Photos Unlawful by Scott Lattany was a federal pretrial detainee representing himself pro se on criminal charges in Philadelphia. Lattany was taken from his cell to the jail parking lot where he and other prisoners were photographed by U.S. Marshalls. Lattany protested the picture taking as illegal and racist, one …
RFRA Supersedes O'Lone by O'Lone As reported in PLN, Vol. 5, No. 6, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) was signed into law by President Clinton in November, 1993. It forbids government infringement of religious rights and claims. The RFRA is already being applied to prisoner civil rights actions with …
Detainees Have Right to be Vermin Free by Two federal pretrial detainees housed under contract in the Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) in Pennsylvania sued jail officials for a wide variety of ailments affecting jail prisoners. Among the issues they filed suit on were: inadequate ventilation, extreme temperatures, excessive noise, use …
Double Celling Pre-Trial Detainees Violates Due Process by Several animal rights protestors arrested while demonstrating against an annual pigeon shoot filed suit against Schuykill County Prison in Pennsylvania, and it's officials, alleging that the conditions of confinement during their stay at the prison violated their constitutional rights. The conditions complained …
Smoking Ban Upheld by In May of 1993 officials at the Berks County Prison in Pennsylvania initiated a policy which prohibited smoking by prisoners at the facility. Four prisoners filed suit claiming that the ban on smoking constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of their eighth amendment rights. They …
Court Rules Suit Waiver is Not Enforceable by This case involves release-dismissal agreements where a party will agree not to sue a government agency or official and the agency in turn agrees to either drop or reduce charges against the person. In many cases prison officials will have prisoners agree …
Third Circuit Announces Rules for Appointment of Counsel by Harvey Tabron is a Pennsylvania state prisoner. He sued prison officials claiming they had failed to protect him from attack by another prisoner. In the course of the litigation Tabron requested that the district court appoint counsel to represent him, order …
Bankruptcy Appeal Filed When Mailed by Three Pennsylvania state prisoners appealed the dismissal of their appeals from bankruptcy court after the district court held the appeal was untimely. Bankruptcy appeals must be filed within ten days, and in this case the prisoners gave their appeals to prison officials within the …
Prison Medical Treatment Law Explained by APennsylvania state prisoner brought a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint against a prison doctor and hospital administrator, alleging that the medical treatment provided to him violated the eighth amendment to the U.S. constitution. The defendant hospital workers moved to dismiss the complaint pursuant to …
Cops Shaft Informant by In 1989 John Fay was serving a 15-35 year sentence for a second degree murder committed in 1973 and a 1984 armed robbery. While at the county jail pending a hearing on the robbery conviction, Fay came in contact with two guys who had just been …
PA Women File Suit Over Property by by D.M. Muncy, PA Our other lawsuit, on our property, seems to be at a standstill. The defendants filed an answer to our complaint, we filed an answer to their answer and now we're just waiting. We've heard nothing since June. We tried …
Campaign of Repression by Mumia Abu-Jamal By Mumia Abu Jamal The most repressive regime in America just got more repressive. In November, 1992, the Pennsylvania (PA) Department of Corrections implemented revised administrative directives 801/802. [ Editors Note: These rules affect only prisoners in administrative and disciplinary segregation. ] With planned …
Confiscation of Legal Materials States Claim by Wayne Zilich is a Pennsylvania state prisoner. When he was transferred from prison to a county jail for court proceedings jail guards confiscated a number of his transcripts, legal materials and papers and refused to return them. Zilich filed suit under § 1983 …
BOP Liable for Overcrowding and Opening Detainees Mail by Richard Young is a federal pretrial detainee. While awaiting trial he was housed at the US Penitentiary in Lewisburg, PA. He filed suit claiming that the conditions of confinement violated his right to be free from punishment. The conditions included being …
PA Prison Expansion Fails to Cut Crime by A recent report prepared for the Pennsylvania State Commission on Sentencing found that a dramatic increase in the state's prison population has not reduced violent crime. The report, Incarceration and Crime: Facing Fiscal Realities in Pennsylvania, by Penn State University Professor Darrell …
Damages Awarded in PA Beating and Walk by William Giroux is a Pennsylvania state prisoner. He filed suit claiming that his eighth amendment rights were violated when prison guards beat him and made him walk a lengthy distance in manacles and chains, knowing he had a heart condition. After a …
Unlawful to Read Legal Mail in Prisoner's Cell by Robert Proudfoot is a Pennsylvania state prisoner. After anonymous informants stated Proudfoot was selling drugs from his cell, prison guards searched his cell three times in eight days. No drugs were found. During one of three cell searches guards opened sealed …
Death Row Prisoners Can Marry by Roger Buehl is a Pennsylvania state prisoner on death row. In 1990 Buehl requested permission for a special one time visit in order to marry his girlfriend, Deborah Ayres. Prison officials denied the request citing a 1985 incident where Ayres had been caught smuggling …
Penn. Senate Warned of Possible Prison TB Epidemic by Tuberculosis may spread from state prisons and become Pennsylvania's number one health concern if officials fail to implement proper controls, a witness told a state Senate committee last November in Harrisburg. ACLU lawyer Stephan Presser said the recent discovery that nearly …
Free Speech for Whom? by Mumia Abu-Jamal [EDITOR'S NOTE: In the Dec., 1992 issue of PLN we reported that supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal, the former Black Panther on death row in Pennsylvania accused of killing a cop, had shouted down Penn. Governor Casey at a forum in New York …
