by Alphonse A. Gerhardstein+
Ed. Note: This article is written with the aim of assisting attorneys who are litigating prison-related lawsuits; however, it is also very helpful for pro se plaintiffs and for parties represented by counsel who want a better understanding of the legal process and procedures in their ...
The cover story this month, on the nuts and bolts of winning a prisoner rights case is by Alphonse Gerhardstein, one of the top civil rights lawyers in the country. His invaluable advice applies equally to pro se prisoner litigants as it does to the best attorneys. There are things ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 14
The State of Georgia paid $500,000 to a man who spent 28 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. John Jerome White was arrested in 1979 after an elderly woman identified him during a police line up as her attacker.
In 2007, DNA evidence cleared White and ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 15
On April 15, 2009, a federal jury convicted a former prisoner who impersonated a lawyer on charges of mail fraud and making false statements, and the U.S. District Court subsequently imposed a 51-month prison sentence.
Howard O. Kieffer, 54, served time in federal prison from 1989 to 1993 on felony ...
by Robert W. Wood1
Claims for false imprisonment may be brought in various ways under federal or state law. An individual who has been wrongfully incarcerated may sue under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 for a violation of his constitutional rights. The individual may also sue under state tort law, making ...
Texas’ parole Condition X has come under scrutiny in a federal court case. On December 12, 2008, a U.S. magistrate judge issued a 30-page order granting partial summary judgment in favor of parolee David Brian Jennings, after concluding that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had illegally imposed “conditions ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 21
A class action lawsuit alleging illegal strip searches occurred regularly at Pennsylvania’s Dauphin County Prison (DCP) has been settled for $2.16 million. The class claimed they were arrested on minor charges and strip searched without any particularized suspicion that they possessed weapons or other contraband.
The lawsuit was filed after ...
by David M. Reutter
As the mentally ill become more prevalent within the nation’s prison population, guards and prison administrators face a dilemma when confronted with such a prisoner who is not conforming to prison rules. While it said it was “a hard case,” a Florida federal district court nonetheless ...
An investigation by the California Bureau of State Audits has revealed that Prison Health Care Services, the office overseeing prison health care reform in California, violated legal requirements and bypassed internal controls when it acquired $26.7 million in information technology (“IT”) goods and services without inviting competitive bids. The investigation, ...
by Matt Clarke
On December 19, 2008, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal jury award of $14 million in a case involving the wrongful conviction of a Louisiana man for attempted armed robbery and first-degree murder, in which the prosecutors withheld an exculpatory blood test report and ...
by David M. Reutter
Finding that no legitimate penological interest existed to support a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PDOC) policy that requires a PDOC-issued control number on correspondence for it to qualify as legal mail, a U.S. District Court issued an injunction prohibiting enforcement of the policy. However, that ruling ...
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PDOC) may lawfully ban the receipt and possession of materials related to the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held on July 29, 2008. In a more recent ruling, however, the Sixth Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction barring the Michigan DOC ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 29
Federal probation officers cannot restrict persons on supervised release from working as legal assistants, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held on April 8, 2009.
Yraida L. Guanipa, convicted of attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine, was placed on supervised release following her federal prison sentence ...
On September 8, 2008, Texas Governor Rick Perry issued a disaster declaration for 88 counties as Hurricane Ike bore down on the Texas coastline.
The 900-mile wide storm, with winds in excess of 100 mph “...is now in the Gulf of Mexico and making its approach toward our coast,” Perry ...
by Matt Clarke
A review conducted by a Houston newspaper concluded that a large quantity and variety of contraband is still being smuggled into Texas prisons by state prison guards, and those caught smuggling rarely receive harsh punishment.
Between 2003 and 2008, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) brought ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 33
On March 11, 2009, at approximately 9:15 p.m., Paul David Duran, Jr., 23, a prisoner at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary (OSP) in McAlester, was found beaten to death fifteen minutes after being locked in a cell with Jessie James Dalton, 32, who was serving a sentence of life without parole ...
In the final chapter of the litigation saga of now-paroled PLN writer John Dannenberg, on April 22, 2009, the California Supreme Court declined review and approved publication of the state appellate court’s January 23, 2009 decision in In re Dannenberg, 173 Cal.App.4th 237 (Cal. App. 6th Dist. 2009) [PLN, March ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has affirmed the denial of qualified immunity for a Bureau of Prisons (BOP) warden accused of denying a prisoner procedural due process in connection with the rejection of two packages.
While Vernon Bonner was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in ...
China’s Ministry of Health currently employs several teams of specialized doctors to harvest organs from condemned prisoners. When a prisoner is scheduled to die selected teams are sent to China’s Changi Prison depending upon which organs are to be harvested.
Fifteen doctors compose the renal transplant team which harvests the ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 36
by Gary Hunter
Oklahoma officials are trying to decide the best way to incarcerate ex-sheriff Mike Burgess, 56, now that he is a convicted sex offender. On January 9, 2009 the former Custer County lawman was convicted on 13 of 35 felony counts of sexually abusing female prisoners under his ...
In a landmark ruling, a federal three-judge panel ordered the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to cap the prison population of its 33 adult prisons to 137.5% of their 79,828 design capacity, or 109,763 prisoners, within two years.
Since the present population (counting only those housed in CDCR’s ...
New York’s Correction Law § 24 Held Unconstitutional by US Supreme Court
by Brandon Sample
New York’s Correction Law § 24, which prevents prisoners from bringing 42 U.S.C. § 1983 actions for damages against prison officials in New York courts of general jurisdiction, violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 38
A Utah federal jury awarded $25,000 to a Muslim prisoner who claimed guards set him up for a beating following the 9/11 guerrilla attacks. The oddest part of the situation is the prisoner was beat by a death row prisoner who was to be segregated from other prisoners.
The lawsuit ...
DNA collection is expanding to individuals arrested or detained as state and federal law enforcement officials seek to solve more crimes.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) joined 15 states in April 2009 that collect DNA from individuals awaiting trial. In addition, the FBI will now collect DNA from detained ...
by Matt Clarke
On February 27, 2009, a grand jury in Montague County, Texas returned a 106-count indictment against former Sheriff Bill Keating and ten jail guards, four prisoners and two other people in connection with drug-related offenses, contraband smuggling and sexual misconduct at the Montague County Jail.
Keating, 62, ...
Governor Christine Gregoire has signed into law a bill that reforms Washington’s convoluted system for restoring voting rights. The measure will restore the right to vote automatically to citizens who have come out of the criminal justice system. The new law took effect on July 26, 2009.
“This is a ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 41
Giving employers a $10,000 tax break to hire ex-offenders was a good idea. At least until the Philadelphia City Council ruined it.
While running for mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter proposed a new way to cut crime: Help ex-cons get jobs by offering a $10,000 tax credit to employers that ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Supreme Court has retreated from a mandatory procedural practice for resolving government officials’ qualified immunity claims, leaving it to the discretion of lower courts as to which prong of the test to apply as required by the facts of the case.
At issue was ...
The California Office of Administrative Law (OAL) struck down the unwritten policy of the California Board of Parole Hearings (BPH) that denied all requests for friendly oral witness testimony at lifer parole hearings. The April 27, 2009 OAL ruling found that because this policy was not expressly permitted by existing ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 43
After suffering severe brain damage while confined at an Orange County Jail in California, Fernando Ramirez, represented by attorneys Mark W. Eisenberg of Newport Beach and Jerry N. Gans of Santa Ana, sued the County, the Sheriff’s Department, the Sheriff and various officials in federal court, alleging that jail deputies ...
by David M. Reutter
The level of violence in Arizona prisons is increasing – at least that is the conclusion to be drawn from recent reports. In 2008 alone there were four homicides in the state’s prison system, and with 12 death investigations still pending that number could rise. Arizona ...
Beginning on April 9, 2009, The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) started providing kosher meals to state prisoners with religious dietary needs.
The decision to provide kosher food came after a meeting between the Secretary of the DPSCS and representatives of the Jewish community last summer. ...
Book review by Mel Motel
Robert Hillary King writes like he speaks. I had the honor of spending some time with the only freed member of the Angola 3 in April 2009 when he swung through Vermont on his book tour. Starting softly, in front of an audience of 60, ...
In what one judge described as a “legal travesty,” on March 13, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned a jury verdict in favor of a prisoner who had been sexually abused by a prison guard.
While incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, Michelle Ortiz ...
On March 12, 2009, Chief U.S. District Judge Claire Eagan entered judgment in the amount of $65,000 against an Oklahoma state prison Health Services Administrator (HSA) accused of failing to provide a prisoner adequate medical treatment.
While incarcerated at the Northeast Oklahoma Correctional Center (NOCC), Richard Potts contracted Methillicin Resistant ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 47
California’s Santa Clara County paid $1 million to the estate of a mentally ill prisoner who committed suicide at the Santa Clara County Jail (SCCJ). The estate’s federal civil rights complaint claimed jail officials failed to provide necessary medical treatment for the prisoner.
During his years as a student at ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 48
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has affirmed a denial of qualified immunity for three Greene County, Arkansas jail guards accused of violating a prisoner’s Eighth Amendment rights.
On January 4, 2002, Phil E. Blount, a moderately obese man who suffered from mental illness and a variety ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 48
by Bill Habern
On March 11, 2009, the Texas Court of Appeals in Amarillo issued an opinion in a case involving Gilbert Alexander Perez, an indigent defendant. Perez raised two issues on appeal. First was the extreme sentence imposed in his case (25 years for possession of less than four ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 49
The Pleasant Valley State Prison (PVSP) in Coalinga, California continues to suffer from overcrowding and inadequate medical care, according to a March 25, 2009, report by the Fresno County Grand Jury.
As part of section 919(b) of the California Penal Code, grand juries are charged with inspecting the condition and ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 50
Arizona: On July 17, 2009, 27-year-old Danny Torres, a guard at the Corrections Corporation of America run Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, was shot and killed during a home invasion robbery in Tucson. Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy Dawn Barkman said Torres was one of three men involved in the home ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2009
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2009, page 52
A Missouri federal jury awarded a prisoner $1,000 on a state law battery claim. The award came after trial on several claims brought by Eugene Kenneth Jones-El for damages he incurred while imprisoned at Missouri’s Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center (ERDCC).
Jones-El went to the office of ERDCC social ...
