by John E. Dannenberg
The attorneys who labored twelve years to overturn the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's unconstitutional practice of snatching parolees off the streets and incarcerating them without due process of law [i.e., bed vacancy-driven recidivism] (see: PLN, January, 2003, p.16; April, 2004, p.24; March, 2005, p.1) ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling by the U.S. District Court (N.D. Cal.) that the failure of a prison health care manager to provide a Hepatitis-C positive (HCV+) prisoner with a timely liver biopsy amounted to deliberate indifference to his serious medical ...
Ohio Pre-S.B. No. 2 Indeterminately Sentenced Prisoners Who Took a Plea are Entitled to Meaningful New Parole Hearings
by John E. Dannenberg
The Ohio State Court of Appeals, Tenth Appellate District, ruled that the class of Ohio state prisoners who, prior to the enactment of S.B. No. 2 in 1996, ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The U.S. District Court, N.D. Cal., ruled that Californias recent Proposition 69, which provides for DNA collection from all convicted persons, does not apply retroactively to exconvicts who have been discharged from custody, parole or probation.
A class action suit was brought by the American Civil ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals permitted a prisoners damages claim against the New York Department of Corrections (DOC) to proceed after he had been denied treatment for his Hepatitis-C (HCV) disease because he had tested positive for marijuana within the preceding two years.
Great ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, applying the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Person Act (RLUIPA) (42 U.S.C. § 2000cc, et seq.), held that the blanket three-inch hair length policy (for male prisoners only) imposed by the California Department of Corrections (CDC) was not the least ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Wyoming Department of Corrections (WDOC) settled an Eighth Amendment-based class action complaint brought by prisoner Brad Skinner for WDOC's failure to protect prisoners from assault by other prisoners. The court (U.S. District Court, D. Wyo.) also awarded Skinner's attorneys $427,158 in fees and costs, an ...
Under pressure from U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson, who earlier in 2004 threatened wholesale federal court takeover of the California Department of Corrections (CDC), the CDC stipulated to an order aimed at ending the use of untrained, unqualified and/or incompetent doctors, nurses and physician assistants in its $1 billion ...
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the U.S. District Court's ruling below (and permanent injunction) that the Washington DOC (WA DOC) policy of prohibiting prisoners' receipt of standard rate mail (AKA bulk mail) and catalogs with no notice to the sender or intended recipient violated the First and ...
Tenth Circuit Reverses Dismissal of PLN Suit Challenging
Kansas DOC Ban On Gift Subscriptions
by John E. Dannenberg
The Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the district court's grant of summary judgment to prison officials (see: Zimmerman v. Simmons, 260 F.Supp.2d 1077 (D. Kan. 2003)) which had ...