Little State, Big Problems: Maine?s Prison Crisis Continues Unabated
by Lance Tapley
Only big prison systems mistreat prisoners, right?
Only prison systems where racism, right-wing tough-on-crime attitudes, or prison-industrial-complex power have full reign, like in California or Texas, are failures, right?
Only prisons where gang-oriented, city-bred prisoners are divided by ...
The Maine Department of Corrections has been violating at least two of three 35-year-old federal court orders that grant prisoners access to the press, allow them to write to newspapers, and prohibit prison officials from arbitrarily transferring prisoners out of state if they exercise their rights. The state admits two ...
A federal judge in Massachusetts has awarded $101.7 million to four innocent men who were framed by the FBI for a murder they did not commit.
In a scathing 228-page decision entered on July 26, 2007, Judge Nancy Gertner blasted the FBI for its complicity in framing the men. "The ...
In the course of attending events in different parts of the country I am often asked "which prison system is the worst?" That's a tough question to answer because it depends on how you define "bad". Medical neglect in prisons and jails is pretty awful around the country, regardless of ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 12
The July 2007 issue of Prison Legal News reported Sarsfield v. City of Marlborough, $13,655,940 Award for False Massachusetts Rape Conviction and Gregory v. City of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky Settles with Wrongly Imprisoned Man for $3.9 Million. Barry Scheck was lead counsel for both plaintiffs, but while he is a ...
Maryland Prison Audit Reveals Potential Fraud "Undetectable"
by Michael Rigby
Maryland employees responsible for millions of dollars worth of equipment and funds perform their duties without adequate oversight or fiduciary controls, an audit of the Jessup Region of the Maryland Department of Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) has concluded.
The ...
Florida Supreme Court Enacts Rules Regulating "Super Sealing" of Court Records
by David M. Reutter
On April 5, 2007, the Florida Supreme Court implemented new rules that "provide a procedural vehicle for making circuit and county court records in non-criminal cases confidential." The rules were made to address "highly serious ...
by G. A. Bowers
The Urban Institute?s Justice Policy Center released in April 2007 One Year Out, the final report of its Returning Home study of nearly 300 former prisoners living in Cleveland, Ohio, one year after their release from prison.
Among the study?s key findings were that, one year ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 14
The Minnesota Court of Appeals held that disciplining a prisoner and extending his prison sentence for refusal to participate in sex offender treatment was a violation of the Fifth Amendment. The appellate court concluded that State ex rel. Morrow v. LaFleur, 590 N.W. 2d 787, 792 (Minn. 1999) was effectively ...
War on Terror Whistleblowers, Dissenters are Fired, Prosecuted; Plaintiff's Lawyers Help Turn Them In
by Alex Friedmann
In January 2005, Lt. Commander Matthew M. Diaz was a Navy staff judge advocate serving a six-month tour of duty at the legal office in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 17
On August 25, 2006, the Director of the Arkansas Department of Corrections was ordered to pay state prisoner Michael Fegans $1,500 for violating his constitutional rights to a kosher diet.
Fegans is a devout member of the Assemblies of Yahweh, a religious group that adheres to certain grooming standards and ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
The methods used for psychological evaluation and housing of prisoners at the Washington, D.C. Jail are being questioned after two prisoners committed suicide within a three-month period.
Alicia Edwards, 32, had a history of mental illness when she hung herself in her D.C. Jail cell on ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 18
Finding a prison official failed to properly train prisoners to use a log splitter, New York?s Binghampton Court of Claims held the state of New York was 75% liable for injuries sustained from use of that splitter.
While incarcerated at the Sullivan Annex minimum-security prison, on January 31, 2003, prisoner ...
Illinois Supreme Court Holds Prisoner Medical Co-Payment Fee Can't Be Deducted From Future Funds
by John E. Dannenberg
The Illinois Supreme Court held that the Illinois Department of Corrections' (IDOC) regulation levying a $2 medical/dental co-payment fee against an "indigent" prisoner's trust account and placing a hold on all future ...
California's Solution To Prison Overcrowding: $7.4 Billion To Build 53,000 New Beds
by Marvin Mentor
Faced with three federal judges threatening to place a population cap on California's overcrowded prison system, the state Legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger "cured" the problem in May 2007 by authorizing $7.4 billion in non-voter approved ...
by Michael Rigby
The daughters of a mentally ill man who was raped and beaten to death by another prisoner in New Jersey's Camden County Correctional Facility (CCCF) will receive a combined $4 million from the state and the jail's mental health care provider, Steininger Behavioral Care Services.
Joel Seidel, ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 22
$14 Million Verdict Against Louisiana DA's Office for Wrongful Death Sentence
The New Orleans Parish, Louisiana, District Attorney's Office should pay $14 million to a man who was wrongly convicted of murder and sent to the state's death row 22 years ago, a federal court jury concluded on February 9, ...
A hundred miles southwest of Denver, the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum houses a killer lineup of mobsters (Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano), gang leaders (Barry "The Baron" Mills), assassins (Colombian hit man Dandenis "La Quica" Muñoz Mosquera) and guerillas (John "American Taliban" Walker Lindh). But not to worry ? despite ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 25
In May 2007 a South Carolina jury awarded $600,000 to a state prisoner who alleged that guards beat him and sprayed him with mace in an unprovoked attack.
Alonzo Brinkley, 32, claimed in his lawsuit, filed in the Marlboro County Court of Common Pleas, that while imprisoned at the Evans ...
Wyoming and CMS Settle Suit Over Diabetic Prisoner's Loss of Foot
by Matthew T. Clarke
In June 2006, CMS, the State of Wyoming and a prison doctor settled a lawsuit involving a prisoner who had to have his lower right leg amputated following dismally inadequate medical care.
Salvatore Lucido is ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 26
On February 5, 2007, San Mateo County, California, agreed to pay $1.9 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that an estimated 1,200 women were illegally strip-searched at the county jail between February 3, 2002, and December 2, 2003.
Sharon Gallagher, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, claimed she was ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 27
Tenth Circuit Upholds BOP Guard's Abuse Convictions
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions and sentences of three former prison guards for beating prisoners at the United States Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, (USP-Florence).
As we've previously reported, in 1997, the Government began a three-year investigation into allegations of ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 28
The Texas Parole Board is replacing its old, error-prone drug testing procedure with a new method it says will reduce mistakes and provide for independent confirmation of positive test results?something that has been unavailable in the past.
Some aspects of the testing procedure will remain familiar. As always, parolees being ...
by John E. Dannenberg
An often overlooked segment of the nation's prison population, alien detainees, was the subject of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit between May 2006 and May 2007. While the largest problem noted was limited access to free telephones to call attorneys and consulates, numerous other deficiencies ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 29
Los Angeles (LA) County settled out a wrongful death claim brought by the widow of a 71-year old prisoner who died allegedly for want of proper medical care in the county jail.
On top of the $475,000 settlement payment, the county ran up its own legal expenses of $330,227, for ...
In November 2006 the State of Texas paid $250,000 to settle with the family of Charles Billops, Jr., a teenager who died from an undiagnosed brain abscess caused by a sinus infection while imprisoned in 2003. The settlement was paid on behalf of the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), ...
by John E. Dannenberg
In a per curiam ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a Colorado state prisoner seeking reinstatement of his Hepatitis-C medical treatment had stated an adequate claim per Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) to preclude having his case summarily dismissed below.
Colorado Department of Corrections ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 31
Massachusetts Guard Accused of Throwing Feces Entitled to Workman's Compensation
A former Massachusetts prison guard accused of putting feces in a prisoner's cell is entitled to workman's compensation for emotional distress, the state Department of Industrial Accidents Reviewing Board held on June 20, 2007.
In March 2002, high-profile prisoner John ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Supreme Court of New Jersey, incensed with the inhumane treatment of a state prisoner who was systematically denied Hepatitis-C treatment for four years, ordered the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) to enact regulations codifying its responsibility for prisoners? healthcare.
The ruling also mandated that ...
by David M. Reutter
Inadequate medical care by Prison Health Services (PHS) has resulted in yet another death and $1.6 million in settlements for the mother of a baby boy who was born over a cell toilet at Florida's Hillsborough County Jail (HCJ).
Incarcerated for prostitution, Kimberly Grey was also ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 33
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court?s grant of summary judgment to jail officials on a detainee?s excessive force claim.
Patti Johnson and her sisters Laura Johnson, Stacey Hall and Karen Mitchell were all confined in the Jasper County Detention Center in Missouri, on June 13, 2003. ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 33
A confidential settlement has been reached in the death of one prisoner and injury to another. The prisoners, John Nicholas Shoultz and David McKee, were prisoners of the Alabama Department of Corrections.
They were picking up trash in the median of Interstate 65 near County Road 20 in Autousa County, ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 34
A new state law prohibits Hawaii prison officials from canceling prescheduled visits because of absenteeism or guard shortages, if the visitors have traveled from another island or the mainland.
Retired prison guard Kam Tanaka, now a State Representative, sponsored the bill (HB2595), which became law July 11, 2007, without Governor ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 34
In an April 26, 2007 speech at the National Crime Victims? Rights Week in southern California, Governor Schwarzenegger announced that over $100 million had been collected from prisoners since 1992 in the form of court-ordered restitution fines. ?If you commit the crime, you pay the debt. ... In California, it ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 34
The California Court of Appeal, District 4, held that a probation condition requiring informing a probation officer of any pets in the probationer?s residence was invalid because it was overbroad.
Reyes Quintero pled guilty to methamphetamine possession and was sentenced to probation. One of the terms of probation was that ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The California Court of Appeal, Sixth District, held that when a parolee both violated parole and committed a new offense, and disputed his parole revocation hearing findings but had no administrative appeals process available to challenge them, he was entitled to have the sentencing court immediately ...
The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has held that federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) prisoners seeking transfers to community correctional centers (CCC) before reaching a point when they have the greater of six months or ten percent of their terms remaining to serve, cannot be denied such transfers solely ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 36
"Liberal" Pleading Construction Reveals Negligent Guard Theory Claim
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a New York federal district court?s dismissal of claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), finding that the court failed to "liberally" construe the plaintiff prisoner's submissions to be "interpreted so as to ...
by John E. Dannenberg
Seeking to clarify an "established proposition frequently ... overlooked in litigation arising from Indiana's prison system," the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that the lower burden of proof that attaches to prison disciplinary panel findings of fact is insufficient to "entitle prison defendants to ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 38
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has held that a habeas corpus applicant may raise a free-standing claim of actual innocence in a state habeas corpus proceeding.
Randolph Roy Sparks, a Texas state prisoner, filed a post-conviction petition for a writ of habeas corpus under Article 11.07, Texas Code of ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 38
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that arbitrarily imposing a penile plethysmograph [electromechanical gauge of male sexual stimulation] testing requirement as a condition of supervised release for a sex offender violates due process liberty interests. To enforce such a condition, a court must first make an evidentiary determination ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 39
The Constitution of China guarantees every citizen the right to vote unless that right has been removed by law. In China?s 2,700-man Qingpu Prison, 723 prisoners retained the right to vote in the December 2006, election for the people?s congress of Qinpu District in Shanghai.
To facilitate the prisoners? voting, ...
The Texas Supreme Court held that the mere possibility of parole within the two-year imprisonment requirement of § 161.001(1)(Q), Texas Family Code, was insufficient to prevent termination of a prisoner's parental rights.
William Keith M. is a Texas state prisoner and the biological father of H.R.M. He divorced Stacey M., ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 40
A Texas court of appeals acquitted a Texas jail prisoner of criminal mischief charges for allegedly damaging jail furnishings because the state failed to provide any evidence of the value of the furnishings.
Jaccob Aaron Merwin, a prisoner in the Collin County Jail, had an altercation with another prisoner and ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 40
by John E. Dannenberg
In an important denial-of-access-to-the-courts ruling, a U.S. District Court (S.D. Ohio) held that a juvenile ward who was denied access to the courts after suffering injury from an Ohio Department of Youth Services (ODYS) guard was entitled to a state-provided attorney to pursue a 42 U.S.C. ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 41
In an unpublished opinion the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's dismissal, for failure to state a claim, of a prisoner's retaliation suit against one prison official, but upheld the dismissal of claims against three other officials.
On December 15, 2003, Mississippi prisoner Clinton Cressionnie used the ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 42
Arizona: On September 17, 2007, Kollin Folsom, 24, and Roy Townsend, 37, Washington state prisoners imprisoned at the Corrections Corporation of America run Florence Correctional Center escaped from the prison by overpowering a guard, tying him up and using ladders to climb over fences surrounding the prison. Folsom was captured ...
Loaded on
Oct. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2007, page 44
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a prisoner's notice of appeal is considered filed on the date it is given to prison officials, and the state has the burden of proof to demonstrate otherwise.
Alabama prisoner Robert S. Allen filed a federal habeas corpus petition challenging his ...
