta Prisoner's Fall-Related Death In November 2006, the family of a man who suffered fatal injuries when he fell over a railing on an upper floor of an Atlanta jail settled with the city for …
Florida Homeless Sex Offender Ruling Reversed, FDOC Changes Policy Anyway by David Reutter by David M. Reutter Florida?s Fifth District Court of Appeals has reversed, on procedural grounds, an order by the Volusia County Circuit Court that enjoined the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) from engaging in the ?practice of …
Fulton County Jail Consents to Improve Dismal Conditions by David Reutter The Fulton County Jail (FCJ) has entered into an agreement to correct the “dismal environmental conditions and poor maintenance” at the facility. A Georgia federal district court approved a consent order on February 7, 2006 to solidify the badly …
$1.2 Million Compensation Package Approved For Wrongfully Convicted Georgia Man by Who can put a price on wrongful imprisonment? The Georgia legislature can. On March 19, 2007, the Georgia House of Representatives approved a $1.2 million compensation package for a man who spent 23 years in prison for a rape …
