by Matt Clarke
On March 20, 2024, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed SB 334, a bill passed by state lawmakers to prevent prosecutors and courts from requiring criminal defendants to waive their Fourth Amendment rights as a condition of a plea agreement or court order—waivers that can survive completion of their criminal sentences for decades.
Under the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 10 of the Virginia Constitution, citizens have a right not to be subjected to unreasonable search and seizure. But for many state prisoners, even after release, “You can be walking down the street, and a uniformed law enforcement officer can stop you, recognize you, and know you have a waiver, and then proceed to just search you without any cause,” according to Rob Poggenklass, Executive Director of the advocacy group Justice Forward Virginia.
That leaves criminal defendants facing an “impossible choice,” according to Lauren Whitley, Chief Public Defender for Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, King George and Stafford Counties, where the waivers are standard conditions of most plea agreements—which most criminal cases are resolved with, like 95% of those in the U.S.
“It encourages bad policing,” she said. “Fourth Amendment waivers give [police] free reign to do whatever they ...
by Matt Clarke
When detainee Reynaldo Ramos, 55, was found unresponsive in his Robert Pressley Detention Center cell in California’s Riverside County on April 16, 2024, efforts to resuscitate him failed, and he was pronounced dead. He had been arrested on drug trafficking charges 10 days earlier. The County Sheriff’s ...
by Matt Clarke
On February 29, 2024, the federal court for the Central District of California approved a settlement under which Riverside County paid $7.5 million to the survivors of a county jail detainee who died in custody. The agreement resolved a lawsuit they filed blaming the death of Christopher ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
"Does somebody have any common sense?”
That was the question U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken had for Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) officials when they appeared before her on December 12, 2023, to respond to a show-cause motion by transgender state prisoner Zera Lola Zombie, who ...
by Matt Clarke
Former Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC) parole officer Ronald R. Tyler, 57, was sentenced to three years in federal prison on March 21, 2024, for sexually assaulting three probationers. Victims Stephanie Logsdon Smith, Cammie Musinski and Bridgett Dennis—later known as Bridgett Parson—filed suit against Tyler. DOC fired ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
In November 2023, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published an audit of the $2.75 million contract awarded to the American Correctional Association (ACA) by DOJ’s Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to accredit and reaccredit its lockups. The ...
by Matt Clarke
On November 28, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit declined to let a federal prisoner sue officials with the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) who allegedly put him in harm’s way at an Illinois lockup. The decision was predictable, given the adamant ...
by Matt Clarke
On November 22, 2023, the Supreme Court of Ohio reiterated that a prisoner’s “kite”—his communication with staff—is a public record subject to disclosure upon request. Moreover, the Court added, a prisoner may bring a petition for a writ of mandamus to enforce his right to a ...
by Matt Clarke
On November 7, 2023, a Vermont court ruled in favor of the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), publisher of PLN and Criminal Legal News, in its request for records from Centurion of Vermont related to its contract to provide medical, dental and mental health care to prisoners of the state Department of Corrections (DOC) between 2015 and 2020.
Pursuant to the Vermont Public Records Act (PRA), 1 V.S.A. subchapter 3, HRDC requested that Centurion disclose records related to any legal claims that resulted in expenditures of $1,000 or more. Centurion responded that it was not subject to the PRA. Aided by Burlington attorney Robert Appeal and in-house counsel, HRDC sued Centurion for disclosure.
The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. Centurion alleged it was not subject to PRA, and if it was, the records were not public records, and, if they were, the records were exempt from disclosure pursuant to 1 V.S.A. § 317(c).
But the Court found controlling the decision in Hum. Rights Def. Ctr. v. Correct Care Sols., LLC, 263 A.3d 1260 (Vt. 2021), agreeing with the nonprofit that Centurion’s contract with DOC made it an “instrumentality” of the state and subject to ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
On December 20, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that an Illinois prisoner’s challenge to civil commitment as a sexually violent person after release cannot be raised under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, unless the underlying civil commitment is first terminated in his favor or shown to be invalid “through another outlet.” The ruling extended application of the principal laid out in Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), that a civil rights challenge to prison disciplinary action is barred whenever a favorable ruling for the prisoner would necessarily imply that it was invalid.
After serving his eight-year Illinois state sentence for sexual assault, Timothy Bell was civilly committed under the state’s Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act (SVPCA), 725 ILCS §§ 207/1 - 207/99. Pursuant to that law, he remained incarcerated in an Illinois prison for another 16 years.
Bell filed a pro se federal civil rights action against state Attorney General Kwame Raouo (D) and the assistant attorney general who conducted his commitment proceedings. Proceeding pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, he challenged his continued incarceration for exceeding an alleged 15-year statutory cap. But during screening pursuant to 28 ...
