During a 2002 interview, Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) Food Services Administrator Farhad “Fred” Monem, 49, shook his head in disgust as he criticized government employees who feel a sense of entitlement. “People work for so many years and feel the taxpayer owes them,” he said. “But to me, nobody ...
One of the little noted facts and realities of the massive explosion of mass imprisonment, and the corresponding increase in money spent on prisons and jails, is the inherent corruption that accompanies it. This month’s cover story on the Oregon DOC’s corrupt food manager, Fred Monem, is unusual only in ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 10
Since PLN began publishing in 1990, we have never had to make a retraction based on our own factual mistake. While we’ve run corrections before, they were based on errors in the original news articles or reports that were used as source material. PLN strives for accuracy.
That being said, ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 10
The County of Los Angeles, California paid $40,000 to a prisoner who was badly beaten in the county jail upon returning from court, by friends of the defendant he had just testified against in a murder trial.
In November 2003, James Vensel, a Los Angeles County Jail prisoner, testified against ...
by John E. Dannenberg
Faced with a pending federal class action lawsuit brought by New York state prisoners seeking relief from being denied parole based solely on the nature of their crimes, then Governor Elliot Spitzer was ready to order the Parole Board to reconsider the cases of 1,000 Class-A ...
by Matt Clarke
On the night of October 18, 2007, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, founders and owners of the Phoenix New Times, an independent weekly publication in Phoenix, Arizona, were arrested and charged with the misdemeanor offense of revealing grand jury information. The alleged crime occurred when the New ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 13
The Hinds County Board of Supervisors (Board) agreed to settle a three-million-dollar federal lawsuit filed by a former prisoner in the Hinds County Jail after he was left paralyzed by a beating at the hands of other prisoners in March 2007. The five-member Board voted four-to-one to settle the case ...
by Matt Clarke
On January 4, 2008, MGT of America, Inc. released a performance audit of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC). The 285-page report cost $844,000 and provided several clues as to how the prison system could improve and save money. Chief among its recommendations were that the DOC ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 15
The State of Minnesota has paid $300,000 to the family of a University of North Dakota student who was kidnapped, raped and killed by a recently-released sexual predator. The payment was offered as a pre-litigation settlement before a lawsuit was filed.
The case garnered national attention in 2003, when Dru ...
by Matt Clarke
In September 2007, Human Rights Watch released a report entitled No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the US. The report concluded that most sex offender laws are ineffective and misguided in that they do not reduce the probability of future sex offenses or make the perpetrators ...
Until February 13, 2008, Ronald Joseph, 29, was serving time at a federal penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas for firearm and drug-related convictions. On that date he was found dead in his cell; a preliminary autopsy report indicated he had been murdered.
“[A] precise cause of death” has not been determined, ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 18
A federal jury has awarded four Illinois prisoners over $2 million apiece in a civil rights action filed against state prison officials for denying treatment for Hepatitis C (Hep C).
In 2005, Edward J. Roe, Anthony P. Stasiak, Timothy J. Stephen and Jackson Walker, all state prisoners at the Logan ...
by John E. Dannenberg
A federal prisoner in Texas sued prison officials for retaliating against him for filing grievances. While the court found for the defendants, it nonetheless sanctioned two Assistant U.S. Attorneys $500 for procedural discovery errors, payable to the plaintiff. On appeal the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ...
by John E. Dannenberg
A federal jury awarded $6,058,000 in damages to a parolee and his girlfriend for outrageous conduct by Oakland, California city police (OPD) when they broke into his residence, told him they had a non-existent warrant, falsely claimed they found a firearm, and caused him to be ...
by John E. Dannenberg
Between 1995 and 2005, Washington State Department of Corrections (WADOC) policy 440.000 required prisoners who were being transferred between WADOC prisons to pre-pay the shipping costs of their personal property in excess of two boxes, or forfeit the property. A class-action lawsuit brought by four WADOC ...
Reviewed by John E. Dannenberg
Unlocking America is a study on how to approach the task of reducing America’s prison population (“decarceration”) without compromising public safety. Key factors recommended to accomplish this include reducing the number of persons sent to prison, shortening the terms of those who are, and decreasing/eliminating ...
Last year, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation began examining the award of a prison pest control contract to the son of the state’s former House Speaker. The contract raised questions because the winning bid was roughly three times higher than the lowest bidder for the same job.
The ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has rejected several Utah-based civil rights complaints concerning the denial of reading material to prisoners, including issues of Prison Legal News. In a case involving the Salt Lake County Jail, suit was brought regarding the constitutionality of the jail’s ...
Just seven months after he was hired as director over Maryland’s juvenile detention facilities, Chris Perkins, 38, resigned his $76,000 a year position when a Montana judge unsealed a report that found Perkins had abused children at a Montana boot camp.
The 21-page report detailed treatment of juveniles while Perkins ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 24
Dr. Edward Zaloga, co-owner of Correctional Care, Inc. (CCI) of Moosic, Pennsylvania, a firm that provides medical services at the Lackawanna County Prison, had his past called into question when a female prisoner was forced to give birth alone in her cell after her pleas for help were ignored.
While ...
by David M. Reutter
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a judgment against the warden of Arkansas’ Cummins Unit, finding he did not have sufficient knowledge that the guards under his supervision were inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on prisoners.
The appeal, by Warden M.D. Reed, was filed ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 26
On March 10, 2008, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) agreed to settle a grant fraud case for $300,000.
After being promoted to Special Projects Manager of the NCJFCJ, Serena Hulbert requested access to documents related to grants, budgets and expenditures concerning the project she was ...
by John E. Dannenberg
On September 21, 2007, a California U.S. District Court granted summary judgment in favor of a class of prisoners who had been required to sleep on the floor of the Los Angeles County Jail (“Jail”) between December 18, 2002 and May 17, 2005, ruling that such ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 27
The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a district court § 1983 judgment that had found Iowa’s contract attorney arrangement (in lieu of a law library) had denied an Iowa prisoner’s constitutional right of access to the courts. The court also awarded him nominal damages ($1) for loss of ...
On January 17, 2008, U.S. District Judge Wiley Y. Daniel granted a preliminary injunction permitting University of Denver law students access to two prisoners housed at the Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) Administrative Maximum facility (Supermax) in Florence, Colorado.
On February 25, 2005, NBC broadcasted an investigative news report related to ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 28
Twenty-nine-year-old Misha Cooper has a long history of mental illness and criminal offenses. In May 2006, she was confined in the Multnomah County Detention Center (MCDC) in Portland, Oregon. Due to her mental health issues she was placed in a special segregation unit consisting of five single cells.
One of ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 30
The Alabama Supreme Court has voided a Jefferson County Circuit Court’s order that prohibited the state from disenfranchising former prisoners until every felony involving the element of moral turpitude had been catalogued by the state legislature.
The ruling resulted from an appeal filed by the Alabama Secretary of State. The ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 30
For a total of $1,000,000, California officials settled the wrongful death lawsuits stemming from three prisoner suicides in the Sacramento County jail. Sacramento County Sheriff John McGuiness averred that the agreement to settle should not be construed as evidence of any wrongdoing. Rather, he called it “strictly a business decision ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 31
A federal district court has issued a preliminary injunction requiring the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) to provide a Muslim prisoner with “food items containing 2,200 calories” daily during Ramadan, a month-long period of religious fasting.
This action was brought by Keen Mountain Correctional Center prisoner William R. Couch, who ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 32
The Ohio Supreme Court held that a state law requiring convicted felons and some misdemeanants to provide DNA specimens could not be applied retroactively to offenders placed on supervised release before the law’s May 2005 effective date.
On August 6, 2002, Craig Consilio pleaded guilty to DUI, a fourth degree ...
by David Reutter & Matt Clarke
In December 2007, it was reported that an investigator at Florida’s Charlotte County Jail was caught listening to telephone conversations between a prisoner and his attorney. As a result, the investigator, Kenneth Hill, was reprimanded and placed on road patrol.
Hill was investigating charges ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 33
A federal jury has awarded over $2 million to a man who was acquitted of attempting to abduct two young girls.
In March 2001, a man approached an eight-year-old girl on the front porch of her home in Chicago, Illinois and offered to take her on a field trip. The ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 34
In August 2007, a deputy clerk at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was fired after an investigation revealed she had a personal relationship with a prisoner who flooded the courts with legal filings.
Federal prisoner William G. Moore was convicted in October 1995 on conspiracy, methamphetamine ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 34
In January 2008, the state of Montana settled a lawsuit filed by a former prisoner who had been wrongfully convicted of raping a child, paying him $3.5 million. The settlement was the largest amount the state had ever paid for a civil rights violation.
When he was 19, Jimmy Ray ...
In mid-2007, the United Kingdom (UK) designated two detention facilities to be occupied solely by foreign national prisoners. If the plan is successful, the government intends to expand the practice beyond the Bullwood Hall and Canterbury prisons.
The move comes as the proportion of foreign prisoners to English prisoners continues ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 36
The federal district court in Delaware has held that Correctional Medical Services (CMS), the medical provider for the Delaware Department of Corrections (DDOC), was deliberately indifferent to a prisoner’s medical needs. The ruling should come as no surprise to PLN readers, as PLN has previously featured the “obviously inadequate” medical ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 36
The Vermont Department of Corrections (VDOC) settled a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by a former prisoner claiming he had been denied traditional food for Jewish holidays that had been donated by an outside philanthropic organization.
Gordon Bock, 53, was incarcerated in VDOC between October 2004 and May 2005 for domestic ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 37
The state of New York has agreed to pay $640,000 to a man who it unjustly incarcerated for five years to dismiss the lawsuit he filed after his convictions were vacated because the evidence clearly indicated that he wasn’t involved in the robbery precipitating his convictions and incarceration.
In January ...
by John E. Dannenberg
Butte County, California officials settled a decade-old $1.2 million lawsuit brought by a former county jail deputy who blew the whistle on a jailhouse beating of a child molester ordered by three other deputies, and who was then subjected to a retaliatory bogus prosecution on unrelated ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that prison officials must introduce evidence that a prisoner participated in a monetary transfer before they can discipline him for trafficking and trading due to third-party trust fund deposits.
Hubert Earl Teague, a Texas state prisoner, filed a petition ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 39
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has excused a New York prisoner’s failure to exhaust available administrative remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). The court found that prison officials’ erroneous refusal to investigate a claim, and frustration of administrative review of the error, constituted “special circumstances” justifying non-compliance ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 40
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has held a prisoner’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action is not barred when a victory for the prisoner “would have at most the potential to decrease his period of detention,” in a case where the prisoner “alleged adequately the elements of a First Amendment ...
by John E. Dannenberg
A hit man with 20 cold-blooded murders under his belt, but who turned government informant to expose a dirty FBI agent, was released from a Massachusetts state prison in 2007 after serving only 12 years. To help him get on his feet, the U.S. Drug Enforcement ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 41
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that it is no defense to a prison disciplinary charge for battery that the blows were struck to prevent the further stabbing of a third person.
Aaron B. Scruggs, an Indiana state prisoner, filed a federal habeas corpus action challenging his disciplinary conviction ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 42
Arizona: On April 19, 2008, Maricopa county prosecutors announced they were seeking the death penalty against former Maricopa county jail guard Jeffrey Hamlet, 55, who is accused of killing his wife. The Maricopa county jail is run by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and is notorious for its brutality and sub human ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 42
The Special Rapporteur on education, Vernor Muñoz, is to submit a report on the right to education for people in detention to the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2009.
Mr. Muñoz, an independent and unpaid expert appointed by the United Nations, wishes to ensure that prisoners’ knowledge, positions and ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2008
published in Prison Legal News
August, 2008, page 44
The Spokane County, Washington, Commissioner has agreed to settle a civil rights action prosecuted by the family of a prisoner who was murdered by his cellmates at the Geiger Correction Center (Geiger) in Spokane County for $180,000.
In October of 2004, 21-year-old Christopher L. Rentz was being held at Geiger ...
