$35,000 Award to New York Prisoner Burned in Kitchen Accident
by David Reutter
A New York Court of Claims awarded $35,000 to a prisoner in a negligence suit seeking damages for injuries sustained while working in the prison kitchen. Having found the prisoner 20% liable, however, the court reduced to ...
TDCJ’s $100 Annual Fee for Prisoner Health Care Held Constitutional
by David M. Reutter
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has found constitutional a Texas statute requiring prisoners to pay a $100 annual health care services fee when they receive medical treatment.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Texas prisoner Robert C. Morris, who challenged a 2011 amendment to Texas Government Code § 501.063, naming Governor Rick Perry as the defendant. As amended, the statute provides that any prisoner “who initiates a visit to a health care provider shall pay a health care services fee to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) in the amount of $100.”
The annual fee “covers all visits to a health care provider that the inmate initiates until the first anniversary of the imposition of the fee.” If the prisoner’s trust fund balance is insufficient, then “50 percent of each deposit to the fund shall be applied toward the balance owed until the total amount owed is paid.” Prison officials “may not deny an inmate access to health care as a result of the inmate’s failure or inability to pay a fee.”
The amendment to § 501.063 further removed exemptions for fees ...
Michigan to Accommodate Religious Rights of Muslim Prisoners
by David M. Reutter
After a Michigan federal district court ruled the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) had violated the religious rights of Muslim prisoners by denying them the ability to attend Eid meals and refusing to accommodate their need to attend weekly prayer services, the MDOC reached an agreement which included the provision of halal food and attendance at religious services that conflict with prison work schedules.
Those legal victories came in a class-action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Michigan in 2009 on behalf of Muslim and Seventh-day Adventist prisoners alleging violations of their rights under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
In a May 24, 2013 order, the district court granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs after adopting a magistrate’s report and recommendation. The court’s subsequent order of relief declared the class members have a right “to attend, congregate for, observe and celebrate ... the Eid ul-fitr and Eid ul-Adha feasts.” The MDOC was ordered to use the Handbook on Religious Groups to identify those feasts, as well as Ramadan fasts and Seders.
Special provisions ...
Grand Jury Report: Prisoners in Charge at Mississippi County Jail
by David Reutter
The prisoners seem to be in control of the Hinds County, Mississippi Detention Center because the jail does not have enough staff to adequately monitor them, according to a scathing Hinds County Grand Jury report filed on October 2, 2014 in County Circuit Court. The grand jury members inspected the facility, which became the focus of a U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation to determine if prisoners were in danger of violence following a March 2014 riot that left one prisoner dead and at least seven others injured.
“We noted that there were not enough officers to secure the Jail,” the report said. “Those officers that were on duty there were frightened of the inmates. The inmates seemed to be in control of the Jail as a result of the shortage of guards.”
The grand jury laid the blame directly at the feet of Hinds County Sheriff Tyrone Lewis. “After hearing from the Sheriff and his team, we are of the opinion that Sheriff Lewis is incompetent to oversee the jail or keep pretrial detainees or state inmates in a safe manner or to keep the ...
North Carolina Prisons Slow to Change Attitudes about Mentally Ill Prisoners
by David M. Reutter
The head of North Carolina’s Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice is calling for more than $20 million in additional state funding to pay for changes in the way the state prison system takes care of its approximately 4,600 mentally ill prisoners – 12% of North Carolina’s total prison population.
The request by corrections commissioner W. David Guice came in the wake of the high-profile dehydration death of mentally ill prisoner Michael Anthony Kerr on March 12, 2014 after more than a month in solitary confinement, when the water to Kerr’s cell had twice been disconnected. [See: PLN, May 2015, p.60]. Guice made the request when he appeared before a December 11, 2014 meeting of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety that was convened to examine the state’s treatment of mentally ill prisoners.
Guice requested $16 million to hire 308 new employees to help manage mentally ill prisoners, plus additional funding to operate 72 beds for mentally ill prisoners at Central Prison in Raleigh that are in place but not being used due to budget cuts, according to Terri Cartlett, ...
Pennsylvania: $65,000 Settlement for Brain Injury Caused by Guard’s Excessive Force
by David Reutter
Pennsylvania’s Erie County Prison (ECP) agreed to pay $65,000 to settle a federal lawsuit claiming a guard used excessive force on a prisoner, causing brain damage.
Jerome McCallion was housed in ECP’s Restrictive Housing Unit in ...
Closed Colorado Prison Converted into Homeless Program
by David Reutter
Nearly two years after it opened on September 3, 2013, supporters of Fort Lyon, a former Colorado prison-turned-homeless facility, say it’s too soon to call the program administered by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless a success. But officials say there is growing support for the sprawling campus in extreme southeast Colorado that once housed minimum-security prisoners but now accommodates more than 200 men and women who previously lived on the streets.
Fort Lyon, a former frontier fortress, was a veterans hospital for about 80 years until 2001, when it became too expensive to operate. State officials converted it into a prison, but Governor John Hickenlooper ordered it closed in 2011 due to budget cuts. Amid a great deal of controversy, Fort Lyon was converted into a facility to house chronically homeless persons suffering from addictions they could not overcome in an urban environment.
The sprawling campus is remote, but in many ways idyllic: located on 552 acres, the former prison can house up to 775 people. The facility has two swimming pools, eight wells, a water treatment plant, agricultural facilities, sports fields, metal and wood shops, a state-of-the-art kitchen, ...
California: Private Medical Provider can be Liable for ADA Violations; Class-action Suit Settles
by David M. Reutter
A California federal district court held in September 2014 that a jail’s private medical provider may be held liable under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); the class-action lawsuit later settled, with the jail agreeing to make a number of policy changes.
At issue was a complaint that alleged the Monterey County Jail (MCJ) had substandard conditions that included “violence due to understaffing, overcrowding, inadequate training, policies, procedures, facilities, and prisoner classification; inadequate medical and mental health care screening, attention, distribution, and resources; and lack of policies and practices for identifying, tracking, responding, communicating, and providing accessibility for accommodations for prisoners with disabilities.” [See: PLN, June 2014, p.1].
The defendants, including the County of Monterey, Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and California Forensic Medical Group (CFMG), filed motions to dismiss. MCJ frequently houses more than 1,100 prisoners; the majority are pretrial detainees who stay an average 30-40 days.
Health care at the facility is provided under a contract with CFMG, which is responsible for determining “the method, details, and means of performing services.” The complaint in the class-action suit listed ...
Two Kentucky Jail Guards Face Charges in Prisoner’s Death
by David Reutter
A special prosecutor has been appointed to try a first-degree manslaughter case against two Kentucky jail guards indicted in the 2013 beating death of a 54-year-old prisoner who was being held on a DUI charge. Assistant Attorney General Barbara Maines-Whaley was named on February 26, 2014 to serve as prosecuting attorney.
Maines-Whaley will present the state’s evidence against Kentucky River Regional Jail guards Damon W. Hickman and William C. Howell, who were indicted for the July 9, 2013 death of prisoner Larry Trent after an altercation at the jail. Following the incident, Trent was restrained and placed in a holding cell. At around 10:50 a.m., jail staff found him unresponsive; he was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Although an official cause of death was not released, the state medical examiner’s preliminary report cited “jail beating” as the cause of Trent’s injuries. That report found Trent had suffered “blunt impacts of the head, trunk, and extremities with multiple skeletal and visceral injuries.”
In an incident report obtained by the Hazard Herald newspaper, Howell wrote that Trent “came out fighting. I tased him, [but] he ...
$36 Million Awarded to Two Men Wrongfully Convicted of Rape, Murder
by David Reutter
A New York federal jury awarded $36 million to two of three former prisoners wrongfully convicted in the 1984 rape and murder of a teenage girl.
The horrific death of Theresa Fusco, 16, was a high-profile ...
