by David C. Fathi1

The prison industry, like any other, has its fashions. And in the 1990s, "supermax" prisons were a raging fad. According to Chase Riveland, former secretary of corrections in Washington and Colorado, [t]hey have become political symbols of how "tough" a jurisdiction has become. In some places, ...

There have been settlements in four separate lawsuits involving the Allegheny County (Pennsylvania) Jail. The suits alleged that seven Allegheny County Jail guards sexually assaulted four women prisoners.

In May 2006, Allegheny County began settling a series of federal civil rights lawsuits brought under 42 U.S.C. §1983 by Angelene Kerley, ...

We recently relaunched the Prison Legal News website. Like our previous website, this one contains all articles that have ever appeared in PLN, all copies of PLN in a searchable database format, in PDF format, thousands of court cases, briefs, pleadings, settlements, reports, publications, links to hundreds of other websites ...

by David M. Reutter

After a nine-month investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a report finding prisoners in four Delaware prisons ?suffer harm or are placed at the risk of harm from constitutional deficiencies in certain aspects of the medical and mental health care services, including suicide prevention.? ...

After media reports detailed incidents showing prisoners within the Delaware Department of Corrections (DDOC) were being maimed or dying because of deplorable medical care, Stan Taylor, DDOC's Commissioner, charged the reports were "sloppy reporting." Taylor's testimony in prisoner civil rights actions demonstrates that Taylor is guilty of sloppy administration.

We ...

After two autopsies and an 11-month investigation, aggravated manslaughter charges were issued in the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson at a Florida boot camp. Anderson?s death at the Bay County Sheriff Office?s boot camp in Panama City on Jan. 5, 2006 caused a public outcry after the first autopsy ...

The Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) has settled a class action disability discrimination suit over accessibility inside its state prisons for prisoners with impairments in mobility, hearing, sight and for diabetics. Over $3 million will be spent on accessibility renovations and $252,300 in awards, fees and costs. Individual claims from ...

BOP Settles "Terrorism" Classification Privacy Act Suit for $3,000

Plaintiff William Francis fought for more than 12 years to have what he claimed was erroneous information linking him to "terrorism" removed from his prison file. His persistence ultimately paid off. On August 18, 2006, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) agreed ...

Washington State's Federal Oversight of Sexually Violent Predators Ended

by John E. Dannenberg

After thirteen years of oversight, the U.S. District Court (W.D. Wash.) dissolved its injunction that had taken over control of Washington State's sexually violent predator (SVP) treatment program. District Judge Ricardo Martinez stated in his March 13, ...

by Matthew T. Clarke

On October 4, 2006, a federal court in Massachusetts awarded $13,655,940 to a man falsely convicted of rape.

Eric Sarsfield was living in Marlborough, Massachusetts in July 1987 when Ms. Toni Gustus was raped in the same community. Gustus reported the crime and forensic samples were ...

A settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit involving persons arrested in open court and illegally strip searched upon arrival at Florida?s Seminole County Jail.

The suit was filed after the plaintiffs were arrested for failure to appear on traffic violations. Seven of the lead plaintiffs were instructed ...

On October 27, 2006, the Arkansas Board of Corrections unanimously voted to increase the daily fees charged prisoners participating in the work-release program from $15 to $17. The increase is to be used to pay for guards to drive the prisoners to and from their work sites. The reason for ...

For slave wages, prisoners incarcerated at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women are working for the North Carolina Department of Commerce, processing bulk tourism mailings and manning a 24/7/364 call center that also acts as the backup for the governor?s office in states of emergency. The call center?s jobs ...

An innovative plan to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in Canadian prisons has been axed by Canada?s Conservative government.
In 2005, $350,000 in startup funds plus $600,000 for operating costs were allocated to implement a safe-tattoo program in six federal prisons. [See: PLN, August 2006].

During its one year ...

On December 22, 2006, Goliad County, Texas, agreed to settle with a prisoner who claimed she was raped by a guard at the county?s jail in September 2001. Under the agreement the county will pay a confidential amount to the victim and the Sheriff will make improvements to the jail?s ...

by John E. Dannenberg

The U.S. District Court (N.D. Cal.) held that the policy by California?s Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) Security Housing Unit of banning prisoners? possession of hardcover books violated their First Amendment rights. During the course of litigation, PBSP capitulated and amended its policy to permit such ...

Shortly after the Miami Daily Business Review (DBR) was designated as ?the record newspaper for Courthouse publications,? the DBR revoked permission for an unflattering article about Broward County?s Chief Judge Dale Ross to be posted on a defense attorney group?s web blog.

The attorney group, the Justice Advocacy Association of ...

During its 2006 Legislative session, the Florida Legislature enacted a law that eliminates deadlines for when prisoners can request DNA testing.
That law comes on the heels of numerous prisoners being released from death row and imprisonment on lesser sentences for crimes they did not commit.

Previously, a four-year deadline ...

Prisoner's Death Following Failure To Give Intake Medical Examination Settled By Los Angeles County For $700,000

by John E. Dannenberg

The Los Angeles County Claims Board settled a wrongful death lawsuit for $700,000 in December 2006 that resulted from a jail prisoner dying after not being given his intake medical ...

On March 31, 2006, in a Walker County courthouse, Salvador ?Sammy? Buentello pleaded guilty to a felony charge of unlawful restraint and five counts of official oppression. Buentello, 50, had been the assistant director of gang affairs for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) until he was forced to ...

A federal jury awarded $5,000,000 to the estate of a deceased state prisoner who died after a prison psychiatrist prescribed him psychotropic medication without conducting a proper evaluation.

Ozy Vaughn was a Michigan state prisoner who suffered from chronic schizophrenia. In January 2002, he was incarcerated in the residential treatment ...

Prison guards are among the 393 employees of Management and Training Corporation (MTC), a company that shorted $169,105 in wages for work performed.

MTC employs more than 2,000 workers at 24 Job Corps Centers and six prisons around the nation. The company was the target of an investigation by the ...

California Lifers' Parole Reversals Tossed by Two State Appellate Courts

by Marvin Mentor

An infirm, 82-year-old lifer's reversal by Governor Schwarzenegger of the Board of Parole Hearing's (BPH) grant of parole was itself overturned by the California Court of Appeal. The Second Appellate District found there was a lack of ...

After serving 12 years in the Texas Legislature state Representative Ray Allen resigned citing financial difficulties. ?I simply cannot afford to serve on a $600-a-month salary with no other source of income,? said Allen.

Allen has since overcome his financial woes working as a lobbyist for some of the same ...

Michael Farnan, 40, chief counsel for the Pennsylvania DOC, resigned from his job after he was involved in a hit-and-run accident in his state car. Farnan had been drinking heavily when he ran into the back of Tamara Hughes? minivan on November 8, 2006. Hughes, seven months pregnant, was returning ...

Tracking sex offenders just cost Wisconsin taxpayers millions of dollars and ensures that citizens will pay millions more every year.

Governor Jim Doyle signed a bill on May 22, 2006 that requires GPS monitoring for certain child molesters. The vote to implement lifetime tracking was approved by a unanimous vote ...

Tennessee DOC's Double Standard

by Greg Bowers

The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) applies a double standard to ethical violations committed by its employees and those committed by prisoners. TDOC staff who commit ethical violations are typically reassigned. Even when fired, they have been rehired days later.

Prisoners, on the ...

A man who spent seven years in prison for a rape he didn?t commit will receive $3.9 million from the city of Louisville, Kentucky, according to a February 12, 2007 settlement agreement.

William Gregory, now 59, was convicted in 1993 of raping one woman and attempting to rape another. He ...

Temporary Restraining Order Suspends California's Sex Offenders? Housing Banishment Law

by John E. Dannenberg

The U.S.D.C. (N.D. Cal.) issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on November 8, 2006, the same day California voters approved state Proposition 83 (?Jessica's Law?), which suspended that portion of the new law (Penal Code § ...

A federal jury in New Hampshire has awarded a total of $150,000 to two former prisoners in the continuing saga of false disciplinary charges by a guard at the Hillsborough County Jail.

These cases stem from the actions of guard Cesar Rivas, who claimed nine prisoners surrounded and threatened him ...

by Matthew T. Clarke

On October 23, 2006, a federal jury in Illinois awarded a man who had been falsely convicted of rape $9,063,000.

On September 19, 1989, Alejandro Dominguez was a 16-year old living in an apartment complex in Waukegan, Illinois, when Lisa Kraus, 33, a resident of the ...

The Arizona Legislator and Governor have continued exploiting the ?get tough on poor criminals? bandwagon, enacting SB 1444, in April, 2006, a law that requires a life sentence for any person convicted of a third violent felony. That law prohibits ?suspension of sentence, probation, pardon, or release on any basis ...

Federal Court Continues To Enforce Decade-Old California Prison Guards' "Code-Of-Silence" Ruling

The United States District Court (N.D. Cal.) reviewed progress on its 11-year-old federal court remedial action to eliminate a pernicious code-of-silence by prison guards (most notably at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's (CDCR) supermax Pelican Bay State ...

by John E. Dannenberg

In November 2005, the jurors of the San Francisco Grand Jury inspected city and county jails and found longstanding unremediated problems of inadequate budgets, staffing shortages, overcrowding and high (40%) recidivism rates. The Jury recommended that overcrowding and physical plant problems be promptly cured, staffing of ...

New York City Settles With Stabbed Riker's Prisoner For $40,000

On August 17, 2006, the City of New York paid $40,000 to settle with a prisoner who was stabbed while imprisoned at the Riker's Island Correctional Facility.

Plaintiff Melvin Grady claimed that while imprisoned at Riker's Island in August 1994 ...

The County of Los Angeles (L.A.), California paid $80,000 in January 2007 to a prisoner for the injuries he suffered when attacked in a supposedly witness-protected section of the L.A. County Jail.

Shane Wilson was housed in the K-10 protective-custody module at the L.A. Main Jail pending his testimony for ...

On November 21, 2006, Los Angeles County paid a thrice-injured jail prisoner $44,000 to settle a tort claim for the injuries he sustained on three occasions when he was placed in general population housing and beaten by other prisoners.

Anthony White was first assaulted on January 6, 2005 by another ...

In May, 2006, Jefferson County, Missouri, settled a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by a female prisoner who was allegedly raped by a male prisoner a guard placed in her cell.

Tracy Mundy, 24, a former Jefferson County Jail prisoner, was asleep in her bunk on October 13, 2003, when ...

Governor's Task Force Recommends Changes in Florida's Prison System Mission

Recognizing that 90% of all Florida prisoners will eventually be released into society, former Governor Jeb Bush commissioned the Ex-Offender Task Force (Task Force) on February 7, 2005 to report on how the state can improve the effectiveness "in facilitating ...

by David M. Reutter

While a prisoner at New York?s Bayview Correctional Facility, Jeanette Perez was required to assist moving a full garbage dumpster as part of her work detail. When trying to move that dumpster on July 2, 1999, Perez and another female prisoner, both of whom were only ...

The top California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) health-care official, a gubernatorial appointee, was forced to resign by the federal court appointed healthcare Receiver, Robert Sillen.

Dr. Peter Farber-Szekrenyi, who was hired in November 2005 to head CDCR?s Division of Health Care Services, was castigated for his awarding a ...

Facing a sexual assault trial of a fellow prisoner is a pretty serious felony, making one think they would want to be present during the trial. Feeling he could not get a fair trial, Charlie Lee Floyd, 46, boycotted that trial. Despite his absence, the jury acquitted Floyd.

The alleged ...

Oklahoma Escapee Who Fled With Warden's Wife Sentenced to Maximum, Then Dies

When Randolph F. Dial escaped from the Oklahoma State Reformatory in August 1994, he set off a search not only for himself, but also for the deputy warden's wife, Bobbi Parker. In April 2005, they were discovered living ...

On December 26, 2006, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) agreed to provide substitute meals to state prisoner Alfonso Pew whenever pork is served.

Pew claimed that while imprisoned in the Restrictive Housing Unit, prison officials refused to provide peanut butter or any other substitute to prisoners who, like himself, ...

On September 22, 2006, a federal judge entered an order approving the preliminary settlement of a suit against Montgomery County, New York, over its county jail strip search policy, for $2 million.

This is a class-action civil rights lawsuit brought in federal district court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. ...

On January 11, 2006, a Montana state district court set aside two prisoners' convictions for escape and acquitted them after holding that no evidence had been presented that they were in the custody of a peace officer, a requirement for the crime of escape in Montana.

William Leonard Brown and ...

Missouri's Supreme Court has held that the state's "Megan's Law" cannot be retroactively applied to persons convicted prior to January 1, 1995. The ruling affects about half of the people previously required to register as sex offenders, but allows information about their convictions to be published.

Before the Court was ...

by John E. Dannenberg

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that where a Los Angeles County Jail prisoner died of allegedly deficient medical attention, the county?s defense of relying upon the professional discretion of medical doctors to automatically immunize the county from municipal ?policy? liability in a subsequent ...

In a shocking five-to-four decision, the Washington Supreme Court, for the first time ever, reversed a parole denial by the state Indeterminate Sentence Review Board (Board).

The Court found that the Board had ignored evidence at Richard Dyer?s December 4, 2002 parole hearing and had based its decision to deny ...

by John E. Dannenberg

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a U.S. District Court (N.D. Cal.) ruling that had misinterpreted 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e) to require physical injury in order to gain relief from unconstitutional prison conditions. While not a ruling on the merits, the decision permitted the ...

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) did not apply to Texas prisoners working in Texas state prisons.
Douglas Loving, a Texas state prisoner, filed a civil rights suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that, under the FLSA, he was entitled to ...

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that an Illinois prisoner ?took all steps necessary to exhaust? his administrative remedies when prison officials misplaced his timely grievance and did not instruct him to re-file an ?untimely grievance.?

On March 15, 2002, Joseph Dole assaulted an Assistant Warden. Prison guards ...

The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a double-murderer convicted in 1975, serving life in Tennessee, was entitled to the benefit of 1974 parole rules which conditionally provided that ?... such prisoner shall be allowed to go upon parole,? and therefore the parole board?s 1998 denial using its ...

by Matthew T. Clarke

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a civil rights challenge to provisions of the Arkansas Sex Offender Registration Act, Ark. Code Ann. § 12-12-901 et seq., and to a criminal statute that makes it a Class D felony for some sex offenders ...

Texas Court Ordered to Accept Prisoners' Correspondence

In a bizarre case, a Court of Appeals in Texas had to order a state district court to accept correspondence from prisoners.

Felix DeLeon, a Texas state prisoner, filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in the Court of Criminal Appeals of ...

California: On April 20, 2007, John Whittle, a former guard at the Mule Creek State Prison was sentenced to two years in prison for smuggling methamphetamine to prisoners in exchange for five thousand dollars worth of bribes.

Florida: On June 20, 2006, Nelson Mompierre, 43, a park ranger at the ...

By Michael Rigby

On August 18, 2006, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois awarded $7,116.35 in attorney's fees and costs to a state prisoner who prevailed in his civil rights claim against prison officials.

Plaintiff David Williams filed suit against prison personnel under 42 U.S.C. § ...