VI Decree Modification Denied Under PLRA, DOC Held in Contempt by A federal district court in the Virgin Islands made specific factual findings under the terms of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) holding that prison and jail conditions on the island were unconstitutional and required federal court intervention to …
Qualified Immunity in Failure to Protect Claim by James Quigley By James Quigley The court of appeals for the fourth circuit, sitting en banc, held that there is no constitutional violation when unarmed prison guards fail to immediately intervene to protect a prisoner from assault by an armed prisoner; that …
PLRA Filing Fees Don't Apply to Habeas by The court of appeals for the Fourth and District of Columbia circuits held that the filing fee provisions of the PLRA do not apply to habeas corpus petitions filed by prisoners. These courts agreed with all other circuits, the second, third, fifth, …
PLRA Not Enough for Fourth Circuit by One of the PLRA's stated purposes was to cut down on "frivolous" prisoner litigation by requiring full payment of filing fees and imposing a "three strikes" limitation on prisoners who have had more than three suits dismissed for being frivolous or not stating …
PLN Readers Dissatisfied with Freedom Press by For several years PLN ran a free ad for Freedom Press, a post-conviction paralegal service based in Virginia and headed by James Gossard. After receiving a couple of complaints about their service, PLN discontinued the ad in May of 1995. We contacted Gossard …
Virginia Warden Stabbed by Dan Pens In the December 1996 issue of PLN we reported, "Botched Escape Sparks Rebellion," about an attempted escape and prison uprising at the Nottoway Correctional Center in Virginia. Cited in that article was the high level of tension in the Virginia prison system due, in …
Virginia Felons Disenfranchised by Virginia is one of 13 states that permanently revoke the voting rights of felons. As a consequence, nearly a quarter of a million Virginians, most of them black men, cannot vote. A Virginia newspaper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, examined state police records to compile a report citing …
Virginia Hawks Parolees' Names by Beginning in July 1996, the Virginia Department of Corrections (DOC) began publishing what has so far proven to be a hot seller: lists of parolees' names, address, offenses, sex and race. The parolee lists costs $5 per zip code. Bargain hunters, however, can purchase a …
Botched Escape Sparks Rebellion by [Editor's Note: There is no source PLN is aware of that keeps accurate statistics on the number of prison disturbances/rebellions. It is apparent to many who monitor prison news, including PLN, that the number of rebellions is on the rise. We attempt to cover them …
Publisher Entitled to Notice of Magazine Censorship by The court of appeals for the fourth circuit held that publishers are entitled to notice and an opportunity to be heard when their publications are censored by prison officials. Virginia DOC Operating Procedure 852 sets forth the process by which censorship of …
No Jurisdiction for Some Qualified Immunity Appeals by The court of appeals for the fourth circuit held that it lacked jurisdiction to hear an appeal by prison officials accused of being deliberately indifferent to the safety of a prisoner where they stood by while he was attacked and stabbed by …
Virginia Class Action Members Sought by In 1982 Virginia state lawmakers passed Section 53.1-151 (B1), dubbed the "3-Time Loser Law." The law was modified several times over the years. The most recent rewrite, in 1994, reads, "Any person convicted of three separate felony offenses of (i) murder, (ii) rape, or …
Qualified Immunity for ADA Suit by The court of appeals for the fourth circuit ruled that Virginia prison officials were entitled to qualified immunity from an obese prisoner's suit filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act (RA). The court went into extensive detail discussing the …
Failure to Provide Medical Treatment Unlawful by The court of appeals for the fourth circuit has held that jail guards have a duty to provide medical care for injuries resulting from attacks by other prisoners. Failure to do so may subject them to eighth amendment liability. In its ruling the …
Private Physician Subject to Section 1983 Liability by Private physicians who show deliberate indifference to prisoners serious medical needs may be sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 even though they are not prison employees. With the increased trend of prison systems contracting out prisoner medical care this fourth circuit decision …
VA Jails Sue State Prisons by On 30 January 1995, the sheriffs of Arlington, Alexandria and Richmond filed a lawsuit to force the state to remove its prisoners from their jails. The suit was filed in circuit court in Richmond. It says the Virginia DOC is violating a state law …
VA Guards Indicted in Beatings by In September of 1993 Charles Coates, a prisoner in the Greensville Correctional Center at Jarratt, VA, was handcuffed and shackled when a prison guard lifted him up and slammed him to the floor face first. Coastes says he blacked out and when he awoke …
VA Parole and Good Time Laws Don't Create Liberty Interest by Orillion James is a Virginia state prisoner who filed suit seeking money damages and an injunction ordering prison officials to expunge his records of false educational information that hindered his ability to be paroled. The records in question claim …
State Prisons Subject to RA & ADA by State Prisons Subject to RA & ADA Anthony Torcasio is an extremely obese Virginia state prisoner who is 5' 7" tall, weighs over 460 pounds and has a girth of 78" . He filed suit under 42 U. S. C. § 1983 …
