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Trial Required in Pennsylvania Failure to Protect Suit

Article • August 15, 2001 • from PLN August, 2001

Filed under: Conditions of Confinement, Failure to Protect (General), Qualified Immunity

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

Article • July 15, 2001 • from PLN July, 2001

Filed under: Lighting, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement

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

Article • June 15, 2001 • from PLN June, 2001

Filed under: Money/Property, Seizure of Prisoner Funds

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

Article • March 15, 2001 • from PLN March, 2001

Filed under: Political Prisoners, Disciplinary Hearings, Liberty Interests, Ad-Seg Hearings

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

Article • February 15, 2001 • from PLN February, 2001

Filed under: Medical, Blood, Boot Camps, Americans with Disabilities Act

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

Article • January 15, 2001 • from PLN January, 2001

Filed under: Administrative Exhaustion (PLRA), Excessive Force, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Prisoner Property

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

Article • December 15, 2000 • from PLN December, 2000

Filed under: Sexual Harassment, Staff-Prisoner Harassment, Pat Searches, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Stun Guns/Tasers, Pepper Spray/Tear Gas, Damages

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

Article • July 15, 2000 • from PLN July, 2000

Filed under: Gender Discrimination -- Women, Conditions of Confinement, Food, Strip Cells, Restraints, Damages, Settlements

$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

Article • July 15, 2000 • from PLN July, 2000

Filed under: Prison Industries, Prison Labor, Conditions of Confinement, Jail Specific, Fair Labor Standards Act

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

Article • July 15, 2000 • from PLN July, 2000

Filed under: Retaliation, Retaliation for Filing Grievances, Damages

$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 …

U.S. Parole Commission Bound by Own Rules

Article • June 15, 2000 • from PLN June, 2000

Filed under: Sentencing, Parole

U.S. Parole Commission Bound by Own Rules by The court of appeals for the Third circuit held that the U.S. Parole Commission (USPC) was bound by its own rules and erred in calculating a prisoner's parole eligibility date. Former CIA agent Edwin Wilson was convicted in 1982 of transporting firearms …

Dismissal Reversed for Determination Whether Prisoner Was Misled About Remedies

Article • May 15, 2000 • from PLN May, 2000

Filed under: Failure to Protect (General), Smoking, Administrative Exhaustion (PLRA), Civil Procedure, Defenses

Dismissal Reversed for Determination Whether Prisoner Was Misled About Remedies by Dismissal Reversed for Determination Whether Prisoner Was Misled About Remedies The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a Pennsylvania federal district court's dismissal of a state prisoner's suit. The court ruled that there was a substantial, disputed question …

Spina v. Kurtz, PA, Settlement, Civil Action Schuylkill County Prison, 2000

Brief • April 18, 2000

Spina v. Kurtz, PA, Settlement, Civil Action Schuylkill County Prison, 2000 .. GENERAL RELEASE THAT MICHAEL ANDREW SPINA, for and in consideration of the sum of Ten Thousand ($10,000.00) Dollars, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, does hereby remise, release and forever discharge DAVID KURTZ, EUGENE BERNADIER, …

Spina v. Kurtz, PA, Denial of MSJ, Civil Action Schuylkill County Prison, 2000

Brief • April 17, 2000

Spina v. Kurtz, PA, Denial of MSJ, Civil Action Schuylkill County Prison, 2000 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA MICHAEL ANDREW SPINA, Plaintiff CIVIL ACTION ElLEDAPR J7~,UlJO v. DAVID KURTZ, et al., Defendants NO. 99-1611 Newcomer, S.J. March MEMORANDUM Presently before this Court is …

Third Circuit Evenly Split on PLRA Attorney Fee Cap

Article • March 15, 2000 • from PLN March, 2000

Filed under: Attorney Fees (PLRA), Excessive Force, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Dogs, Damages

Third Circuit Evenly Split on PLRA Attorney Fee Cap by Circuit has barely upheld the constitutionallity of the Attorney Fee Cap Provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(d). Michael Collins brought suit alleging the defendants violated his constitutional rights when he was attacked by a …

Spina v. Kurtz, PA, Order, Civil Action Schuylkill County Prison, 2000

Brief • March 14, 2000

Spina v. Kurtz, PA, Order, Civil Action Schuylkill County Prison, 2000 ,fc 1f je fl11et1 f-. .1,' u( fott- I £,( ( +r v c( 3 DO W1 . IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA MICB~EL ANDREW SPINA, Plaintiff CIVIL ACTION v. DAVID KURTZ, …

Delay in Treating Injured Shoulder States Claim

Article • February 15, 2000 • from PLN February, 2000

Filed under: Medical, Injury -- Misc.

Delay in Treating Injured Shoulder States Claim by A federal district court in Pennsylvania held that prison officials delaying treatment for a prisoner's dislocated shoulder states a claim under the Eighth amendment. On July 30, 1997, Daniel Petrichko, a Pennsylvania state prisoner, dislocated his shoulder when another prisoner pushed him …

A Matter of Law

Article • February 15, 2000 • from PLN February, 2000

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Police Misconduct

A Matter of Law by Mumia Abu-Jamal By Mumia Abu-Jamal Law is simply politics by other means& - David Kairys, Legal Reasoning When one looks at public projections of police in the corporate and entertainment media, one thinks of someone who is sworn to follow (as opposed to breaking) the …

Warden Purged of Contempt

Article • February 15, 2000 • from PLN February, 2000

Filed under: PLRA, Filing Fees (PLRA), Contempt (Civil Procedure)

Warden Purged of Contempt by In the August, 1999, issue of PLN we reported Hall v. Stone, 170 F.3d 706 (7th Cir. 1999) in which Bureau of Prisons (BOP) warden John Farello was held in contempt of court for failing to pay a prisoners' PLRA filing fee. In this ruling …

Racial Segregation in Double Celling Unconstitutional

Article • October 15, 1999 • from PLN October, 1999

Filed under: Classification, Racial Discrimination

Racial Segregation in Double Celling Unconstitutional by A federal district court in Pennsylvania held that the creation of racial segregation for double-cell assignment may be unconstitutional even if the classification policy specifically forbids such segregation in cell assignments. Seifuddin M. A. Simpson, a Pennsylvania state prisoner, brought suit under 42 …