"The law in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread."
_ Anatole France
A central part of the mythology of the criminal justice system in the United States is that everyone is treated ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 8
Texas Medical Provider Investigated For Mixing, Selling Bodies
Officials at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (UTMB) are investigating the improper handling of at least 78 bodies donated to the Willed Body Program, which uses them for education and research. UTMB provides medical services to 80% of prisoners ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 8
Wichita Kansas Pays $6.2 Million
to Settle Detainees' Lawsuit
On May 7, 2002, Wichita's City Council approved $6.2 million to be awarded to the 7,000 citizens who had their 14th Amendment rights violated. The suit filed by what the city has labeled as Municipal Court Scofflaws, (scofflaws means one who ...
Observant readers will have noticed that PLN's masthead has changed its message from "Working to Extend Democracy to All" to "Dedicated to Protecting Human Rights." As PLN enters its fourteenth year of publishing and advocacy on behalf of prisoners, we think this change more accurately reflects the actual work PLN ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 9
No Termination of Special Parole
Upon Deportation
In a case of first impression, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a term of special parole does not terminate upon the parolee being deported to his home country. Antonio Cuero-Flores appealed his sentence of 71 months after entering a ...
A report is sitting at the Justice Department, unpublished. It has been there for three years. Titled The Health Status of Soon-to-be-Released Inmates, it was compiled by experts who sat on three panels: one on communicable diseases, one on chronic diseases and a third on mental illness. Their findings are, ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 13
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, affirming the decision of a California Federal District Court, has held that a prisoner cannot be awarded attorney fees for winning a temporary restraining order (TRO) if the prisoner did not subsequently prove "an actual violation" of his civil rights.
Jaturun Siripongs, a ...
This column is intended to provide habeas hints for prisoners who are considering or handling habeas corpus petitions as their own attorneys. The focus of the column is habeas corpus practice under the AEDPA, the 1996 habeas corpus law which now governs habeas corpus practice throughout the U.S.
STANDARD OF ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 16
In a case of first impression in the Sixth U.S. Circuit, the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Ohio has refused to dismiss Ohio prisoners' religious rights claims based on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. §§2000cc, et. seq. The court instead found ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 17
Youth Services International (YSI), a company already under fire for a multitude of problems, including contract violations, financial mismanagement, prisoner mistreatment and prisoner deaths, was again in the news this past September. YSI, a subsidiary of Corrections Services Corporation, operates juvenile prisons, including boot-camp-style facilities, in a number of states. ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 17
New Mexico Supreme Court Affirms Dismissal of Phone Rate Suit
The New Mexico Supreme Court affirmed a district court's dismissal of an excessive phone rates case for failure to state a claim. Recipients of collect telephone calls from New Mexico jails and prisons brought suit for damages and injunctive relief ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 18
by Matthew T. Clarke
In October, 2002, Chancellor of the University of Texas (UT) System Mark Yudof asked Texas Health Commissioner Eduardo Sanchez to appoint a three-member panel of experts "with laudable records in correctional health care" and without ties to UT, UT Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston (which provides ...
Retaliatory Prisoner Transfer for Exercising First Amendment Rights is "Adverse Determination" Under the Privacy Act
by Bob Williams
The Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has held that the reclassification and transfer of a federal prisoner in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment rights constitutes an "adverse determination" under ...
Evidence Suppressed in California
Ex-Parolee's Warrantless Search
by John E. Dannenberg
The California Supreme Court held that evidence seized by a police officer accompanied by the ex-parolee's parole officer during a warrantless search of the ex-parolee's motel room must be suppressed under the Fourth Amendment. The good faith exception to ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 20
PLRA Not Applied to Attorney Fees,
$407,635 for Puerto Rican Prisoners
A federal district court in Puerto Rico has denied the defendant's motion for new trial in an excessive force case, and awarded attorney fees and costs to the plaintiffs. The jury entered a verdict in favor of five Puerto ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 21
Texas Prisoners Have Limited Right to Appear
at Expungement Hearing
by Matthew T. Clarke
Guadalupe Guajardo, Jr., a Texas state prisoner, filed a motion to expunge the record of two of his prior arrests pursuant to Articles 55.01 and 55.02, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Although Guajardo filed a petition ...
In July 2002, Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) officials agreed to pay Roger Smith and his disabled wife Laurie $8,000 to settle their lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 12132 et seq, Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).
Roger Smith arrived as a prisoner at the McNeil ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 23
by Mathew T. Clarke
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a case in which the survivors of a federal prisoner who committed suicide in jail received a $1.8 million award, rendering judgment in the government's favor.
Robert Johnson, the deceased prisoner, was incarcerated for six months in a ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 24
The U.S Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit recently upheld a preliminary injunction enjoining Iowa prison officials from interfering with prisoner-to-prisoner legal mail. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa imposed the injunction to ensure the prisoners' right of access to the courts was observed.
Until ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 24
"Atypical And Significant" Hardship Segregation Claim Cannot Be Dismissed Under §1915(e)(2)
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has found that a claim that 75 days in punitive segregation is atypical and significant cannot be dismissed by the district court sua sponte under 28 U.S.C. §1915(e)(2) for failure to state a ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 25
$345,000 Settlement in Pennsylvania
Jail Rape Suit
On September 11, 2002, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, agreed to settle a federal lawsuit brought by seven female county jail prisoners who were raped by male jail staff by paying them $345,000. The rape of female prisoners at the facility had been well documented ...
In accordance with a July 29, 2002 ruling by U.S. District Judge Jennifer B. Coffman, as many as 700 former guards who worked at private prisons in Kentucky operated by U.S. Corrections Corp. could share in settlement of $14 million or more. In her 49 page opinion, Coffman held that ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 26
by Matthew T. Clarke
On September 24, 2002, a federal district court in Texas dismissed the long-standing class-action lawsuit which has governed the mail system in Texas prisons for twenty-five years. The Guajardo suit resulted in three published opinions (432 F.Supp. 1373, 580 F.2d 748, and 568 F.Supp. 1354), and ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 26
The Supreme Court of Alaska sustained a lower court's ruling which provisionally allowed Alaska prisoners to be transferred to an Arizona prison, required the Arizona facility to comply with Alaska's prison overcrowding settlement agreement, and found the Alaska prisoners' challenge to the process of selecting individuals for transfer to Arizona ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 27
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court's refusal to extend the terms of a consent decree under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). The court also held that the district court improperly declined to consider plaintiffs' motion for contempt.
In 1993 prisoners at the Washington Corrections Center ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 28
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) will appeal a half-million dollar judgment against it in favor of an ex-employee who claims she was forced to retire early after complaining of religious discrimination.
Vicki Allen-Curry, an ex-employee, sued TDCJ and Richard Watkins, warden of the Holiday Unit claiming she was ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 28
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has denied motions by the District of Columbia Department of Corrections (DC DOC) for judgment as a matter of law and for new trial following a jury verdict finding the DC DOC liable for Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment violations in ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 29
by Matthew Clarke
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a $250,000 award against Dallas County, Texas, for a paraplegic prisoner who developed life-threatening decubitus ulcers due to the jail's deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs.
Brent Lawson, a former prisoner in the Dallas County Jail, sued Dallas ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 30
Hawaii Adopts "Mailbox Rule" in Prisoner Civil Actions
The Hawaii Supreme Court reinstated a prisoner's appeal in a civil action. The prisoner timely gave his notice of appeal to prison guards, who did not mail it until after the filing period had run. The State Supreme Court adopted the "mailbox ...
by David M. Reutter
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a New Jersey federal district court's grant of a motion for summary judgment in separate 42 U.S.C. §1983 actions filed by prisoner's Joel Fraise, Alexander Kettles, and John Harris. Their suits challenged the constitutionality of a New Jersey ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 31
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that, pursuant to the mailbox rule of Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266, 108 S.Ct. 2379 (1988), a prisoner's medical malpractice action was filed as of the date he delivered it to prison officials for mailing.
Federal prisoner Joe Richard was diagnosed with ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 32
The Arizona Court of Appeals recently held that an incarcerated father had a right to visits with his infant daughter, absent proof that such visitation would harm the child.
Michael M. is the father of Corianna M. Both Michael and Corianna's mother lost their parental rights when they were incarcerated ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 32
PLRA Physical Injury Requirement Not Applicable To First Amendment Compensatory Damages
A federal district court in New York has held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act's (PLRA) prohibition against seeking damages for mental or emotional injury without a showing of physical injury does not apply to First Amendment violations nor ...
Third Circuit Holds PLRA Exhaustion Requirement
an Affirmative Defense
by Bob Williams
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has found that the PLRA's exhaustion requirement is an affirmative defense to be pled by the Defendant. A district court may not dismiss an action on its own for failure to exhaust ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 33
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that a district court erred in failing to make findings of fact on critical issues, excluding the deposition testimony of a prisoner as hearsay, and in failing to conduct a Daubert hearing to determine the qualifications of the plaintiff's expert witness.
A prison ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 34
Arkansas: On March 25, 2003, Fulton county jail prisoners Bobby Woodrum and Brian Shanckle, both 19, escaped from the jail by handcuffing a female jail guard to a chair, stealing guns and ammunition and running off in the jail's jeep. They were recaptured without incident ten hours later.
Brazil: On ...
Loaded on
June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 36
Beaten Philadelphia Prisoner Gets $125,000,
Two Guards and Warden Get Time
by Matthew T. Clarke
On May 1, 2002, two guards and an assistant warden were convicted in federal court of charges relating to the beating of a Philadelphia prisoner. In the latest of a series of settlements for assaults ...
