Alaska: 1991Tort Reform Legislation Facially Constitutional by The Supreme Court of Alaska held that tort reform legislation enacted by the Alaska Legislature was facially constitutional, Plaintiffs, persons considering tort actions, sought declaratory judgment voiding the legislation. The 26, SLA 1997 legislation "included many new tort law including including caps on …
Alaska Prisoners Cannot Challenge Conditions of Confinement Under State Post-Conviction Relief Statute by Roger Smith The Alaska court of appeals has dismissed a prisoner's suit challenging the conditions of his confinement in an Alaska prison under AS § 12.72.020(c), Alaska's post-conviction relief statute. This ruling came after the court found …
Cornell Company - The Prison Industry's Enron by Gary Hunter It was not an earthshaking day when Cornell Corrections was founded in 1991. It was more like a pebble plummeting over a cliff, leading to a landslide of greed and corruption. Backed by Dillon Read Venture Capital, David Cornell's callous …
Successive Petition Habeas Rule in Parole and Disciplinary Cases by Successive Petition Habeas Rule in Parole and Disciplinary Cases The Seventh and Ninth U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, in unrelated cases, have construed and applied the "second or successive petition" rule of 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b). The rule requires that …
Expert Testimony Required in Alaska Medical Suits by The Alaska Supreme Court held that pro se litigants are not entitled to judicial advice as to the ramifications of every decision made during the course of litigation. That court affirmed the trial court's summary dismissal of the pro se plaintiff's medical …
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Sex Offender Registration Laws by In two decisions handed down on March 5, 2003, the United States Supreme Court reversed the Ninth and Second U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, both of which had struck down state sex offender registration laws, popularly known as "Megan's Law(s)." In …
Alaska Prisoners' Benefits Extended to Arizona by The Supreme Court of Alaska sustained a lower court's ruling which provisionally allowed Alaska prisoners to be transferred to an Arizona prison, required the Arizona facility to comply with Alaska's prison overcrowding settlement agreement, and found the Alaska prisoners' challenge to the process …
Good Time on Alaska CS Sentences Subtracted from Aggregate Sentence by The Alaska Court of Appeals held that good time credits for prisoners serving consecutive sentences are subtracted from the entire sentence rather than against each separate sentence. The court also held that prisoners serving more than one sentence receive …
Alaska Prison Design Case Settles for $1 Million by In August, 2001, the state of Alaska settled a lawsuit involving faulty prison design which resulted in serious injury to a prisoner for $1,000,000. In February, 1994, Carry Johnson was returning to his cell at the Ketchikan Correctional Center in Alaska. …
Jailers Liable for Foreseeable Prisoner Suicide by The Supreme Court of Alaska held that a jailer owes its prisoners the duty of reasonable care to protect them from foreseeable harm, including self-inflicted harm. Rudolph Joseph was arrested in Nome, Alaska on. May 11, 1996 and committed to the Anvil Mountain …
Alaska Filing Fee Statute Upheld by The supreme court of Alaska held that a state statute requiring prisoners to pay the filing fees in civil cases is constitutional, but that a superior court erred when it dismissed the plaintiff's case before the time limit it had imposed for the payment …
Alaska Supreme Court Reverses Former Prisoner's $2.4 Million Jury Award by The Supreme Court of Alaska reversed a jury verdict and a $2.4 million damage award in favor of a former prisoner who was injured when he fell down a stairway. In February 1994, Carry Johnson was returning to his …
$1.4 Million Awarded to Raped Alaska Women Prisoners by $1.4 Million Awarded To Raped Alaska Women Prisoners On January 22, 2001 an Anchorage, Alaska superior court jury awarded nearly $1.4 million to five women in a civil action arising from their being sexually assaulted by a guard at an Anchorage …
No Written Screening or Administrative Exhaustion Required by A federal district court in Alaska chided the Alaska attorney general's office when the latter complained the court was not providing a written summary of its screening of prisoner lawsuits under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A. The court held it was under no …
Rehabilitation or Corporate Profit by Peaceful efforts, by Alaskan prisoners, on August 30, 1998, to address grievances and concerns repeatedly ignored at the Central Arizona Detention Center, in Florence, Arizona, were mercilessly squashed following a sit down demonstration in the prison exercise yard. What was initially a peaceful, sit-down demonstration …
Alaska Classification Subject to Court Review by The supreme court of Alaska held that prison classification hearings are adjudicatory determinations subject to judicial review and that Alaska prisoners have a state constitutional right to rehabilitation. Richard Brandon is an Alaska state prisoner transferred to a privately run prison in Florence, …
Alaska Computer Printer Ban Questioned by The supreme court of Alaska held that a state superior court wrongly granted summary judgment to prison officials in a lawsuit challenging a ban on computer printers in the prisoners' cells. Geoffrey Mathis is an Alaska state prisoner. In 1993 prison officials issued a …
Copying Claims Not Barred by Res Judicata by The court of appeals for the ninth circuit held that an Alaska state prisoner's claim that he was denied photocopies was not barred by res judicata where a similar claim was litigated in a class action suit but the issue was not …
Newell Superseded by In the April, 1996, issue of PLN we reported Newell v. Sauser, 64 F.3d 1416 (9th Cir. 1995) which held that Alaska prison officials were not entitled to qualified immunity for infracting a prisoner who had another prisoner's legal papers in his cell. On March 11, 1996, …
Alaska Prisoner Has Right to Call Witnesses at Hearing by The Alaska supreme court held that refusing to allow a prisoner to call witnesses and to question the accusing staff member at a prison disciplinary hearing violated the prisoner's due process rights. Mattfi Abruska is an Alaska state prisoner. He …
