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PLRA Doesn't Apply to Immigration Detainees

Article • July 15, 1997 • from PLN July, 1997

Filed under: PLRA, Filing Fees (PLRA), Habeas Corpus, Immigration

PLRA Doesn't Apply to Immigration Detainees by The court of appeals for the fifth circuit held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) does not apply to immigration detainees. Anthony Ojo was convicted of a drug offense, sentenced to five years in prison and after completing that sentence the Immigration …

Fifth Circuit Holds that PLRA Requires Fees in All Pending Cases

Article • June 15, 1997 • from PLN June, 1997

Filed under: PLRA, Filing Fees (PLRA), Appeals

Fifth Circuit Holds that PLRA Requires Fees in All Pending Cases by In two separate rulings, the court of appeals for the fifth circuit held that litigants must pay the filing fees in all civil cases pending on the date the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) was signed into law …

Louisiana Jail Abuse Settlement

Article • April 15, 1997 • from PLN April, 1997

Filed under: Conditions of Confinement, Jail Specific, Restraints, Settlements

Louisiana Jail Abuse Settlement by Iberia Parish, Louisiana, reached an agreement December 2, 1996, with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to settle a lawsuit alleging prisoner abuse in the parish jail. The suit was filed by the DOJ in June, 1996, against then-sheriff Errol Romero and then jail warden …

Reversal of Frivolous Dismissal Voids PLRA Strike

Article • April 15, 1997 • from PLN April, 1997

Filed under: PLRA, Filing Fees (PLRA), Frivolous Litigation (PLRA), Frivolous Litigation, Appeals, Filing Fees

Reversal of Frivolous Dismissal Voids PLRA Strike by The court of appeals for the fifth circuit held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) applies retroactively to appeals pending on its date of enactment as well as cases dismissed prior to its enactment. The court also held that dismissals based …

Louisiana Prison System Back Under Court Supervision

Article • November 15, 1996 • from PLN November, 1996

Filed under: Overcrowding, PLRA, Injunctions (PLRA), Consent Decrees

Louisiana Prison System Back Under Court Supervision by The court of appeals for the fifth circuit affirmed a district court order which vacated a prior order terminating the court's jurisdiction over a consent decree governing the Louisiana prison system. In doing so the appeals court held that the Prison Litigation …

No FLSA Protection for Work Release Prisoners

Article • October 15, 1996 • from PLN October, 1996

Filed under: Work Release, Prison Industries, Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Fair Labor Standards Act, Immunity/Liability, Municipal Liability

No FLSA Protection for Work Release Prisoners by The court of appeals for the fifth circuit held that neither the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) nor Louisiana law offered relief to a work release prisoner challenging a contractual provision requiring he contribute ten percent of his net earnings to …

Contempt Ruling Against LA Prisoncrats

Article • March 15, 1996 • from PLN March, 1996

Filed under: Contractor Misconduct, DOC/BOP misconduct, Retaliation, Retaliation for Filing Grievances, Retaliatory Transfers, Prison Industries, Contempt (Civil Procedure)

Contempt Ruling Against LA Prisoncrats by U.S. district judge Frank Polozola ruled that Louisiana Secretary of Corrections Richard Stalder and Angola Warden Burl Cain be held in contempt. He ordered them each to contribute $1,000 to a victim compensation fund. Stalder, Cain, other wardens, assistant wardens and assorted prisoncrats were …

Private Prisons Get Qualified Immunity

Article • March 15, 1996 • from PLN March, 1996

Filed under: GEO Group/Wackenhut, Injury -- Misc., Excessive Force, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Complaints, Eleventh Amendment Immunity, Qualified Immunity, Supervisory Liability, Contractor Liability

Private Prisons Get Qualified Immunity by As the number of privately run, for profit, prisons grows, so too will litigation involving them. There is little case law involving private prisons. In this case a federal district court held that employees of a prison (run by the Wackenhut Corporation) in Louisiana …

Fifth Circuit to Require Administrative Exhaustion

Article • February 15, 1996 • from PLN February, 1996

Filed under: Medical, Injury -- Misc., Damages, Administrative Exhaustion, Prisoner Property, Premises Liability

Fifth Circuit to Require Administrative Exhaustion by In two separate rulings the fifth circuit affirmed dismissal of prisoners' section 1983 suits for failure to exhaust administrative remedies (i.e. the prison grievance procedure). In doing so, the court significantly expanded previous supreme court rulings that had held such exhaustion could only …

No Immunity for Retaliatory Discipline

Article • February 15, 1996 • from PLN February, 1996

Filed under: Threats by Staff, Retaliation for Litigating, Disciplinary Litigation, Legality of Rules, Retaliatory Discipline, Crime/Demographics, Informants, State Law Claims, Appeals, Qualified Immunity

No Immunity for Retaliatory Discipline by The court of appeals for the fifth circuit has reaffirmed that prison officials who retaliate against prisoners who exercise their constitutional rights are not entitled to qualified immunity. The court also held that district court orders refusing to dismiss pendent state law claims are …

Suspect Peppers in LA

Article • February 15, 1996 • from PLN February, 1996

Filed under: Prison Labor, Pepper Spray/Tear Gas, Death Penalty/Death Row, Death Row

Suspect Peppers in LA by Clay Huff I was reading through a few old PLNs and ran across an article on page 11, Vol. 5, No. 10, (Oct. 1994) concerning pepper gas [spray]. In 1992 prisoners here at Angola [LA] bucked work call after one section [of prisoner workers] was …

Prison Racial Segregation Illegal

Article • September 15, 1994 • from PLN September, 1994

Filed under: Racial Discrimination, Attorney Fee Awards, Civil Procedure, Damages, Injunctions

Prison Racial Segregation Illegal by In 1970s a federal judge issued an injunction enjoining racial discrimination in the operation or administration of the Louisiana State Penitentiary (LSP) at Angola, LA. The court ordered prison officials to immediately correct the effects of any past racial discrimination and to maintain Angola as …

LA Prisoners Boycott Phones

Article • April 15, 1994 • from PLN April, 1994

Filed under: Contractor Misconduct, Organizing, Prison Rebellion, Telephone Rates

LA Prisoners Boycott Phones by Paul Wright By Paul Wright In June of 1993 Global Tel-Link won a 3 year contract with the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections to install about 875 phones and handle all collect calls placed from the state's 16 adult and juvenile facilities. The …

Ex-Louisiana Officials Fined for Racial Segregation

Article • March 15, 1993 • from PLN March, 1993

Filed under: Racial Discrimination, Civil Procedure, Damages

Ex-Louisiana Officials Fined for Racial Segregation by Two former Louisiana corrections officials must pay $4,000 in fines for segregating inmates by race, a federal judge said. In his ruling October 27th in Baton rouge, a U.S. District judge lowered the judgment from $10,000 recommended by a federal magistrate earlier in …

Confinement of Insanity Acquitees Who Have Regained Sanity Struck Down

Article • July 15, 1992 • from PLN July, 1992

Filed under: Mental Health, Civil Commitment

Confinement of Insanity Acquitees Who Have Regained Sanity Struck Down by On May 18,1992, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down on due process grounds a Louisiana statute that permits insanity acquittees to be confined to a mental institution on dangerousness grounds until they prove that they are not dangerous. Once …

Beating Violates Eighth Amendment

Article • June 15, 1992 • from PLN June, 1992

Filed under: Retaliation for Filing Grievances, Attorney Fee Awards, Excessive Force, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Restraints, Damages

Beating Violates Eighth Amendment by Alfred Flowers is a Louisiana state prisoner who was handcuffed and shackled after a disciplinary hearing, then beaten and kicked by three prison guards without provocation. Flowers suffered a sprained ankle, small abrasions and limited movement range of his limbs as a result of the …

Minor Injury in Prison Abuse Actionable

Article • May 15, 1992 • from PLN May, 1992

Filed under: Excessive Force, Guard Brutality/Beatings

Minor Injury in Prison Abuse Actionable by Minor Injury In Prison Abuse Actionable The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that use of excessive force against a prison inmate may constitute unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment, even if the prisoner does not suffer a serious injury. To rule otherwise, the court …

Bates v. Lynn, LA, Consent Decree, Death Row Inmates, 1991

Brief • January 2, 1991

Filed under: Death Penalty/Death Row, Death Row

Bates v. Lynn, LA, Consent Decree, Death Row Inmates, 1991 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA M. WAYNE BATES, JR., et al., Plaintiffs, v. Civil Action No. 89-65-B Magistrate Stephen Riedlinger BRUCE LYNN, et al., Defendants. CONSENT DECREE This cause of action originated with the filing of a …

Prison Legal News v. Stephens, St. Bernard parish Jail Censorship Complaint, Louisiana, 2009

Filing

Prison Legal News v. Stephens, St. Bernard parish Jail Censorship Complaint, Louisiana, 2009 Case 2:09-cv-07515-MVL-DEK Document 1 Filed 12/03/2009 Page 1 of 9 Case 2:09-cv-07515-MVL-DEK Document 1 Filed 12/03/2009 Page 2 of 9 Case 2:09-cv-07515-MVL-DEK Document 1 Filed 12/03/2009 Page 3 of 9 Case 2:09-cv-07515-MVL-DEK Document 1 Filed 12/03/2009 Page …

Prison Legal News v. Stephens, St. Bernard Parish Jail Censorship Consent Judgment 2010

Filing

Prison Legal News v. Stephens, St. Bernard Parish Jail Censorship Consent Judgment 2010