Retaliation Claim Merits Factual Resolution by An Arizona federal district court has held that a prisoner's claims that he was subjected to urinalysis, placed in administrative segregation, classified as a gang member and denied access to the law library as retaliation for filing civil actions against prison officials warranted proceedings …
Trial Required in Arizona Uprising Suit by The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court decision granting summary judgment to prison officials in a case involving the treatment of prisoners following a prison uprising. In 1995 the Graham Unit of the Arizona State Prison in Safford, …
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 …
AZ Prisoners Can't Access Internet, But the Net Accesses Them by A state law that went into effect July 18, 2000 makes it a Class 1 Misdemeanor for Arizona prisoners to "send mail or receive mail from a communication service provider or remote computing service." The law imposes penalties for …
AZ Medical Copayment Not Retroactive by James Quigley A federal district court in Arizona held that Ariz. Rev. Stat. (ARS) § 31201.01, which includes a socalled medical copayment provision, cannot be applied to state prisoners who are incarcerated for offenses committed prior tothe statute's effective date. In an unpublished ruling …
9th Circuit Upholds Ban on Sex-based Publications; Requires Due Process by 9th Circuit Upholds Ban on Sex-based publications; Requires Due Process Against a First Amendment challenge, the Ninth Circuit has upheld a prison regulation banning sex-based publications depicting penetration. The Court also held that prisoners have a Fourteenth Amendment due …
Arpaio Runs for Reelection on Backs of Prisoners, For the Third Time by Paul Wright By Paul Wright With the American electoral process consisting largely of saccharine spectacle, and with no substantive issues to get in the way of corporate rule, prisoner bashing has become an accepted political path to …
The Restraint Chair: Safe and Humane? by Anne-Marie Cusac Jail and prison employees call it the "strap-o-lounger," the "barcalounger," the "we care chair," and the "be sweet chair." Prisoners and their lawyers have other names for the device: "torture chair," "slave chair," and "devil's chair." They are not referring to …
$800,000 Settlement in AZ Jail Restraint Suit by In August, 1999, the Maricopa County board of supervisors, approved an $800,000 settlement for a pretrial detainee subjected to excessive force in the Maricopa County (Phoenix) Jail in Arizona. Richard Post, a wheelchair bound paraplegic was arrested and taken to the county …
No Pretrial Appeals of Motions to Dismiss by The Eighth circuit court of appeals held that it had no jurisdiction to hear interlocutory appeals on issues other than qualified immunity. The court also held it will review FRCP 60(b) motions for abuses of discretion. Emmit Broadway was a pretrial detainee …
Arizona Jury Acquits CCA Escapees by Two Alaska state prisoners on trial for a 1996 escape from a private prison were acquitted by an Arizona jury. The prosecution was undoubtedly stunned by the verdict in what was considered to be an open and shut case. However, the prosecutor in the …
$1.5 Million Awarded in Arizona Jail Medical Neglect Suit by On April 15, 1999, a Maricopa County Superior Court jury awarded $1.5 million in damages to former Maricopa County (Phoenix, Arizona) jail detainee Timothy Griffin. Griffin was imprisoned for driving on a suspended license. Griffin has a history of ulcers. …
CCA Prison Under Gang Control: Death and Injury Suits Filed by Gary Hunter Two suits were filed against Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) in less than a week. On April 15, 2003 the family of Iulai Amani sued CCA and the state of Hawaii for "wrongful conduct" resulting in Amani's …
En Banc Ninth Circuit Upholds Jail Porn Ban by Paul Wright By Paul Wright In the February, 1999, issue of PLN we reported Mauro v. Arpaio, 147 F.3d 1137 (9th Cir. 1998) where a panel of the Ninth circuit appeals court held that a jail policy banning all sexually explicit …
Lack of Evidence Bars Disciplinary Finding of Guilt by Lack of Evidence Bars Disciplinary Finding of Guilt Regardless of Punishment Imposed The court of appeals for the Ninth circuit held that it violates due process to find a prisoner "guilty" of violating a prison disciplinary rule when absolutely no evidence …
America's Toughest Sheriff Settles for $8.25 Million in Wrongful Death Suit by In 1996 Scott Norberg was arrested for assaulting a Mesa, Arizona police officer and booked into the Maricopa County Jail, which is run by "America's Toughest Sheriff" Joe Arpaio. The next day Norberg, 35, was choked to death …
Amended Arizona Statute of Limitations Not Retroactive by The court of appeals for the Ninth circuit held that an Arizona statutory amendment eliminating the tolling provision for prisoners' suits, did not apply retroactively. Christian Weaver TwoRivers, an Arizona prisoner, appealed a lower court's dismissal of his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 …
Arizona Incarceration Cost Setoff Law Upheld by The Arizona Court of Appeals held that, as applied, the state's incarceration cost setoff law does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or the anti-abrogation provisions of the Arizona Constitution. A jury awarded $15,000 to Felix Duarte and $1,500 …
Ninth Circuit Vacates Previous Opinion Ruling PLRA's Provision Unconstitutional by Rules Taylor Not a Consent Decree In 1972, Eddie W. Taylor and George Yanich, Jr., Arizona state prisoners, filed class action suits under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 challenging Arizona's prisoner behavior and discipline rules and …
