by David M. Reutter
As of January 23, 2023, only $250,000 had been tapped of a $2.5 million allocation made by the Washington legislature in 2022 for grants to counties to ease ballot access for those in jail.
Many people in jail are eligible to vote because they are being detained pretrial or they have a low-level conviction. But these eligible voters are often denied ballots or even information about how to request one.
When Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton presented a plan in September 2022 to increase voter registration and participation in the County’s two jails with grant funds, she met stiff resistance and was denied approval.
Politics were clearly at the forefront. “So, if you’re a candidate that’s campaigning on a position of being tough on crime, obviously you’re not going to get a lot of votes out of the jail, and the inverse of that also could apply,” Commissioner Al French noted at the meeting.
Responded Dalton, “We don’t speculate how people vote. We just need to make sure that they have the opportunity to register to receive a ballot and return the ballot.”
But French, in an interview with Bolts Magazine, doubled down on his ...
by David M. Reutter
On February 2, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed, in large part, an order that found ongoing violations of the rights of disabled prisoners at California’s R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility (RJD) and five additional state prisons, all resulting from the failure to adequately investigate and discipline staff misconduct by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
The opinion was issued in a class-action lawsuit that was filed in 1994, alleging widespread violations of the American with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. ch. 126, § 12101, et seq., and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq.
In 2018, auditors from CDCR and Class Counsel attorneys conducted a compliance review of disability policies at RJD. The resulting memo documented prisoner reports that “staff members forcefully remov[ed] some [Class] members from wheelchairs” and “assault[ed] inmates [who] were already secured with restraint equipment.”
A state “strike team” was sent to RJD to investigate the reports. It found 48 of the 102 prisoners interviewed “provided specific, actionable information, relevant to the foundational concerns” of staff misconduct that prompted the review.
The strike team recommended, among other things, installing surveillance cameras at certain ...
by David M. Reutter
On March 6, 2023, a Michigan prisoner dismissed his complaint against officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) after agreeing to accept $30,000 to settle claims that he suffered the “stigmatizing consequences” of being falsely classified as a sex offender.
In January 2018, Willie E. Harper, Jr. entered DOC custody, after pleading guilty to First Degree Home Invasion. As part of his plea agreement, prosecutors dropped a charge of Criminal Sexual Conduct. Yet when Harper arrived at Charles Egeler Reception & Guidance Center, a DOC “Classification Director” named Egbuchulam assigned him a “high assaultive risk,” apparently based in part on the dropped charge.
Worse, Harper was assigned to Muskegon Correctional Facility (MCF), site of the state Sex Offender Program (SOP), in which his classification meant he would be enrolled. Worse still, he would have to “admit” to sex offenses in order to complete SOP, and if he didn’t, his parole might be denied or delayed.
Harper objected and asked for an administrative hearing, but none was provided before he was transferred to MCF. There two mental health practitioners named Arkesteyn and Foster oversaw SOP. Harper named them in a grievance he filed and carried all ...
by David M. Reutter
On March 29, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit raised the high bar a prisoner must clear in civil rights litigation just a little bit higher. It held that a federal prisoner must exhaust both internal and external remedies before pursuing a claim in federal court under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (RA), 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq.
The Court’s opinion affirmed a district court’s finding that the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e, requires exhaustion of available remedies from both the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Administrative Remedy Program (ARP) and the Director for Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) of BOP’s parent agency, the U.S. Department of Justice.
On February 28, 2019, while imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina, Webster Williams developed a strong urge to urinate while walking to his work assignment. Williams suffered from several medical conditions, including kidney disease, and took a prescribed diuretic that caused excessive urination. But just as he headed to the restroom, an alarm triggered elsewhere in the prison.
BOP Unit Manager Willis responded by heading to the restroom and telling prisoners there to return to their cells. ...
by David M. Reutter
On March 23, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held it was not error to deny qualified immunity (QI) to a New York prison official who “affirmatively decided” not to heed a federal court decision that it was unconstitutional to administratively impose post-release supervision (PRS) on a state prisoner. But it reversed an award for resulting damages, sending the case back to a district court to determine when exactly they should begin to be calculated.
The case follows another recently heard concerning administratively imposed PRS, which the Court first found unconstitutional in 2006, holding that PRS may be imposed only by a court, not by the state Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS). [See: PLN, Apr. 2010, p.46.] In March 2022, the federal court for the Southern District of New York refused a bid by DOCCS to decertify the class in suit then action brought by prisoners subjected to illegally imposed PRS. [See: PLN, Oct. 2022, p.50.]
This case involved the illegal imposition of PRS on state prisoner Shawn Michael Vincent. As PLN has previously reported, Vincent was sentenced in 2001 to five years imprisonment and released conditionally on ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on January 11, 2023, affirmed a district court ruling that when an Illinois prisoner’s attorney submitted his grievances to the appropriate administrative office on time, his administrative remedies were exhausted, as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e.
While held by the state Department of Corrections (DOC) at Hill Correctional Center, Randall J. Behning was allegedly attacked by guards after requesting daily medication that had been delayed. He accused two guards of assaulting him while others looked on. Behning further claimed he received inadequate medical care from Nurse Paula Young when taken to the prison emergency room. He also alleged denial of due process in prison disciplinary proceedings, when he was found guilty of assaulting the guard instead.
As a result of that finding, Behning was transferred to Pontiac Correctional Center and placed in solitary confinement. He attempted to file grievances there concerning the altercation, his claims of inadequate medical care and alleged procedural defects in his disciplinary hearing. Because he was at a prison other than the one where the incidents occurred, he was required by policy to submit his grievances ...
by David M. Reutter
On February 3, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reinstated an Indiana prisoner’s civil rights complaint that had been dismissed because he failed to exhaust administrative remedies, as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e. The Court found the prisoner’s low IQ and his placement in segregation may have rendered those remedies unavailable.
Howard Smallwood was found unresponsive in his cell at Pendleton Correctional Facility on October 22, 2017. He was taken to the prison medical unit and treated for a presumed drug overdose with two doses of Narcan. When he awoke, Smallwood denied taking any drugs and reminded the nurse he was a diabetic and had been similarly found unresponsive before.
Dr. Paul Talbot, however, ordered urinalysis screening for drugs. It came back negative. Talbot then ordered a blood test to further screen for drugs. Smallwood refused, but guards told him he had no choice. When Smallwood resisted, guards allegedly “twisted his hands and wrists, placed him in a head lock, and held a taser to his chest while they placed him in restraints,” the Court recalled, before “[t]hey then forced Smallwood into a chair and ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, in a mixed ruling issued on January 11, 2023, found a prisoner’s allegations satisfied the physical injury requirement of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e. The Court found that because the injuries required medical treatment, they were not de minimus.
Colorado prisoner Jabari J. Johnson is a “prolific pro se litigant,” the Court began, one who “by his own count” had filed over 60 civil rights suits accusing prison officials of violating his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. But all those lawsuits, except for those pending at the time of the instant appeal, were dismissed for failure to prosecute or failure to comply with court orders or procedural rules.
Johnson was escorted on May 3, 2018, to his prison’s case manager to retrieve copies he had requested of prior grievances. The case manager inquired about Johnson’s upcoming suits. When Johnson refused to answer, the case manager became irate and ordered Johnson to leave if he wouldn’t answer questions. Johnson agreed to leave, and he was ordered to “cuff up.”
Moments later, Sgt. Joaquin Reyna, Lt. Brett Corbin, and another guard named Wargo ...
by David M. Reutter
On February 3, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment to Virginia prison officials, in a civil rights complaint by a state prisoner alleging a guard falsely accused him of sexual harassment and supervisors refused him evidence that would exonerate him.
Before the Court was an appeal brought by Emmanual King Shaw, who has been held at Sussex I State Prison (SISP) since 2017. A female guard charged Shaw on July 19, 2017, with directing lewd behavior toward her in the prison showers. Shaw denied the allegation and contended security-camera footage would vindicate him.
Shaw was placed in isolation pending a hearing on the charge, which should have occurred within 15 days under state Department of Corrections (DOC) policy. From August 2 to 10, 2017, Shaw filed multiple internal complaints and letters to prison officials regarding the delay in his hearing, accusing staff of opening and intercepting them under pretense they had a faulty destination address.
When a disciplinary hearing was finally held on August 17, 2017, the supervising guard refused to review any security-camera footage and found Shaw guilty on the charging guard’s statements. ...
by David M. Reutter
On January 30, 2023, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rebuffed Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) officials who wanted to execute a condemned prisoner by lethal injection. Instead, the Court found that Michael Wade Nance offered a plausible alternative method for his death: Firing Squad.
Nance was 27 when he robbed an Atlanta-area bank in 1993. After dye packets that tellers bagged with the loot exploded inside his getaway car, he ran across the street and carjacked liquor store customer Gabor Balogh, fatally shooting the 43-year-old. A jury sentenced Nance to death in 1997.
In January 2020, Nance sued DOC in federal court for the Northern District of Georgia. Proceeding under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, he argued that his veins are “severely compromised,” so inserting an intravenous catheter for lethal injection might cause a vein to “blow” and leak toxins into the surrounding tissue. He also said his prescription Gabapentin lowered the effectiveness of the pentobarbital used as a sedative in DOC’s lethal injection protocol. Both claims, he said, put him at unconstitutional risk of pain. The state had no alternative execution method, but Nance offered one - ...
