by David M. Reutter
The systemic failure of medical care at California’s Sacramento County Main Jail (SCMJ) resulted in a prisoner’s avoidable death that has cost taxpayers $1.45 million. For years, SCMJ’s healthcare system has been severely deficient – yet jail officials continue to use the county’s Correctional Health Services ...
by David M. Reutter
Despite federal oversight of its prison medical care, Delaware “continues to have a great deal more to achieve before it comes into substantial compliance with all provisions of the MOA” (Memorandum of Agreement) the state entered into with the U.S. Department of Justice.
That was the ...
by David M. Reutter
Three Florida prison guards have been arrested and charged in the December 16, 2008 beating of a handcuffed prisoner at the Charlotte Correctional Institution (CCI). The criminal proceedings can be viewed as a fulfillment of Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) Secretary Walter McNeil’s vow to prosecute ...
by David M. Reutter
In denying a motion to dismiss, the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts held on July 1, 2009 that prison supervisors could be held liable for the sexual abuse of a prisoner because they failed to train, supervise and investigate claims concerning repeated rumors of a guard’s ...
by David M. Reutter
After nearly thirty years, a class-action lawsuit challenging conditions of confinement at the State Prison of Southern Michigan-Center Complex is on the cusp of ending. The end is in sight not because prison officials have fully complied with a court-monitored consent decree, but because they closed ...
by David M. Reutter
Businesses seeking to profit from the exponential expansion of our nation’s prison population are now turning to visitation. Florida-based JPay is implementing its “video-conference visitation” in Indiana’s prison system, while other companies, such as einmate.com, are developing similar prison-based video visitation programs.
The use of technology ...
A New Hampshire jury awarded two former prison guards nearly $2 million upon finding that two of their co-workers had lied about a confrontation with a prisoner, which resulted in their firing.
After guards Shawn Stone and Todd Conner accused fellow prison guards Timothy Hallam and Joseph Laramie of participating ...
by David M. Reutter
Four Pennsylvania guards have been fired for beating a prisoner at the Westmoreland County Prison (WCP). The June 8, 2009 incident revealed a cover-up orchestrated by prison guards and their union leader.
When WCP prisoner James Edwards, 27, and other prisoners in his cellblock were ordered ...
by David M. Reutter
PLN has reported several times on the plight of Florida sex offenders forced to live under the Julia Tuttle Causeway in Miami due to restrictive sex offender residency laws. [See: PLN, July 2009, p.36; June 2008, p.1]. Despite local and national media attention, as well as ...
by David M. Reutter
“We’re a law-respecting, law-abiding community. ... We teach our children to respect and look up to men and women who wear badges, and that’s the way it oughta be,” said Florida state senator Don Gaetz. But the way it “oughta be” and the way things are ...
