Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it does. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, Jr., resigned his seat, leaving President Bush to name an even more reactionary successor. Not only will the pro-choice Roe v. Wade ruling fall by the wayside, making life for women increasingly difficult, but ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 5
Kentucky Prison Guard Awarded $34,000
in Sexual Harassment Suit
On May 27, 2003, a state circuit court in Oldham, Kentucky, awarded prison guard Karen Lemarr a total of $34,000 for the lost wages, embarrassment, and emotional distress she suffered as a result of a coworker's sexual harassment.
On June 13, ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 6
California Latino Gang Members Locked Down Over 20 Months; Narrow U.S. Attorney Criminal Review Finds "No Abuses"
Latino gang members at California's 124 year-old Folsom State Prison (FSP) were locked down for over 20 months following a riot where "Southern" Hispanic gang members attacked their rival "Northern" Hispanics on April ...
Tenth Circuit Reverses Dismissal of PLN Suit Challenging
Kansas DOC Ban On Gift Subscriptions
by John E. Dannenberg
The Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the district court's grant of summary judgment to prison officials (see: Zimmerman v. Simmons, 260 F.Supp.2d 1077 (D. Kan. 2003)) which had ...
The index for the 2004 issues of PLN is now ready and available for shipping. PLN's indexes are a great stand alone research tool as well as the best tool to maximize the use of PLN as a research tool. Each index lists all PLN articles by issue and article ...
by: Michael Rigby
Emotional and physical distress...restricted diets... "greeting beatings" ...high rates of mental illness...a reliance on warehousing instead of treatment. This is the troubling reality of disciplinary confinement in New York, according to a 54-page report released on October 22, 2003, by the New York Correctional Association (NYCA), a ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 11
by: Michael Rigby
Emotional and physical distress...restricted diets... "greeting beatings" ...high rates of mental illness...a reliance on warehousing instead of treatment. This is the troubling reality of disciplinary confinement in New York, according to a 54-page report released on October 22, 2003, by the New York Correctional Association (NYCA), a ...
This column is intended to provide "habeas hints" to prisoners who are handling habeas corpus petitions as their own attorneys ("in pro per"). The focus of the column is post-conviction practice under the AEDPA, the 1996 law which now governs habeas corpus practice throughout the U.S.
Some Useful Post-Conviction Motions ...
Oregon HCV Class Action Settled; Limitations Period
for Individual Damages Actions Tolled
by Mark Wilson
On April 6, 2004, the Class Action suit against the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) for failing to properly diagnose and treat the hepatitis C virus (HCV), was resolved by entry of a comprehensive settlement. ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 16
A panel of hepatitis experts has significantly revised the hepatitis C virus (HCV) guidelines of the Oregon Department of Corrections.
Pursuant to the terms of the settlement resolving Oregon's Class Action HCV suit of Anstett v. State of Oregon , a Medical Review Panel (MRP) was appointed to evaluate and ...
Alabama Settles Class Action Medical Suit;
Institutes HCV Treatment Protocol
by John E. Dannenberg
In a major milestone along the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) march towards gaining humane medical care in Alabama's prisons, a Settlement Agreement was signed in June, 2004 that commits the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 19
by Matthew T. Clarke
A Boston federal jury has awarded $500,000 to a guard who was harassed at work by other jail employees after he reported misconduct by another guard.
Bruce S. Baron, a former guard at the Suffolk County House of Correction (the jail), filed suit under 42 U.S.C. ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 20
Three Americans Convicted of Running Sham
Military Jail in Afghanistan
by Matthew T. Clarke
Three Americans, led by ex-special forces soldier Jonathan Keith Idema, 48, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, have been convicted of running an unauthorized jail in Kabul and torturing Afghans they kidnapped in an attempt to extract information ...
South Carolina Prison Industry Program
Problematic, Audit Finds
by Michael Rigby
The prison industries program of the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) is improperly managed, likely displaces workers in the surrounding community, and creates an unfair advantage in the marketplace, according to a review performed by the Legislative Audit ...
Doctors of Death and the Medicalization
of State Murder
by Michael Rigby
Prisoners often wonder if prison medical personnel really have their best interests at heart. But in the case of Sanjeeva Rao, a Georgia prison doctor, there is no doubt. He aims to see them dead.
When the state ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 24
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held the Prison Litigation Reform Act's (PLRA) administrative remedy exhaustion requirement was not excused by the fact the plaintiff had been released at the time the district court considered the motion to dismiss. While a prisoner at a Tennessee federal special needs prison, Jerry ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 24
California Sex Offender Satisfies Registration
Obligation If He Mails Notice
The California State Supreme Court held that a sex offender satisfies his legal requirement to register with the police and tell them where he is living if he timely mails a notice to them by United States Mail.
David Smith ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 26
On December 15, 2003, Global Elevator Technologies (GET), a company under contract with the Union County (New Jersey) Jail to provide elevator maintenance services, agreed to pay $750,000 to a guard who suffered back and knee injuries in a December 2000 elevator accident.
The plaintiff, Union County Jail guard Sporer, ...
AEDPA One-Year Clock Starts When
Administrative Parole Appeal Is Denied
by John E. Dannenberg
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that for 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus filing-deadline purposes, the AEDPA one-year filing clock starts at the time that state administrative remedies not state court remedies are ...
Tough Justice Leads To Quadriplegic's Death
In CCA-Operated D.C. Jail
by Michael Rigby
Washington D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith E. Retchin is known for being tough on crime. She's so tough, in fact, that when a quadriplegic man came before her for possessing a small amount of marijuanahis first offenseshe ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 28
A New York state court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by two men who claimed they were shot while asleep at the Rikers Island prison in New York City.
Bronx Judge Alison E. Tuitt dismissed the suit on May 21, 2004four days into the trialbecause the prisoners had not shown ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 28
Government Says No Criminal Conduct in New Jersey Mass
Prisoner Beating, But Jury Awards Abused Prisoner $19,000;
Sexual Harassment Suit Settled for $250,000
by Matthew T. Clarke
Despite government reports claiming that guards committed no crimes in the alleged mass beating of prisoners at Bayside Prison in 1997, on June ...
Qualified Immunity Denied In Failure To
Protect And Delay of Emergency Treatment
by Bob Williams
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that guards are not entitled to qualified immunity for failing to segregate co-defendants in a known hostile relationship and that doctors are not entitled to qualified immunity ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 30
California Prisoner Trust Accounts Allegedly Used
To Launder Gang Drug Taxes
A phantom "Banco de Pelican Bay" has sprung up at California's supermax Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP), wherein 14 Mexican Mafia (nicknamed "Eme") prisoners had their prison trust accounts frozen in October, 2004 because of suspected laundering of Eme ...
by Robert H. Woodman
On January 9, 2004 the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri found that Correctional Medical Services (CMS) and one of its employees, Gary Campbell, D.O., were liable for fourteen (14) months of pain and suffering endured by a Missouri state prisoner whose hip ...
Absolute Immunity For Acting On Court Order Denied
In Failure To Protect Claim
by Bob Williams
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the denial of absolute immunity against prison guards who claimed they were following a court order when they failed to protect a known prison informant, even ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 32
New York Prisoner Awarded $105,000 For Shoulder Injury
On December 15, 2003, a court of claims in Syracuse, New York, awarded $105,000 plus interest to a state prisoner who suffered a torn rotator cuff as the result of a construction accident.
New York state prisoner Tommy Knights, 50, was laboring ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 32
California's first "graduate" of the state's sexually violent predator (SVP) program, who was released in August, 2003 to highly supervised conditions while living in a trailer on the grounds of Soledad State Prison, was granted unconditional release by a state judge in San Jose, California on Sept. 13, 2004.
Brian ...
New York's Felon Disenfranchisement Law Not Saved
By Federal Voting Rights Act
by John E. Dannenberg
The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that New York Election Law § 5-106, which disenfranchises [i.e., suspends voting rights] of parolees and currently incarcerated felons is not overridden by the federal Voting ...
Connecticut Prison Writers Settle Lawsuit,
Writing Program Reinstated
by Michael Rigby
Eight Connecticut prisoners who were sued by the state after the publication of their book, Couldn't Keep It To Myself: Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters , will get to keep most of their earnings, according to the terms of ...
Los Angeles County Pays $800,000 To Settle
County Jail Medical Suit for Untreated Lupus
by John E. Dannenberg
On June 3, 2002, the Los Angeles (L.A.) County, California Claims Board agreed to pay $800,000 to settle medical negligence and consortium loss claims by a prisoner and his wife for the ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 35
Seventh Circuit Interprets "Brought" As Used 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit has interpreted the word "brought" in 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) to mean "when the complaint is tendered to the district clerk." The court then used that interpretation to affirm a district ...
Ninth Circuit: "Chilling Effect" Not Required
To Establish First Amendment Violation
by Marvin Mentor
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dealt with the following conundrum: does a prisoner who exhaustively fights purported violations of his First Amendment rights, by dint of his sheer effort to do so, thereby unwittingly ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 36
Oregon Prisoner's Allegation Of Economic Damages States Sufficient Claim
The Oregon Court of Appeals held that a state prisoner's allegation of economic damages stemming from the purported improper release of his medical records and substandard medical care stated a claim sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss.
Plaintiff Frank E. ...
by David M. Reutter
The Eleventh Circuit court of Appeals has held that BOP administrative segregation policies create a liberty interest. The Court reversed a Georgia federal district court's order granting prison officials' motion to dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 38
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the imposition of a longer sentence imposed on remand after a successful appeal of an order of the Oregon Parole Board (Board) was presumptively vindictive and the Board failed to rebut the presumption of vindictiveness.
In 1986, George Nulph was convicted of ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 38
Massachusetts Jail Prisoner Awarded
$20,000 For Crushed Knuckle
A superior court in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, awarded $20,000 to a man who sustained a knuckle fracture when a cell door was allegedly opened without warning.
Plaintiff Gary Taylor, 47, was arrested for disorderly conduct and intoxication and imprisoned in the Boston ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 39
Federal Court Orders Mississippi to
Desegregate HIV+ Prisoners
by Matthew T. Clarke
On June 7, 2004, a federal district court in Greenville, Mississippi, ordered the Mississippi Department of Corrections (DOC) to cease excluding HIV+ prisoners from being housed in a Community Work Center (CWC), ending Mississippi's policy of total segregation ...
California Demands $1.6 Million In Diverted Telephone Revenues
From Private Prison Contractor
by John E. Dannenberg
The California Department of Corrections (CDC) has charged private prison contractor Marantha Corrections LLC with "misappropriating" more than $1 million in telephone revenues at its 500 bed prison in Adelanto, California, and ordered CDC's ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 40
A woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by a Kleberg County, Texas, sheriff's deputy has settled her civil rights lawsuit against the county and the deputy for $50,000.
On May 16, 2001, Sarah Jean Hernandez, 22, was arrested at a border patrol checkpoint in Sarita, Texas, for possession of ...
Iowa Must Give Kosher Meals To Civilly Committed Sex Offender
by John E. Dannenberg
The United States District Court (S.D. Iowa) ordered that Kosher meals be provided without co-payment to an Orthodox Jewish prisoner who is committed to the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders of the Iowa Department of ...
by Angela Y. Davis
Open Media/Seven Stories Press, 127 pp. $8.95 paperback
Review by Silja Talvi
"On the whole people tend to take prisons for granted," Angela Y. Davis.
But are we, as a society, willing to face the reality of what goes on inside? And are we willing to ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 42
News in Brief:
Arizona: In an uprising at the Lewis prison complex in Florence, on May 7, 2004, 100 prisoners refused to leave the prison yard for two hours and 50 refused to leave the dining hall after a fight between two prisoners in the yard. When guards tried to ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2005, page 44
California Prosecutor Fights Deportation
Of Paroled Sex Offenders
Today, nobody wants to keep paroled sex offenders around. Except the Los Angeles County district attorney, that is.
In an odd "man bites dog" scenario, the district attorney is trying to retain four foreign nationals who were paroled in California after serving ...
