by Derek Gilna
In a unanimous decision, on June 19, 2017 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a North Carolina statute that prohibits convicted sex offenders from accessing “a commercial social networking Web site where the sex offender knows that the site permits minor children to become members or to ...
by Derek Gilna
Kevin Dixon was a pretrial detainee at the Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois when he was diagnosed with a paratracheal mass. Unfortunately, according to the Seventh Circuit, medical personnel at the facility “were aware of the problem, but they accused [him] of malingering, gave him over-the-counter ...
by Derek Gilna
In July 2016, New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against Armor Correctional Health Services, the medical provider for the jail in Nassau County. The suit alleged a dozen prisoners had died at the facility, in large part due to substandard medical care ...
by Derek Gilna
On June 23, 2016, jail officials in Genesee County, Michigan entered into a federal consent decree that required them to provide detainees with bottled water to replace water at the jail that was contaminated by lead. [See: PLN, March 2016, p.22]. As part of the consent ...
by Derek Gilna
On August 2, 2016, officials in San Diego County, California agreed to settle a federal civil rights suit stemming from a prisoner’s death caused by a drug overdose at the county’s central jail.
According to the complaint, Bernard Victorianne, 28, was arrested for driving under the influence; ...
by Derek Gilna
In a July 2016 report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) found that 16 of the 18 immigrant detainees who died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody from 2012 to 2015 received substandard medical care, and that in 7 of those cases, inadequate care likely contributed to their ...
by Derek Gilna
New Mexico District Court Judge Raymond Z. Ortiz ruled in August 2016 that Corizon Health, a for-profit medical services provider, must release its settlement agreements in lawsuits filed against the company by New Mexico prisoners.
Until last year, Corizon provided medical care at 10 state correctional facilities. ...
by Derek Gilna
Immigration and Customs (ICE) officials in northern California agreed to settle a three-year-old federal class-action lawsuit that focused on ICE policies which unnecessarily restricted the ability of immigration detainees to communicate with their counsel and prepare for court hearings. The November 2016 settlement required ICE to pay ...
by Derek Gilna
Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was sentenced on May 12, 2017 to three years in federal prison for lying to federal officials investigating allegations of corruption, physical abuse, bribery and misconduct in the LA County Sheriff’s Department (LASD). The sentence brought to an end a lengthy prosecution that laid bare what U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson called a “blind obedience to a corrupt culture.”
Baca, 74, was convicted by a jury after the court rejected a plea agreement that would have resulted in a six-month sentence. After his guilty plea was denied, Baca’s first trial ended in an 11-1 deadlock in favor of acquittal on obstruction charges; he was convicted at a second trial. [See: PLN, Aug. 2016, p.34; March, 2016, p.1].
“This verdict sends a clear message that no one is above the law,” said acting U.S. Attorney Sandra Brown. “He knew right from wrong and he made the decision. That decision was to commit a crime.”
A total of nine people, including Baca’s second-in-command, Paul Tanaka, were convicted and received prison sentences in connection with what the FBI termed a long-running conspiracy to conceal evidence from a grand jury reviewing allegations ...
by Derek Gilna
Global Tel*Link (GTL), the telecom company known for exploiting prisoners with high phone rates to maintain communication with their friends and family members, agreed on March 27, 2017 to pay $8.8 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 ...
