A report on the 2004 hostage crisis at the Arizona Prison Complex-Lewis took hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars and more than three months to produce. But thanks to partisan politics and bureaucratic infighting, the report may never be released.
On January 18, 2004, two prisoners seized control of an ...
On October 22, 2004, a federal jury awarded a Maryland state prisoner $45,001 in damages after concluding that Institution (WCI) guards violated his civil rights by beating him while he was handcuffed.
The jury found guards Gary A. Knight and Robert Huff individually liable for assaulting Norman R. Willis, 37, ...
On July 22, 2010, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District IV, held that three prison employees – sued over their involvement in withholding pictures deemed pornographic by Department of Corrections policy – were entitled to qualified immunity. The court also held that four of the 15 contested photos were not ...
by Mike Rigby
On May 6, 2010, the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, held that indigent defendants in five New York counties who alleged they were effectively provided no representation at their arraignment and subsequent legal proceedings raised justiciable claims.
The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. ...
by Mike Rigby
On May 27, 2010, the Washington State Supreme Court, sitting en banc, held that a trial and subsequent conviction that took place in a jailhouse courtroom violated the defendant's right to due process by eroding the presumption of innocence.
Defendant James Frank Jaime was charged with second ...
by Mike Rigby
Current scientific knowledge is shattering the long-held traditional beliefs of arson investigators and exposing wrongful convictions in the process. Still, old-school fire inspectors, detectives and even some judges have been slow to embrace new scientific methods and findings related to arson investigations. In Texas, such reluctance led ...
by Mike Rigby
In an amended opinion filed on November 19, 2010, the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of a prisoner’s claims that 1) his constitutional right of access of the courts was violated when, during the limited time period in which he could have appealed his criminal ...
by Mike Rigby
It is common knowledge among PLN readers that prison and jail phone rates are priced far above those in the free world. But just how overpriced are they? What is the average kickback (commission) rate provided by phone companies, and how much in kickbacks is paid each ...
by Mike Rigby
One downside of the information age is that both prison guards and prisoners have found themselves in trouble due to their accounts on Facebook, the Internet’s premier social networking site.
Three Nebraska prison guards were fired in March 2010 due to a Facebook post in which they ...
by Mike Rigby
A federal law meant to ensure that victims of violence, fraud and other property crimes are compensated for financial loss does not work as intended.
According to the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (MVRA) passed by Congress in 1996, crime victims who suffer identifiable monetary losses are entitled ...
