The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an insidious and relentless disease which is highly unpredictable and eventually fatal. It is a chronic disease which is the leading cause of cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer which causes an estimated 10,000 deaths annually in the United States; a number the Centers ...
In December, 2002, a mentally ill female prisoner at the Taycheedah Correctional Institution (TCI) in Wisconsin was given a year of solitary confinement after being impregnated by a prison guard, while the guard, Mathew Emery, was fired but not prosecuted.
Prisoner Jackie Noyes, 24, who has a well-documented history of ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 5
A jury's conviction of three guards at the Louisianan State Penitentiary at Angola in the assault and beating of prisoner Raymond Jackson has been affirmed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Sergeant Harrison Daniels was convicted in the assault, and denying Jackson medical care. Sergeant John Swan was also ...
This month we continue our coverage of the hepatitis C (HCV) epidemic sweeping through American prisons with little or no treatment for the afflicted. The public health consequences of this and many other diseases that have historically festered in American prisons and jails before entering the community with both released ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 6
The US District Court (ND Calif.) issued a permanent injunction against officials at the maximum security Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) that terminated their policy requiring vendors who shipped books, periodicals, magazines or calendars to PBSP prisoners to use a prison-supplied shipping label on the package - because that policy ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 7
On July 26, 2002, nine hundred prisoners in England and Wales had to be set free after the European Court of Human rights unanimously ruled that extending prisoners' imprisonment for disciplinary violations without allowing them legal representation violated Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Prison Service ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 7
On August 28, 2002, a Worcester (MA) Superior Court jury awarded $175,000 to a former Massachusetts state prisoner who sued the Department of Correction (DOC). The jury also found that the DOC negligently hired and supervised a guard with a known propensity for violence and denied Gendron medical treatment after ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 8
by Matthew T. Clarke
The Connecticut Department of Correction (DOC) has been rocked by allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and illegal sex between guards and prisoners. The scandal began on August 8, 2002, when 15 female guards filed two separate federal class-action civil rights lawsuits against former DOC Commissioner ...
by Walter Reaves
The following are summaries of the some of more significant, and interesting cases decided during the last several months dealing with issues important to prisoners and those interested in post-conviction litigation.
SEARCH AND SEIZURE
Corroboration of Affidavit - United States v. Peck, 317 F.3d 754 (7th Cir. ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 13
Los Angeles County Liable Under § 1983 for Jail Detainee's Murder
by Walter Reaves
The following are summaries of the some of more significant, and interesting cases decided during the last several months dealing with issues important to prisoners and those interested in post-conviction litigation.
SEARCH AND SEIZURE
Corroboration of ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 14
On December 19, 2002, Oregon prisoners suing prison officials for refusing to properly diagnose and treat their hepatitis C virus (HCV) were handed an important victory, when a federal judge issued a 37-page Opinion and Order, certifying the suit as a class action. In doing so, the Honorable Anna J. ...
On November 13, 2002, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners revoked the license of Dr. John J. Napoleon following the most recent allegations that he was grossly negligent in the treatment of nine patients at the Bayside State Prison and Cape May County Jail. Napoleon was also ordered to ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 17
The United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania has awarded a federal prisoner $178,294, including $150,000 for pain and suffering, due to medical malpractice by doctors working for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
Jeffrey Berman is an ileostomy patient, a condition he has had since childhood. ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 17
On October 18, 2002, a Queens county, New York, jury awarded Ronald York, a 21 year old prisoner at the New York City jail on Riker's Island, $3.2 million in damages as compensation for a work injury. Ronald York was a prisoner employed in the jail bakery when guards instructed ...
1. Overview of Punitive Damages
When people discuss "money damages" in connection with a lawsuit for personal injury, they are usually thinking of damages that relate directly to the injury. Examples include money to compensate a plaintiff for lasting physical injury or pain, medical expenses, and sometimes emotional suffering as ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 20
Ohio Jail's Pay-for-Stay Program Unconstitutional,
Partial Summary Judgment Granted
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio has awarded partial summary judgment to a former pretrial detainee in a case involving seizure of the detainee's funds by the Hamilton County Justice Center (HCJC) in a program called Pay-for-Stay. ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 20
After protracted negotiations and two court rulings finding the defendants liable, Hamilton County, Ohio, officials finally agreed to settle the claims challenging its Pay-for-Stay program (see mail article). Led by Cincinnati attorney Stephen R. Felson, with attorney Robert B. Newman, the plaintiff class (former Hamilton County Jail prisoners) won agreement ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 21
Butler County, Ohio, Settles
Jail Booking Fee Suit
The Sheriff and Commissioners of Butler County, Ohio, settled a lawsuit over its Pay-to-Stay program brought in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Western Division, by a citizen of Liberty Township, Ohio, in Butler County. The victorious ...
Amid numerous scandals and investigations into wrongdoing and prisoner mistreatment by staff, the director of the Snohomish County jail in Everett, WA was relieved of her duties in mid-April 2003. Corrections department director Andrea Bynum was fired due to her mismanagement of the jail.
No less than five active investigations ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 25
Rikers Island supervisor Anthony Serra has been demoted from his $140,000 per year position as New York City jail chief amid allegations he improperly assigned underlings to work on Republican Governor George Pataki's re-election campaign.
Serra was suspended from duty on October 22, 2002 after a city investigation was launched. ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 25
The Arizona Court of Appeals held that a prisoner may collect workers' compensation benefits during his term of imprisonment, despite a 1997 state statute prohibiting workers' compensation payments "during the period of time that [a claimant] has . . . [b]een convicted of a crime and is incarcerated in any ...
North Carolina Juvenile Prisons Plagued by
Physical, Sexual Abuse, and Medical Neglect
by Lonnie Burton
After four separate lawsuits were filed by prisoners serving sentences at two North Carolina juvenile facilities alleging a wide range of mistreatment from sexual and physical abuse to medical neglect state officials have launched an ...
Nueces County Jail in Corpus Christi Texas has become a regular source of dead and beaten prisoners. Ten prisoners have died in the jail between 1996 and 2000. Two cases have already cost the county $2 million and three more wrongful death suits are still pending.
$900,000 Paid in Restraint ...
by Jorge Antonio Renaud, University of North Texas Press, 2002, soft cover, 218 pages, $14.95
Review by Michael Rigby
If you or someone you know is one of the nearly 150,000 people incarcerated in a Texas prison, then Behind the Walls: A Guide for Families and Friends of Texas Prison ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 30
DSU-Like Conditions in Massachusetts Prison
Trigger Due Process Protection
by Matthew T. Clarke
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has held that the Massachusetts Commissioner of Corrections (MCOC) may not avoid previously ordered due process review of prisoners placed in non-punitive segregation simply by making an entire wing of a ...
Federal Prisoners Enlisted for Dangerous
Computer Refurbishing
by Lonnie Burton
In February 2002, it was announced that prisoners at a new federal prison in California will soon be partnering with companies such as Dell, IBM and Hewlett-Packard in a program that will refurbish and recycle used computers. The U.S. Penitentiary ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 32
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), in a bulletin released in August 2002, the total number of adult women and men under some form of correctional supervision --jail, prison, probation, or parole rose to 6,592,800 by the end of 2001. According to the report, "[a]bout 3.1% of the ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 32
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that it is not necessary to allege an overt act to state a conspiracy claim. The court also held that dismissal of a prisoner's retaliation claim for failure to exhaust administrative remedies was proper.
Wisconsin state prisoner Tony Walker ...
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds California's
Harsh Three-Strikes Law
by John E. Dannenberg
In two 5 to 4 decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that California's harsh "three strikes and you're out" law is not grossly disproportionate in violation of the Eighth Amendment nor is it "contrary to, or an unreasonable ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 34
California: On May 2, 2003, Gary Culverson, 25, and Van Kopp, 37, were arrested on charges that they assaulted Casey Humphrey, 18, a prisoner at the Monroe Detention Center in Yolo County. Culverson and Kopp were employed as guards at the jail's intake area but the assault occurred in the ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 35
California: On May 2, 2003, Gary Culverson, 25, and Van Kopp, 37, were arrested on charges that they assaulted Casey Humphrey, 18, a prisoner at the Monroe Detention Center in Yolo County. Culverson and Kopp were employed as guards at the jail's intake area but the assault occurred in the ...
The PLRA Does Not Change Leave To Amend Rule
by Bob Williams
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) does not mandate dismissal of an indigent litigant's deficient complaint without leave to amend, where the amendment would not be futile or inequitable, ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2003, page 36
by Matthew T. Clarke
In 2001, the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) has settled a lawsuit by visitors who claimed strip searches conducted during their visit to the Pontiac Correctional Center (PCC) were unconstitutional.
In 1997, Marylin Tompkins and Jess Burgess filed suit in federal district court in Peoria, IL, ...
