For-profit private prison operator Management & Training Corporation (MTC) has recently lost lucrative contracts to run prisons in the United States and Canada. While the private prison industry is dominated by industry giants Corrections Corporation of America, Geo Corporation and Cornell Corrections, a number of smaller private prison companies hold ...
Between 2001 and 2006, 101 prisoners died while in custody at Houston's Harris County Jail, more than in any other Texas county. Dallas County's jail had 70 deaths over the same period.
The Harris County Jail has an average population of 9,000 prisoners, and has failed to meet minimal state ...
About the only bad thing about publishing a magazine for 17 years is that invariably we lose friends and supporters. Noting the passing of friends is the sole thing I dislike about editing PLN. Moreso when we are talking about some of the unsung heroes and heroines of the prisoners? ...
Florida Jails: State's Largest Mental Health Providers
by David M. Reutter
Florida's policy of allowing mentally ill citizens to languish without treatment until they have encounters with law enforcement has turned the state's county jails into the primary provider of mental health services. This has created fiscal and overcrowding problems, ...
by Siobhan O?Connor
Nearly half a million women are married to men in prison. Maintaining these relationships involves a constant struggle with an often unsupportive penal system, despite growing evidence that a healthy marriage is one of the best tools for rehabilitation. Welcome to the intersection of prisons, love and ...
Gannet New Jersey's Witch Hunt for Public Employees with Criminal Records
by Matthew T. Clarke
The media in New Jersey, spearheaded by Gannett New Jersey publications, has embarked on a campaign to root out public employees with criminal records.
On April 1, 2007, Gannett New Jersey published the results of ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 16
The Colorado State Auditor completed a review of the state's private prison contracts in November 2006. The audit found that former Director of Prisons Nolin Renfrow's "private business activities arguably present a conflict of interest and result in a breach of his fiduciary duty and the public trust."
The State ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has vacated its precedent which held that a prisoner had an affirmative burden to plead exhaustion of administrative remedies in a § 1983 complaint. Following the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling contra in Jones v. Bock, 127 S.Ct. 910 ...
by David M. Reutter
Continuing his quest to clean up the chronically corrupt Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC), Secretary James McDonough fired or suspended at least 20 officials at Hendry Correctional Institution (HCI) for actions related to a prisoner beating.
Prior to McDonough taking FDOC's helm in February 2006, abuse ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 19
Ohio Lawyer Suspended for Bilking Prisoners' Families
On November 1, 2006, Ohio's Supreme Court suspended attorney Derek A. Farmer from the practice of law for two years.
Admitted to the bar in 1999, Farmer became known as a prisoners' lawyer, maintaining a practice that focused mainly on criminal appeals and ...
Florida's Civil Commitment Center Exhibits Little Change Despite New Contractor
by David M. Reutter
Despite recent scandals and a new private contractor, the Florida Civil Commitment Center (FCCC) is still a facility with little direction other than as a confinement center to warehouse sex offenders who have completed their sentences. ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
Connecticut has enhanced its use of a state law (C.G.S.A. § 18-85a) that allows it to recover costs of incarceration from prisoners, targeting prisoners who benefit from a ?windfall? such as an inheritance, insurance settlement, legal judgment or lottery payment.
The state began actively enforcing the ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
In an unprecedented decision, a Texas court of appeals held that the state must give a prisoner notice and other due process protection when garnishing his trust fund for payment of criminal fines.
Zakee Kaleem Abdullah, a Texas state prisoner, filed an appeal after the trial ...
by David M. Reutter
Florida?s Fifth District Court of Appeals has reversed, on procedural grounds, an order by the Volusia County Circuit Court that enjoined the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) from engaging in the ?practice of automatically violating the probation of every sex offender who fails to give an ...
Texas Court of Appeals Reverses Termination of Prisoner's Parental Rights
by Matthew T. Clarke
A Texas court of appeals held that when terminating a prisoner's parental rights the two-year period of incarceration used to justify the termination begins after the petition to terminate parental rights has been filed.
Eric Maiwald, ...
China has long been accused of illegally harvesting human organs from its executed prisoners. On November 19, 2006 Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu admitted that the suspicions were true.
?Under-the-table business must be banned,? Mr. Huang told a conference of surgeons in Guangzhou. ?The harvesting, distribution and use of organs ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 24
Not satisfied with conventional methods of monitoring sex offenders, Michigan is taking a hi-tech approach. Along with the ubiquitous ?school safety zones? and residency restrictions, concerned citizens can now be notified by email when changes are made to the state?s online sex offender registry. Michigan officials are also expanding the ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 25
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest private prison operator, has agreed to pay more than $438,000 to settle allegations of discriminatory hiring practices at the company's Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence, according to a February 23, 2007 report in the Arizona Republic.
Investigators with the U.S. Department ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 25
U.S. Parole Commission Rules are "Laws" for Ex Post Facto
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC) Circuit held that a lower court incorrectly concluded that new parole regulations were not "laws" for ex post facto purposes.
In 1997, Congress transferred responsibility for "all felons ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 26
The dilapidated and violent relic known as the Maryland House of Correction (MHC) has finally closed. MHC?s remaining 842 prisoners were transferred on March 16, 2007. The most troublesome prisoners were moved to various federal prisons around the country; the rest were sent to facilities in Kentucky, Virginia, and other ...
by John E. Dannenberg
Four years after California?s Department of General Services (DGS) ordered the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to publicly post details on $4.1 billion worth of contracts, CDCR complied in late March 2007.
In 2003, DGS advised CDCR that it was required that all their contracts ...
State Officials Resign
by John E. Dannenberg
California?s federal receiver over prison healthcare, Robert Sillen, took umbrage with Florida-based private contractor Medical Development International (MDI) by withholding $2.6 million in fees and locking MDI out of two southern California prisons in February 2007. Two high-level state prison health care officials ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 28
Washington's Criminal Justice System Racially Biased; Voting Rights Act Claim Fails Anyway
Despite finding that Washington state's criminal justice system is racially biased, a federal district court has held that the state's felon disenfranchisement law does not result in discrimination in the electoral process in terms of race.
This case ...
§ 1983 Suit Challenging New York's Blanket Parole Denial "Policy" Survives Motion to Dismiss
by John E. Dannenberg
The U.S. District Court (S.D. N.Y.) denied the New York State Division of Parole's ("Board") motion to dismiss a civil rights complaint brought by ten New York state prisoners who alleged that ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 29
$1,000,000 Award for Attorney's Failure to Prosecute Prisoner's Lawsuit
On January 4, 2006, a Boston Superior Court awarded a $1,000,000 judgment against an attorney for failing to prosecute a lawsuit on behalf of a prisoner at Massachusetts' Suffolk House of Correction (SHC).
While incarcerated at SHC, Maria Perez was raped ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 29
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court?s grant of summary judgment to prison officials, related to erroneous administration of another prisoner?s psychotropic medication.
On January 26, 2004, Nurse Assistant Lorna Bell mistakenly required Missouri prisoner James Spann to take another prisoner?s psychotropic medication, even through Spann protested ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 30
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a jury verdict against a prisoner-plaintiff, finding that the lower court erred in responding to a jury question during deliberations.
Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) prisoner Ronnie Conley was raped repeatedly by a cellmate. ?After the first attack, he sought protective custody? from ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 30
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the state?s mandatory DNA collection law does not violate state or federal ex post facto prohibitions. The court upheld application of the law to one defendant, finding that she was convicted of a predicate offense. It reversed with respect to another defendant, however, finding ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 30
Guards Settle "Sick Building" Claim at Florida Jail for $495,000
A year after John Hauser began working at Florida's Volusia County Jail in 1991, he began getting sick. He wasn't alone. In 2003, over one-third of the jail's 300-plus employees were on workers' compensation, citing respiratory problems, skin rashes and ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 31
LexisNexis, an information industry leader, has created a new advanced investigation solution to track and locate sex offenders. The solution is being touted as a tool for law enforcement to use when a child is abducted. There are over 600,000 sex offenders in the United States, and 100,000 of them ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 32
On February 7, 2007, the Appellate Court of Illinois ruled that because the Illinois parole board had wrongfully withheld documents and charged outrageous fees for copies, it was liable for attorney fees and costs under the state?s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
In 2002 attorney Alan Mills requested copies of ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that known dangerous prison working conditions can give rise to an Eighth Amendment cruel and unusual punishment claim, even where the prisoner ?volunteered? for the job. The court also held that the supervising prison official was not entitled ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 33
After a series of escapes, prisoner suicides and thefts by employees over the past year, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) promised it would take action to prevent similar incidents at Florida?s Hernando County Jail (HCJ). The pledge was made in a successful attempt by CCA to hold onto its $10 ...
Strictly construing the U.S. Supreme Court's "some evidence" rule, the California Court of Appeal held that where one cellmate had secreted contraband razor blades in his cell property, his cellmate could be infracted for them as well.
Richard Zepeda, incarcerated at Calipatria State Prison, petitioned the Imperial County Superior Court ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 34
In an evenly divided en banc rehearing, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit was unable to decide whether a Bivens action is available against employees of a privately?operated prison.
In 2001, Cornelius E. Peoples, a federal pretrial detainee, was held at a Leavenworth, Kansas facility operated ...
The Fulton County Jail (FCJ) has entered into an agreement to correct the “dismal environmental conditions and poor maintenance” at the facility. A Georgia federal district court approved a consent order on February 7, 2006 to solidify the badly needed changes.
The FCJ comprises three facilities, holding 2,250, 200 and ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 36
The California Court of Appeal, District 4, held that the civil commitment of sexual predators (Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code § 6600 et seq.) cannot be obtained upon admissions propounded under civil discovery rules. To do so, the court held, would deprive the state of its burden to prove its ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that the payment of $1,619 in costs owed to Michigan state by an unsuccessful prisoner litigator could not be deducted from his prison trust account at a rate faster than that approved for collecting unpaid Prison Litigation Reform ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 38
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ordered the U.S. District Court (D. Ore.) to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine if ample facts supported two Oregon state prisoners? claims that their involuntary transfers to Arizona prisons amounted to ?extraordinary circumstances? that entitled them to equitable tolling of the one-year ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 38
Direct Contempt of U.S. Court Must Be in Court's Presence; Conviction Reversed
The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the direct contempt conviction (18 U.S.C. 401(1)) of the wife of a civil suit plaintiff who had tried (unsuccessfully) to pass influencing papers to jurors dining in a cafeteria ten ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
The Fifth Circuit court of appeals held that a prisoner with a history of heart trouble who was denied any treatment for his chest pain could sue the nurse who denied him treatment even though he later received treatment and did not allege permanent damage.
John ...
by Matthew T.Clarke
In two related cases, the Supreme Court of Nevada held that sex offender certification hearings held by the Nevada Psychological Review Panel (PRP) were subject to the Nevada open meeting law (OML) and constitutional due process. The court also held that prisoners who were serving consecutive sentences ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 41
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court?s dismissal of a prisoner?s suit related to a delay in granting time served credits. The court concluded that plaintiff?s claims were not barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.
In 1997, Reginald Burke pleaded no contest to two Wisconsin criminal offenses and ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 42
Colorado: On November 1, 2006, Lashawn Terrell, 36, a guard at the Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center was arrested and charged with raping a female prisoner at the facility over a five month period whenever the prisoner came to work at the facility.
Florida: On April 10, 2007, Bradley Barbier, ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 42
No Qualified Immunity for Ignoring Heart Condition Leading to Prisoner's Death
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's denial of qualified immunity to jail officials who ignored a detainee's medical distress, causing his death.
Walter Gordon, Jr., was arrested in Washington County, Minnesota for driving without a ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2007, page 44
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that a registered sex offender who had been observed behaving suspiciously could be permanently banned from a city?s parks.
Robert Brown, a registered sex offender who had a single conviction for child molestation, was observed by park officials in Michigan City, Indiana?s Washington ...
