by David Reutter
New technology is giving law enforcement agencies the ability to identify people by taking a photo of their tattoos; it can also group people with others who have the same type of body art.
Federal researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have launched ...
by David M. Reutter
A federal investigation into the abuse of pretrial detainees at Louisiana’s Iberia Parish Jail resulted in guilty pleas by ten sheriff’s deputies. A trial is pending for an 11th deputy who did not plead guilty, Mark Frederick. Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal was also charged but ...
by David Reutter
The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County was found to be in willful noncompliance with the Tennessee Public Records Act. It was order to pay $56,884.55 in attorney fees and expenses as a result.
Plaintiff Bradley Jetmore filed suit against the two counties, claiming the police ...
by David Reutter
The Florida Supreme Court held a defendant may be found guilty of violating probation for failing to admit to engaging in sexually deviant behavior during a sex offender program.
Warren Staples entered a “best-interest” guilty plea to one count of traveling to meet a minor. As part ...
by David Reutter
The Vermont Supreme Court held that statutes and policies that do not retroactively after or limit the Vermont Department of Corrections (VDOC) discretion over a prisoner’s treatment programming and early release, their application did not result in a longer sentence than under the prior statutes and policies. ...
by David Reutter
The City of Cumming, Georgia, agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging it prohibited a citizen from filming a City Council meeting.
Nydia Tisdale attended an April 17, 2012, Cumming City Council meeting with a plan to video record the proceedings to part on her ...
by David Reutter
The Bureau of Prisons paid $150,000 to settle a prisoner’s Federal Tort Claim Act action that alleged she was sexually assaulted by a guard.
The plaintiff, identified as V.O.M. to protect her identity was imprisoned at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky. She alleged that on ...
by David Reutter
Federal prosecutors used the testimony of a jailhouse snitch at a bond hearing to argue a doctor charged with tax evasion and fraud should be denied bond because he is too dangerous to release.
Dr. Erik Von Kiel was arrested in February 2004. In July, he had a hearing to request release on a $250,000 bond. Federal prosecutors presented the testimony of his cellmate, Matthew Althouse, to contest the release.
Althouse is serving a seven-year federal sentence for a 2009 bank robbery. He became Von Kiel’s cellmate after Von Kiel’s arrest. The charges contend Von Kiel claimed he was living as a minister under a vow of poverty to avoid paying $257,000 in taxes between 2008 and 2012 and $161,000 in student loans. Von Kiel’s paycheck from Primecare, a prison medical contractor, was deposited into an account controlled by Utah-based religious medical society International Academy of Lymphology. The academy would then transfer an identical amount into an account held by Von Kiel. A grand jury also charged Von Kiel with lying on application to obtain financial aide for his four oldest children and trying to claim social security disabilities benefits due ...
by David M. Reutter
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is auditing dozens of tax-exempt bond-financed jail deals. The audits are looking into whether the bonds are no longer tax-exempt and are taxable private-activity bonds.
In recent years, many local governments have made investments into the prison industry. Typically, such deals ...
by David Reutter
Alabama’s prison system has such an engrained culture of abusing prisoners that guards and administrators need not fear serious career consequences; in fact, they can expect to be promoted with abuse flags in their files.
That culture was highlighted in an investigative report by AL.com. The report was based upon “hundreds of personnel documents” obtained from the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), whose overcrowded prison system is under scrutiny by federal officials. PLN has previously reported on a federal probe at ADOC’s Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women [See: PLN, Sept. 2003, p.31].
Al.com’s report contained reported incidents in current ADOC warden’s file. Amongst rose was Carter Davenport, the warden at St. Clair Correctional Facility, ADOC’s second-most-violent prison.
Carter, a 24 year veteran, rose up the ranks as a guard. He was a captain at Tutwiler and was Deputy Warden at Camden Community Based Facility before becoming Warden at Easterling and Fountain Correctional Facilities. He became warden at St. Clair in 2010.
That year, St. Clair reported 23 assaults. In 2013, there were 101 assaults reported at the prison. ADOC attributes the rise in assault reports to a 2009 policy change that includes all prisoner-on-prisoner and prisoner-on-guard ...
