by Steven H. Miles, MD
This article examines the relationship of military medical personnel to abuses of detainees at Abu Ghraib and other detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. It is based on testimony before the US Senate and House, 1,2 US government policy documents,3-7 US armed forces' ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 7
On November 20, 2003, Mercer County, New Jersey, agreed to pay $175,000 to a deaf man who was imprisoned at the Mercer County Detention Center (MCDC) without appropriate accommodations and appeared before a county court without an interpreter. The County also agreed to provide injunctive relief.
On September 10, 1994, ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 8
by Paul Wright
With last month's issue of PLN we reached an all time circulation high of 4,051 subscribers. This is the most subscribers PLN has ever had. Considering we started with 75 subscribers in 1990, that is a lot of growth. But considering there are over 2.2 million people ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 9
PLN's ADX Censorship Suit Partially
Survives Motion to Dismiss
by Bob Williams
On November 12, 2004, Colorado Federal District Court Judge Wiley Daniel dismissed all official capacity claims, one defendant, and one substantive claim in PLN's suit over ADX censorship of PLN. The court allowed PLN to proceed on one ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 10
by Michael Rigby
On August 31, 2004, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (WDOC) announced it would immediately implement sweeping policy changes in the way it views and handles staff-on-prisoner sexual assaults. The reforms come a year after legislation was enacted criminalizing sex between guards and prisoners, and more than 18 ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 12
by John E. Dannenberg
The California Department of Corrections (CDC) Health Care Services Division instituted a statewide Hepatitis-C Clinical Management Program (Program) in March, 2004. The Program draws from the prototype HCV protocol developed under federal court order at Pelican Bay State Prison and a similar program recently begun at ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 13
by Michael Rigby
St. Croix County, Wisconsin, and its insurer has paid $6.95 million to settle a federal class-action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the county jail's blanket strip-search policy, according to the terms of a February 27, 2004, settlement agreement.
The two named plaintiffs, D.B. and T.B. (names are ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 14
Four Guards Suspended By CCA Following Their
Murder of Prisoner in Tennessee Jail
by Matthew T. Clarke
Four male CCA Guards have been placed on paid administrative leave following their murder of a female prisoner at the CCA-run Metro-Davidson County Detention Center (MDCD) in Nashville, Tennessee.
Estelle Richardson, 34, a ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 16
Five Homicides In L.A. County Jail Blamed On Security Lapses;
25 Sheriff's Deputies May Be Disciplined
by Marvin Mentor
After investigating five brutal prisoner-on-prisoner slayings in a six month period inside the Los Angeles (L.A.), California County Jails, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors reported that L.A. County Sheriff's deputies ...
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the U.S. District Court's ruling below (and permanent injunction) that the Washington DOC (WA DOC) policy of prohibiting prisoners' receipt of standard rate mail (AKA bulk mail) and catalogs with no notice to the sender or intended recipient violated the First and ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 20
A 41 year-old prisoner at the California State Prison (Solano) in Vacaville died six days after having a tooth extracted, when prison medical staff failed to treat his resulting infection.
Anthony Shumake, sentenced to 12 years, 8 months in 2000, had an abscessed tooth pulled on June 22,2004. Unfortunately, an ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 21
Nine guards at California's maximum security Salinas Valley State Prison (SVSP), including some belonging to the Green Wall" satanic gang of rogue guards, were fired on November 8, 2004 as a disciplinary action for allegedly assaulting a prisoner and then conspiring to keep the beating secret. A tenth official was ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 22
By Matthew T. Clarke
In August, 2004, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) gave House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, (R) Sugar Land, Texas, a check for $100,000 for his DeLay Foundation for Kids during a Lexington, Kentucky, political fund raiser for DeLay’s defense fund organized by Representative Hal Rogers, senior congressman ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 22
California Drug Possession" Disciplinary Satisfied By Positive Urine Test
The California Court of Appeal held that a positive urine test for THC (marijuana) was some evidence" sufficient to uphold a prison disciplinary finding of possession" of drugs. However, because the higher burden of proof required for a misdemeanor or felony ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 23
by John E. Dannenberg
In a scenario reminiscent of the Spy versus Spy" cartoon, phone companies are gouging California jail prisoners' families with outlandish collect call rates, while prisoners are defrauding the phone companies by taking advantage of new computerized phones to clandestinely bill their defense attorneys for collect calls ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 24
The California Court of Appeals determined that surcharges on fines levied upon criminal convictions were ex post facto where the laws establishing the surcharges were punitive and were enacted after the crimes had been committed.
Daniel High was convicted of property and drug offenses suffering eleven years in prison plus ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 24
by John E. Dannenberg
On October 22, 2004, President Bush signed into law the Civil Rights Tax Relief Act (CRTRA), enacted as section 703 of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. While the CRTRA was intended to provide relief from double taxation of attorney fees owed prevailing plaintiffs in ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 26
A New York State Assemblyman has been sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay $5,000 in fines and restitution for unlawfully billing the state for rides he got for free from Correctional Services Corporation (CSC). The sentence was imposed after Roger Green, a veteran Brooklyn Democrat, pleaded guilty ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 26
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a concubine and her children could not sue for damages resulting from the cancer death of federal prisoner Jose Miguel Ruiz.
This action was brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. § 1346, against the United States in ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 27
by Marvin Mentor
The California Department of Corrections (CDC) awarded a sole-source contract to MCI WorldCom (MCI) for all CDC prisoner phones. The October 29, 2004 agreement covers four years, with options for up to two one-year extensions. Significantly, CDC entered into the contract with no input from its prisoner ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 28
On June 10, 2004, the City of Shreveport, Louisiana, agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit arising from the suicide death of a prisoner in. the city's jail.
Frances Loggins, 48, was arrested for public drunkenness and taken to the Shreveport City Jail on July 5, 2002. Loggins ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 28
On September 10, 2004, six California Youth Authority (CYA) Correctional Counselors (guards) were fired for using excessive force" in beating two prisoners at a Stockton, California youth prison on January 20, 2004, and then falsifying the reports. The San Joaquin County prosecutor and the State Attorney General declined criminal prosecution ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 29
by David M. Reutter
On December 21, 2004, Florida's Leon County Circuit Court held that a 2004 law that imposed an administrative processing fee on monies deposited into prisoner accounts does not violate the Florida Constitution's single-subject rule. The December 2004 PLN reported the enactment of this law and ensuing ...
by David M. Reutter
With budget cuts eliminating its substance abuse programs and most educational programs in its prisons, the State of Florida is turning to religious groups to rehabilitate its prisoners. Since 1995, Florida's prison population has exploded from 62,000 prisoners to its current population of 80,000 which nets ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 31
In September, 2004, the Los Angeles County Claims Board (Board) agreed
to pay $40,000 to settle an excessive force claim brought by a prisoner injured at the L.A. County Main Jail.
On March 17, 2002, prisoner Joseph Amezola was protectively housed in the 2500 Module of the Main Jail because ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 32
A Rhode Island jury awarded a prisoner $3,900 for false imprisonment on April 21, 2004. In August 1994, William Ross was incarcerated and held by the Rhode Island Department of Corrections (RIDOC) on a minor larceny charge.
During his incarceration, the State of Oklahoma issued a warrant for his arrest ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
Republican State Representative Ray Allen of Grand Prairie, Texas, Chairman of the Texas House Corrections Committee, has been using his state employees and state equipment to operate a private firm that specializes in consulting and lobbying for the private prison industry. Allen's company, called Service House, ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 33
by Robert H. Woodman
The Court of Appeals of Georgia, Second Division, affirmed in part and reversed in part the judgment of the Gwinnett Superior Court in a case brought against a prison official, a prison nurse, and other defendants under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state tort law claims ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 34
by John E. Dannenberg
A divided panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that during a California prison partial lockdown limited to two ethnic populations, prison officials' exclusion from early return-to-work of pre-screened critical" prisoner workers solely because of their race, did not rise under the facts ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 34
The Appellate Court of Illinois, Fourth District, held that prisoner in the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) had adequately stated causes of action for mandamus relief pertaining to disciplinary sanctions imposed against him.
On September 11, 2002, William Cannon, Jr., a prisoner at the Pontiac Correctional Center, was issued a ...
by Robert H. Woodman
The Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, partly affirming a New Jersey prisoner's estate's suit, held that the New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC) could be held liable for the negligence of Correctional Medical Services (CMS) in treating a prisoner's medical condition, resulting in the ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 36
by John E. Dannenberg
An en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that no Miranda violation occurred in failing to suppress an interrogee's statement taken in the office of the FBI, where the person knew he was free to leave. The court further held that ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
The Fifth Circuit court of appeals held that a homosexual prisoner who prison officials allegedly allowed to be repeatedly sexually assaulted and made a sex slave may sue the prison officials for both failures to protect him in violation of the Eighth Amendment and discrimination based ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 38
By Robert H. Woodman
The Tenth District Court of Appeals of Ohio upheld a $7,820 damages award by the Ohio Court of Claims to Alton M. Stroud, a prisoner of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DORC). In its 2-1 decision, the appeals court found that DORC “may be ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 38
The United States and the District of Columbia agreed on June 4, 2004, to pay Robert M. North $19,500 for injuries he received from falling down a set of stairs while handcuffed. North was arrested on Thanksgiving Day 2000 by Federal Marshals. Since all federal buildings were closed for the ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 39
by John E. Dannenberg
The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a U.S. District Court ruling that had accorded BOP prisoners 54 days good-time credit per year, holding instead that the maximum credit available is only 47 days per year. In separate cases, the First and Third Circuit Court ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 40
by Robert H. Woodman
In a case involving charges of frame-up and cover-up by former Massachusetts and federal authorities brought by former Massachusetts state prisoners, their family members, estates, and survivors, the United States First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 41
The Tenth Circuit court of appeals has held that a prisoner who claims he was denied an attorney or court hearing for 73 days while awaiting extradition for parole revocation need not show that the revocation had been reversed before filing suit.
Steven Roy French, an Oklahoma state prisoner, filed ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 42
News in Brief:
Arkansas: On February 6, 2005, real estate developer NGI Rental filed a $2 million lawsuit against sex offender Randall Collins, his wife and the real estate company that allowed the Collins to purchase their home. NGI claims that after Collins moved into the neighborhood sales stopped. The ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2005
published in Prison Legal News
April, 2005, page 44
Dr. Kripa Kashyap, 62, a psychiatrist providing treatment to prisoners at the Harford County (Maryland) Detention Center in Bel Air was barred from treating any more prisoners after The Baltimore Sun newspaper revealed his past conviction for Medicare fraud. For the past seven years, Kashyap counseled prisoners and prescribed medications ...
