The private-prison industry is in trouble. For close to a decade, its business boomed and its stock prices soared because state legislators across the country thought they could look both tough on crime and fiscally conservative if they contracted with private companies to handle the growing multitudes being sent to ...
When the State of Hawaii opted in 1998 to send its female prisoners to a privately run Oklahoma prison, it had no idea what was in store for these women. What ensued over the next three years, according to a lawsuit filed by four Hawaiian women, was a "widespread pattern ...
In October 2001, a just-completed state investigation concluded that Houston-based Cornell Company, the private firm that runs Arkansas's Alexander Youth Services Center, was negligent for failing to monitor an at-risk youth who committed suicide. The suicide was the second in less than four months at the facility, and the third ...
Welcome to PLN 's 12th anniversary issue. PLN first started publishing in 1990 and this marks 12 years and 144 consecutive issues. PLN is the longest publishing independent, prisoner-produced magazine in U.S. history. While we have had our ups and downs over the years we have consistently improved the quality ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 9
The Court of Appeals for the Seventh circuit held that a district court erred when it dismissed a prisoner's suit for failure to pay the filing fee in a timely manner. Bernard Beyer, a Wisconsin prisoner held in a private prison in Tennessee, filed suit against city building inspectors. He ...
( On May 15, 2001, at a human rights conference in Geneva, the United States was denounced for its inhumane and discriminatory practices. Amnesty International and the U.N. Committee Against Torture cited the U.S. for oppressive tactics by both public law enforcement and prison agencies.
Of particular importance to Amnesty ...
On May 15, 2001, at a human rights conference in Geneva, the United States was denounced for its inhumane and discriminatory practices. Amnesty International and the U.N. Committee Against Torture cited the U.S. for oppressive tactics by both public law enforcement and prison agencies.
Of particular importance to Amnesty International ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 12
In a characteristically colorful opinion from Judge Richard Posner, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit breathed new life into an otherwise moribund lawsuit where plaintiffs sought relief from the exorbitant charges for collect telephone calls made from Illinois' prisons and jails.
Prisoners, their families, and a public ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 13
The Montana Supreme Court held that prevailing party did not establish that privacy rights of parties outweighed the public's right to know what costs it incurred in a settlement agreement.
Steve Pengra brought suit against Montana, contending that the State's negligent acts and omissions led to the brutal rape and ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 13
The United States District Court of South Carolina has remanded to state court a suit by prisoners' family members against Sprint Payphone Services and other communications providers, the State of South Carolina, and the South Carolina Department of Corrections (DOC) and its prisons, alleging that the state illegally entered into ...
The Federal District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin has denied a motion for summary judgment finding the Wisconsin Department of Corrections' (WDOC) ban on sexually explicit materials violated prisoners' First Amendment freedom of speech and Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. The Court later approved a class action settlement ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 16
The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit held that a district court erred when it dismissed an Arkansas prisoner's claim that he was subjected to false disciplinary charges in retaliation for filing grievances against a prison employee. The court upheld the dismissal of a claim challenging the loss of ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 16
The 2001 Oregon Legislature unanimously passed Senate Bill (SB) 183, authorizing, but not requiring, the Oregon Department (ODOC) to assess prisoners for costs associated with their imprisonment, including "but . . . not limited to, such items as medical care, room, board, administrative costs and other costs not otherwise excluded ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 17
On August 28, 2001, New York state prison officials agreed to pay $5,000.00 to settle a prisoner's lawsuit that he was beaten by prison guards and then denied medical care. In 1993, prisoner Easton Beckford, who is also wheelchair bound, was attacked and beaten by guards at the Shawangunk Correctional ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 17
On April 19, 2001, the insurer for the Garfield county jail in Oklahoma agreed to pay $400,000 to a former jail prisoner who was attacked and beaten by his cellmate. On April 26, 1998, Larry Thomas, then 58, was imprisoned in the Garfield county jail for five days to serve ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 18
In December 2000, the Clackamas county jail in Oregon settled a lawsuit with Stephen J. Thom for $197,000. On July 24, 2000, Thom, who suffered brain damage in a 1981 accident, was drunk and brought to the jail's booking section. While he was handcuffed, jail sergeant Daniel McClean beat him ...
Afederal District Court in Arizona recently enjoined Arizona Department of Corrections (ADOC) officials from indefinitely isolating a prisoner whom they suspect to be a gang member.
Mark Koch, an Arizona prisoner and successful prison litigator of long standing, was placed in solitary confinement (SMU II) in 1996 at the Florence, ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 20
by Matthew T. Clarke
A Texas court of appeals has ruled that the Texas prison system is required by law to provide procedures for a prisoner to identify evidence to substantiate the prisoner's claim.
Charles William Ingram, Jr., M.D., a Texas state prisoner, sued Wayne Scott, the Executive Director of ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 21
In September 2001, a federal jury in Memphis, Tennessee, awarded $377,500 in damages to the estate of a mentally ill jail prisoner killed by guards. In November 1996, Calvin Shaw, a paranoid schizophrenic, was arrested on sexual assault charges and imprisoned at the Davidson county jail. Three days later, Shaw ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 21
The Ohio Supreme Court has held that an indigent defendant in a sexual predator classification hearing is entitled to an expert witness at state expense "if the court determines, within its sound discretion, that such services are reasonably necessary to determine whether the offender is likely to engage in the ...
by John E. Dannenburg
( The Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals held that the statute requiring public notification of the release of federal prisoners convicted of drug trafficking or a crime of violence applied only to the current conviction, not to the prisoner's past record.
Richard Henrikson was finishing ...
In July 2001, the Cook County, Illinois Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to end a five-year long class-action suit brought by female prisoners who alleged that the strip-searches they were subjected to at the Cook County jail were unconstitutional. The Board approved a $6.8 million settlement which could be split ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 23
The Second Division of the Court of Appeals of Washington overturned a jury verdict against the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) in which a prison sergeant sued DOC for racially discriminatory treatment against him.
Geronimo Subia is a male prison sergeant of Native American and Hispanic descent. Since 1988, Subia ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 23
In the January 2001, issue of PLN we reported Garcia v. District of Columbia, 56 F. Supp.2d 1 (D DC 1998) in which the district court denied prison guards' motion for summary judgment. District of Columbia prisoners Freda Garcia, Lawrence Caldwell and Antonio Tirado filed suit claiming that prison guard ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 24
In September, 2001, Wausau Insurance, the insurer for the city of Shawano, Wisconsin, agreed to pay Nicholas Bishop, 22, $5,000 to settle a lawsuit Bishop had filed against the city in federal court in Madison.
The lawsuit claimed that two city policemen negligently allowed Bishop to escape from custody on ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 24
Compelled Attendance At AA/NA Violates Establishment Clause
The Washington Court of Appeals has held that it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment for the DOC to force a prisoner to attend AA/NA meetings as a part of its chemical dependency treatment program. However, because the petitioner in the ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 25
On October 25, 2001, Jason Driskell, 27, a former captain at the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) operated Whiteville Correctional Facility (WCF) in Tennessee, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges in federal court. Driskell admitted that in 1999 he struck and injured prisoner Sammy Everett at the prison, and ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 25
by Matthew T. Clarke
The Tenth Circuit court of appeals has held that a federal prisoner may not use 28 U.S.C. § 2241 to challenge placement in a certain prison or the conditions in that prison.
Christopher John Boyce, a federal prisoner, filed a habeas corpus action under 28 U.S.C, ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 26
Yu Kikumura is a federal political prisoner and member of the Japanese Red Army, who has been greatly harassed by authorities during his incarceration. His religious practices mix Buddhism and Christianity. Beginning in 1997, Kikumura tried to obtain pastoral visits from Reverend C. Harold Rickard, a retired United Methodist minister ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 27
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a district court's grant of summary judgment to Ohio prison officials and remanded for trial a case involving alleged official indifference to the actions of a known racist guard. The appeals court held that, given the number of complaints against the guard ...
In a California prisoner suit claiming cruel and unusual punishment for the prison's "integrated yard" policy, the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled that the factual question presented could proceed to trial, thus rejecting prison defendants' claims of qualified immunity.
AfricanAmerican prisoner George Robinson had twice, while in administrative ...
County Supervisors Liable For Indemnifications
by John E. Dannenberg
The Los Angeles (LA), California County Board of Supervisors made official decisions, and thus a policy, to indemnify their county sheriffs so as to willfully (i.e., in bad faith) protect the sheriffs from punitive damages even after they had admittedly acted ...
by John E. Dannenberg
A New York state prisoner who had been subjected to inhumane and unsanitary living conditions was found by the Second Circuit US Court of Appeals to have stated a claim under 42 USC §1983 for violation of his Eighth Amendment rights to be free from cruel ...
Loaded on
May 15, 2002
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2002, page 30
California: On December 12, 2001, Don Lanier Jr., 34, a guard at the Wasco State Prison and a karate instructor, was sentenced to nine months in the Kern county jail after pleading guilty to unlawful intercourse with a minor. The charges stem from Lanier having consensual sex with a 15-year-old ...
