AEDPA One Year Time Limitation Applies to Denial of Parole Habeas Petition by The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the one-year time limitation set by the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) applies to challenges to a parole board’s denial of parole. The appellate court’s ruling …
AEDPA One Year Time Limitation Applies to Denial of Parole Habeas Petition by The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the one-year time limitation set by the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) applies to challenges to a parole board’s denial of parole. The appellate court’s ruling …
Suit Over Mental Patient’s Murder Dismissed by The decedent was strangled by another mental patient, who had the previous day threatened to kill someone in order to be transferred to the other building, and who had attempted to choke another patient previously. The defendant doctor had met with the assailant …
Prison Beating Claim Subject to Exhaustion by Use of force claims are prison conditions claims for purposes of exhaustion. At 1365: The court treats exhaustion as jurisdictional, interpreting a line in Alexander v. Hawk for more than it probably is worth and ignoring all contrary case law. A statement from …
1992 Order to Change Georgia Jail Conditions Lifted Under PLRA by Cherokee County, Georgia Sheriff Roger Garrison moved for the termination of a 1992 consent order implemented to improve conditions at the county jail. The motion was granted because no current or recent violations had been proven. In 2002 the …
Statute of Limitations May Toll While Prisoner Exhausts Administrative Remedies by In 2003, William Howell, a 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 …
Georgia Sheriff, Judges, Other Officials Face Misconduct, Criminal Charges by David Reutter In November 2007 a federal grand jury issued an indictment charging Clinch County, Georgia Sheriff Winston C. Peterson, 62, with perjury, using forced prisoner labor and extorting former jail prisoners. Peterson’s indictment marked the second time in the …
Junk Bonds to Junk Science? Drug Treatment Program Questioned by Greg Dober by Gregory Dober What was worth approximately $554 million in 2007 and is valued at about $94 million today? The correct answer is the stock market value of a firm formerly known as Alaska Freightways Inc., a shell …
Georgia’s Sex Offender Residency Restriction Unconstitutional; Work Restriction Approved by The Georgia Supreme Court has declared that a state law that prohibits registered sex offenders from residing or loitering at a location that is within 1,000 feet of any childcare facility, church, school or area where minors congregate (the “residency …
CA Uses Jail Inmate Welfare Funds for Reentry; Expands Early Release for Permanently Disabled CDCR Prisoners by In September 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill (SB) 718 into law, which amends penal code § 4025 to permit the use of Inmate Welfare Funds (IWF) collected in eight California counties to …
Georgia Suicide Claim Reinstated Against PHS by The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of a negligence claim against Prison Health Services, Inc. (PHS) stemming from a 17-year-old detainee’s suicide. The Court also concluded individual defendants were not entitled to official immunity, because they performed ministerial, rather than discretionary …
Georgia Prisoner Assaulted By Jailer Awarded $5,300 by On June 21, 2007, a federal jury in Georgia awarded $5,300 to a prisoner who claimed he was assaulted by a jailer while imprisoned in the Dougherty County Jail. Plaintiff Kelvin Boyd alleged that in 2000 jailer Santos Ruiz-Gonzalez hit him on …
PHS Not Liable for Prisoner Attack on Nurses by The plaintiffs were nurses employed by Prison Health Services, Inc., and were attacked and beaten by a prisoner. The Supreme Court's decision in Collins v. Harker Heights overrules prior authority suggesting that there might be a special relationship supporting liability in …
Wrongful Termination of Georgia Jail Guards by New Sheriff Settles for $7 Million by A $7 million settlement has been reached between the sheriff of Georgia?s Clayton County and 34 employees he fired on his first day in office. The employees alleged they were discriminated against based on their race …
Flurry of Escapes Emphasizes Prisoners' Desperation by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke Last September produced a bumper crop of prison and jail escapes around the country, including a desperate escape by two Texas prisoners that resulted in the death of a guard, a car jacking and two shootouts. Plus a …
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 …