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 …
Arizona Can't Seize All Prison Labor Back Wages by The Arizona court of appeals held that the state of Arizona can only seize thirty percent of a successful prisoner litigants back wages award. In 1983 and 1984 Richard Ford, an Arizona state prisoner, worked for Cutter Industries, a private company …
Arizona DOC Settles Sexual Abuse Suit by On March 11, 1999 the Arizona Dept. of Corrections (ADOC) agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Dept. of Justice (DOJ) which alleged that state prison officials failed to protect female prisoners from systemic sexual abuse, misconduct and harassment by guards. …
ADOC Settlement Terms by -Additional staff training on sexual misconduct and prisoner privacy issues. -Implementation of a program to inform the state's 1,810 female prisoners about their rights. -Requiring all male prison employees who may be alone with a female prisoner to notify a supervisor. -Providing two 15-minute periods a …
Arizona DOC Settles Kosher Diet Suit by On January 29, 1999, the Arizona Department of Corrections settled a lawsuit involving a Jewish prisoner's right to a kosher diet. Kenneth Ashelman, an orthodox Jewish prisoner, filed suit when the DOC refused to provide him with a kosher diet. The suit was …
Arizona Prisoners Can Pay Filing Fee in Installments by An Arizona appellate court held that a lower court had erred in ruling incarcerated felons were required to prepay, in its entirety, all filing fees when filing civil actions. Jose Inzunza-Ortega attempted to file a civil suit in Maricopa county (Phoenix) …
PLRA Exhaustion Requirement Not Retroactive by The court of appeals for the Ninth circuit held that the administrative remedies exhaustion provision of 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a), as amended by the PLRA, does not apply retroactively to prisoner actions filed prior to its enactment date of April 26, 1996. The court …
Mauro Vacated for Rehearing by In the February, 1999, issue of PLN we reported Mauro v. Arpaio, 147 F.3d 1137 (9th Cir. 1998) which struck down as unconstitutional an Arizona jail's ban on sexually explicit material. The Ninth circuit has ordered that opinion withdrawn because a panel of 11 judges …
Denial of Handicapped Jail Facilities Set for Trial by The court of appeals for the Ninth circuit held that a handicapped detainee was entitled to a trial to prove jail conditions were unconstitutional in light of his disability. On remand, the lower court was instructed to consider whether the plaintiff …
Arizona Jail Porn Ban Struck Down by The court of appeals for the Ninth circuit held that a jail rule banning all sexually explicit materials was unconstitutional. In 1993 the Maricopa county jail in Phoenix, Arizona, adopted rules banning all sexually explicit materials from receipt or possession by Jail prisoners. …
Our Sisters' Keepers by Daniel Burton-Rose No one can imagine. What it's like. Not unless you've gone through it. Christina Foos has. While incarcerated in a for-profit prison in Arizona, Christina says she was accosted by a guard, Ernesto Rivas, as she stepped out of the shower in March of …
Juvenile Crime Still Pays -- But at What Cost? by Alex Friedmann Juvenile Crime Still Pays – But at What Cost? by Alex Friedmann [Last February, PLN published a cover article, "Juvenile Crime Pays," concerning the proliferation of for-profit juvenile justice services. This month we revisit the topic following recent …
En Banc Review Granted in Taylor by In the December, 1998, issue of PLN we reported Taylor v. United States , 143 F.3d 1178 (9th Cir. 1998). In that case, a panel of the Ninth circuit court of appeals unanimously held that 18 U.S.C. § 3626(b)(2) is unconstitutional. This provision …
Arizona Jail Slave Labor Used to Stuff Ballot Envelopes by Prisoners at the Maricopa County Jail (home of "America's Meanest Sheriff") were used to stuff 400,000 envelopes with ballots for early voting in the 1998 elections. Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne said that jail inmates received community service credit …
