by David M. Reutter
Anthony Pierce was serving a 14 month sentence for parole violation of a burglary charge at Delaware's Sussex Correctional Institution when he discovered a marble-sized lump growing on the back of his head. A prison doctor employed by the Delaware Department of Corrections' (DDOC) medical contractor, ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 10
Washington State Supreme Court Grants PLN Public Disclosure of Washington DOC Medical Malpractice Records
by John E. Dannenberg
Prison Legal News won a big victory for the cause of investigative journalism on July 14, 2005 when it prevailed in the Washington State Supreme Court to gain access to public records ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 11
On September 12, 2005, Prison Legal News (PLN) filed suit in federal district court to overturn an agency ruling denying it access to documents held by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Washington, DC, appeals a ruling by the BOP denying PLN ...
By now all PLN subscribers should have received our annual fund raiser letter and our reader survey. As you know, subscription and advertising income only cover a fraction of PLN's operating expenses. We operate a very lean operation where all four full time employees and our part time workers and ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 13
by Matthew T. Clarke
One of the achievements of which Mexican President Vicente Fox is most proud is the record-breaking number of drug lords who have been arrested and thrown into federal prison during his tenure. He has a right to be proud of that achievement. However, such success does ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 15
An Illinois Federal District Court has awarded $3,200 in attorney's fees in a prisoner's claim that his Eighth Amendment rights were violated.
The civil rights action was brought by Illinois prisoner Frank Farella against Logan Correctional Center guards Dennis Hockaday and Ricky Skelton. Farella's suit alleged that the guards used ...
The virtual elimination of overtime pay for guards--a cost-cutting move by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ)--has contributed to rising turnover rates and probably comprised safety in the state's chronically understaffed prisons.
In March 2003, TDCJ began awarding comp" time for the first 240 hours of overtime worked during ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 16
Los Angeles County settled two prisoner wrongful death suits for $325,000 that alleged negligent medical care during incarceration at the L.A. County jail.
On May 8, 2002, 39 year-old county jail prisoner Crystal Baize was transferred from the Twin Towers Jail to U.S.C. Medical Center, complaining of severe chest pain ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 17
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Accepts Gifts Worth Thousands
by Michael Rigby
Justice Clarence Thomas is the Supreme Court's poorest member -- he's also its most prolific gift taker. From 1998 through 2003, Thomas accepted $42,200 worth of cash, antiques, clothes and other free merchandise. The largess includes a bust ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 18
On September 8, 2004, a court of claims in Buffalo, New York, awarded $4,200 to a state prisoner who was assaulted by a guard at the Attica Correctional Facility.
Juan Matias, a 36-year-old prisoner, claimed that he was assaulted by a prison guard in April 2002. (The guard was not ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 18
A March 14, 2005, botched escape attempt by an Al-Qaida linked Abu-Sayyaf member at the Camp Begang Diwa (CBD) detention center in Tanguig, Manila started as a two-day takeover of CBD that ended with 28 dead.
When the incident began, CBD held 470 detainees, including 129 suspected members and leaders ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 18
A March 14, 2005, botched escape attempt by an Al-Qaida linked Abu-Sayyaf member at the Camp Begang Diwa (CBD) detention center in Tanguig, Manila started as a two-day takeover of CBD that ended with 28 dead.
When the incident began, CBD held 470 detainees, including 129 suspected members and leaders ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 19
Disclosure of Washington State Prisoner Phone Rates Stymied by the Courts
by John E. Dannenberg
When recipients of Washington state prisoner-originated long distance phone calls sought to compel disclosure of the telephone rates for those calls, the Washington superior, appellate and supreme courts held (as of July2004) that relevant Washington ...
An independent auditor found the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) to be lax in its oversight of medical care contractors.
In April 2005, Navigant Consulting, Inc., reported the results of its audit, commissioned by the Colorado State Auditor, of the CDOC external health care services provided to prisoners. The audit ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 21
$820,000 Damages Upheld Against NY Jailer Who Housed Informant with Defendant
by John E. Dannenberg
The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld $820,000 in damages for injuries suffered by an informant who was severely beaten by the defendant he had testified against, when the Nassau County Sheriff inadvertently housed ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 22
by Matthew T. Clarke
Then Virginia Governor Mark Warner restored the voting rights of 1,892 felons who had served their sentences, 1,110 of them in 2004. Opposition politicians have accused him of "rubber-stamping" the restoration process.
Virginia is one of only seven states that permanently disenfranchise felons. The others are ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Wyoming Department of Corrections (WDOC) settled an Eighth Amendment-based class action complaint brought by prisoner Brad Skinner for WDOC's failure to protect prisoners from assault by other prisoners. The court (U.S. District Court, D. Wyo.) also awarded Skinner's attorneys $427,158 in fees and costs, an ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 24
The Louisiana Supreme Court held that retroactive application of a 2002 law, requiring exhaustion of administrative remedies by prisoners before bringing a state tort action, would unconstitutionally deprive prisoners of a vested right. Therefore, the court held that the law has prospective application only when the prisoner was not required ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 24
Jail Detainee Who Lost Testicle
by John E. Dannenberg
On July 18, 2005, a Solano County, California jail pre-trial detainee, whose infected testicle was not promptly treated, won a $200,000 damage award in Solano County Superior Court after suffering necrosis and subsequent amputation of the testicle.
Wayne Crowder, 46, had ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 25
On Dec. 2, 2005, Prison Legal News filed a civil suit against The Geo Group, Inc. (formerly Wackenhut Corrections) in the Circuit Court for Palm Beach, Florida, demanding access to public records held by the company.
The Geo Group is a for-profit company that operates privatized prisons, including two Florida ...
On March 1, 2005, the Wayne County jail in Detroit, Michigan settled an excessive use of force case for $130,00. Plaintiff, Victor Walker, alleged that on October 12, 2000, while being held in the Wayne County Jail in Detroit, Michigan, he was punched in his left eye by a guard, ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 26
Ban on Separatist Religious Publication Reversed by Eighth Circuit
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's grant of summary judgment to prison officials related to the refusal to deliver a religious publication they deemed to be racially inflammatory
Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) prisoner Michael Murphy was ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 27
California Youth Prison Superintendent Removed For Using Unreasonable Force
The Superintendent of a California youth prison was permanently removed from his position for using unreasonable force against a ward, and then not reporting it.
Steve Kruse, Superintendent at the N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton, was placed on administrative ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 28
The Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) has awarded three contracts for Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite monitoring of sex offenders. The contracts come on the heels on legislation that allocated $3.9 million over a three-year period to put certain sex offenders on lifetime GPS supervision, even if their sentences or ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 29
Lane McCotter, once the director of the Utah Department of Corrections, has been appointed to a justice of the peace bench in Utah. The McCotter era remains a high-point of prison violence in Utah's history cumulating in the death of a prisoner who had spent 16 hours strapped naked to ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 30
by John E. Dannenberg
Only seven Arizona prisoners were granted clemency in 2004, four of whom were on their death beds. This gaunt statistic is the natural progression resulting from Arizona's abolishing parole a decade ago, replacing justice with politics in the form of the Board of Executive Clemency (BEC) ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 31
On June 3, 2004, a Louisville, Kentucky, jury awarded $590,000 to a wrongfully convicted man who spent two years in prison because his defense counsel was negligent.
Plaintiff Gary Puckett and his mother Peggy Puckett were at their home on October 23, 1993, when a fire broke out. Gary escaped ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 32
The chief physician and surgeon at California State Prison, Lancaster, still practicing medicine at age 85, successfully sued the California Department of Corrections (CDC) for age discrimination when CDC forced him to retire. On July 18, 2005, a Los Angeles superior court jury awarded the doctor $20 million, including $1.6 ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 32
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a district court may consider the value of the prisoner's claim when determining whether to dismiss it as frivolous under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(i), the in forma pauperis statute.
Federal prisoner Paul Nagy was confined at the Federal Medical Facility (FMC) in ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 33
The 2006 Certain Days calendar features 12 full color imagesincluding collages, murals, paintings and moreand over a dozen pages of writing created by and about former and current American political prisoners and prisoners of war. This wall calendar is the fifth of its kind, produced by a collective of organizers ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 33
Florida Violates Sex Offenders for Possessing Common Men's Magazines
The State of Florida, in a crackdown on sex offenders, is sending probationers to jail for probation violations because they possessed racy magazines or sex manuals. The crackdown comes from increased surveillance of sexual offenders after the March murder of Jessica ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 34
The Louisiana Court of Appeals vacated a prisoner's obscenity conviction and sentence for masturbating in a public shower, within view of a female guard.
Louisiana prisoner, Bobby Holmes, was charged with two counts of obscenity in violation of La.R.S. 14:106. The first alleged act of obscenity occurred on August 14, ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 34
"Actual Innocence" Rule Inapplicable to Breach of Contract by Lawyer
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court's dismissal of a diversity suit, holding that the actual innocence" rule does not bar claims of breach of contract/fiduciary duty.
Hillary Winniczek was charged with federal crimes stemming from a ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 35
California Tort Claim Dismissed For Failure to Fully Exhaust Administrative Remedies
by John E. Dannenberg
The California Court of Appeal held that a prisoner's tort claim must be dismissed without prejudice for failure to fully exhaust administrative remedies even though the response to his administrative appeal was allegedly overdue. Separately, ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 36
by Michael Rigby
The U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that a Georgia prison warden was suable under the Eighth Amendment and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Plaintiff Tracy Miller is a wheelchair-bound paraplegic at the Georgia State Prison (GSP). Miller suffers from a completely ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 37
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that several prison officials were not entitled to qualified immunity for their roles in confining a prisoner 57 days beyond his ordered release.
In December, 1977, Daryl Davis was convicted of theft under Missouri law. He was then sentenced as a prior offender, ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 38
PLRA Exhaustion Requirement Has Procedural Default Component
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that the administrative exhaustion requirement of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) includes a procedural default component. The court also held that the determination whether a prisoner has properly' exhausted a claim (for procedural default purposes) ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 38
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a district court's grant of summary judgment to prison officials in a prisoner's claim that officials were deliberately indifferent to his safety when they had him strip insulation from a live 480-volt wire without protective gloves.
Indiana prisoner Christopher Hall worked as an ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 39
In a 54 decision, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld a law that makes it a felony for a Washington prisoner to commit a serious prison infraction after losing all potential earned early release credits. The majority concluded that the statute was not void as an unconstitutional delegation of legislative ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 40
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a $56.5 million jury verdict against former jail guards who murdered a pretrial detainee. This is the largest verdict for abuses against a single victim in an American jail/prison case that we are aware of.
On October 25, 1997, Christopher Moreland was arrested ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 40
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court's dismissal of an Illinois prisoner's retaliation claim.
On January 17, 2003, Illinois prisoner Robert Hoskins worked in the Dixon Correctional Center (Dixon) cafeteria when Food Services Supervisor Connie Lenear called him a racial epithet because he could not help relocate ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 41
by Bob Williams
The United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has reversed the dismissal of a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 prisoner complaint against the CCA facility at Youngstown, Ohio, finding the complaint did state a claim of municipal liability against the District of Columbia who contracted with ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 42
News in Brief:
Arkansas: In 2001 prison guards used force 12 times to remove prisoners from their cells. By 2005 they did it at least 40 times. Prison officials attribute this to more hardened prisoners and not more brutal guards.
Arkansas: On December 1, 2005, an unidentified prison guard at ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
December, 2005, page 44
Former California Warden Allegedly Assaults News Reporter
The former warden of Salinas Valley State Prison (SVSP), Anthony Lamarque, allegedly swung a cane at Sacramento News and Review reporter Stephen James and then pinned him against a wall, when Lamarque apparently objected to being photographed at a civil lawsuit deposition being ...
