Philadelphia City Prison Fined $1 Million by The Commonwealth Court, Pennsylvania's intermediate appellate court, upheld a trial court order for the City of Philadelphia to pay more than $1 million in fines for failure to provide prisoners with sufficient clothing, laundry access, services, social workers, and vocational training. In 1971, …
Pennsylvania Court Upholds Part of Prisoner's Request for Public Records by A Commonwealth Court in Pennsylvania has partially upheld a state prisoner's request for medical information under the state's Right-to-Know Act. The opinion and order affirms in part, and reverses in part, the denial of information by the Pennsylvania Department …
Junking the Jurors by Mumia Abu-Jamal by Mumia Abu Jamal "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed&" U.S. Constitution, 6 th Amendment It has been …
Malicious Use of Force Violates Eighth Amendment by John E Dannenberg The Third Circuit held that in claims alleging the malicious use of force by prison guards the wantonness of the attack, rather than the degree of injury suffered, is the dispositive issue for courts reviewing such claims on summary …
Use of Restraint Chair Not Cruel and Unusual Punishment by The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has affirmed a lower court's grant of summary judgment and denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law on an excessive force claim brought by a convicted prisoner awaiting …
No Interlocutory Appeal for Good Faith Defense by The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the requirements of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) do not apply to properly characterized habeas corpus petitions under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2241, 2254, or 2255, finding that those actions are not …
Environmental Concerns Halt Construction of Pennsylvania Prison by Ronald Young Environmental Concerns Halt Construction Of Pennsylvania Prison The wretched and overcrowded conditions at Washington, D.C.'s Lorton Correctional Complex have resulted in Congress giving the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) responsibility for housing all D.C. prisoners. Lorton, located in Fairfax, VA, …
BOP Guards Smuggle Sperm by In October, 2000, federal prison guards Troy Kemmerer and Todd Swineford were arrested and indicted for accepting money to help smuggle cryogenic sperm kits to a New York City fertility clinic. The investigation began over two years ago when convicted hit man Kevin Granato sat …
U.S. Supreme Court Requires Futile Administrative Exhaustion by On May 29, 2001, a unanimous United States Supreme Court held that 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) requires the complete exhaustion of prison administrative remedies, regardless of how futile those remedies may be and regardless of …
Retaliation Claim Not Foreclosed by Sandin by The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that a prisoner's civil rights complaint for damages due to administrative segregation placement was not foreclosed by the U.S. Supreme Court's Sandin "atypical hardship" rule, when the administrative segregation placement was alleged to be …
Trial Required in Pennsylvania Failure to Protect Suit by A federal district court in Pennsylvania held that summary judgment was precluded on a state prisoner's failuretoprotect claim. The court also held that prison officials were not entitled to qualified immunity. State prisoner Richard Pearson was stabbed six times by several …
Constant Illumination States Eighth Amendment Claim by Pennsylvania state prisoner Lamont Harris filed a pro se petition for review, alleging that being forced to live in constant illumination 24 hours per day while in punitive segregation was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Harris claimed that …
Statutory Authority Not Required to Levy Housing Costs by Statutory Authority Not Required To Levy Housing Costs The Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that prison officials can levy housing cost liens without statutory authority. Prisoner Leonard G. Tillman filed a 42 U.S.C. §1983 action challenging the Lebanon County Correctional …
U.S. Isolates Political Prisoners by Ronald Young Two recent federal appeals court decisions highlight some of the repressive measures used by U.S. authorities to isolate and silence political dissenters. Though the methods used by the two political prisoners involved in these cases may be distasteful to some people, Americans must …
Yeskey Dismissed on Remand by In the September, 1998 issue of PLN we reported Pennsylvania DOC v. Yeskey, 118 S.Ct. 1952 (1998) in which the United States supreme court held that prisons and jails are included in the coverage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, (ADA) 42 UJ.S.C. S 12131-12165. …
Administrative Exhaustion Required in Third Circuit; U.S. S. Ct. Grants Review by The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the PLRA requires exhaustion of administrative remedies for all prisonerinitiated prisoncondition federal court actions, even if "available" remedies exclude the specific relief sought. Applying the rule to both …
PA Prisoner Awarded $300,000 in Guard Beating by On February 29, 2000, a federal jury in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania awarded Pennsylvania prisoner Raymond Pryer $300,000 in damages for a beating he suffered at the hands of prison guards. On September 27, 1990, Pryer complained that a guard at the State Correctional …
$47,500 Settlement in Pennsylvania Restraint Suit by In May, 1999, the Northampton County Prison (NCP) paid Maria Merced $47,500 to settle a "hogtying" lawsuit she had filed. In August, 1996, while awaiting trial in the NCP, Merced argued with a guard and eventually spat on him. A number of guards …
Slave Labor O.K. FLSA Does Not Apply to Detainees by by Matthew T. Clarke The Third Circuit court of appeals has held that detainees who won their appeals, but the state appealed further, are still "duly convicted" detainees for purposes of the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition on slavery, even if the …
$1,800 Awarded in PA Retaliation Suit by On June 25, 1999, U.S. district court judge James McClure Jr. awarded $1,800 in damages to a Pennsylvania jail prisoner who was retaliated against for complaining about jail conditions. The judge also awarded $1 in nominal damages to another prisoner with a similar …
