U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s unsettling history of extremely close ties to private prison operator GEO Group and the possible federal investigation into Florida’s private prison giveaway of more than $120 million
Newly minted U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) was sworn in on January 5, 2011 with unfinished business back home. ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a grant of summary judgment in favor of a nurse at Illinois’ Peoria County Jail (PCJ) who was accused of providing deliberately indifferent medical care to a prisoner.
India Taylor was arrested and taken to the PCJ on October 15, ...
by David M. Reutter
When Florida’s Miami-Dade County adopted an ordinance that extended the 1,000-foot state law residency restrictions for sex offenders to 2,500 feet, the estimated 100 sex offenders who return to Miami-Dade each year after being released from prison were left with few options as to where they ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 14
In July 2010, Nevada officials agreed to settle a federal class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 that alleged constitutionally inadequate medical care at Ely State Prison.
The ACLU initiated the lawsuit after commissioning a medical report to investigate conditions at Ely. The investigation, ...
On an ongoing basis PLN conducts sample mailings to the mailing lists of other organizations and publications as part of our efforts to reach new potential subscribers who may not be aware of us and to encourage them to subscribe. Occasionally this causes some confusion when existing subscribers receive sample ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 16
by Jane Kahn
As part of the small talk that happens during holiday gatherings and at other events during the year, people ask me what I do. My work involves representing California prisoners with severe mental illness. I am frequently asked whether I feel safe going inside of the prisons. ...
by Matt Clarke
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals found that New York’s Persistent Felony Offender Statute (PFOS), N.Y. Penal Law § 70.10 , which allows enhancement of sentences for prior felony convictions, violated the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, that finding was later reversed by an en ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 18
by Stephen G. Yagman
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has invalidated the federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) policy statement, 28 C.F.R. § 550.58(a)(1)(iv)(2000), see 65 Fed.Reg. 80745-01 (Dec. 22, 2000), that denies prisoners who have been convicted of the categorical crimes of homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault ...
by John E. Dannenberg
On January 24, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court (USSC), ruling on a relatively minor procedural issue regarding the timing of a defense motion for summary judgment, upheld a $625,000 jury verdict awarded to a female prisoner who was sexually abused by an Ohio state prison guard. ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 20
In what may prove to be a major blow to parole-eligible life-sentenced prisoners in Michigan, the Sixth Circuit has rejected an as-applied ex post facto challenge to the retroactive application of changes in Michigan’s parole laws.
The prisoners, a class of “parolable lifers” who committed certain non-drug offenses before October ...
Due to a $60 billion budget deficit in fiscal year 2009-2010, California prison officials decided to slash funding for rehabilitative programs for prisoners. And while state employees affected by the resulting layoffs cried foul (and fraud), prison officials claimed the cutbacks would promote efficiency and ultimately reduce crime.
The California ...
by David M. Reutter
A U.S. District Court has held that a Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) policy which prohibits “works of literature which include an explicit description of a sexual act or intercourse” is unconstitutional, both facially and as applied.
The court’s ruling was entered on cross-motions for summary ...
by David M. Reutter
Inspection reports by Michigan’s Department of Human Services (DHS) concerning conditions at the Muskegon County Juvenile Detention Center (MCJDC) found an abusive environment caused by understaffing. On the verge of losing the state license to operate MCJDC, county officials agreed to make reforms.
Located in the ...
by Matt Clarke
On August 19, 2010, the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) issued a report concerning the July 30 escape of three prisoners from a privately-operated prison in Kingman, Arizona. The report was highly critical of Management and Training Corporation (MTC), the for-profit firm that runs the Kingman facility. ...
It is okay to look for contraband in a prisoner’s rectum so long as the search is done by medical staff in a non-abusive manner, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Prison officials, however, cannot force prisoners to undergo surgery in order to search for ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 27
A California Court of Appeal has concluded that a probation condition prohibiting a defendant from being within 500 feet of any courthouse is unconstitutionally overbroad.
Alejandro Perez pleaded guilty to second degree robbery after forcibly taking a $29 pair of pants from a person he believed had previously vandalized his ...
by Matt Clarke
On March 12, 2010, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Social Security Administration (SSA) released an audit report on prisoners’ access to Social Security numbers (SSNs). The report criticized eight states for providing prisoners with access to SSNs as part of their institutional jobs. ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 28
Laws that restrict where sex offenders can live have been popular in legislatures throughout the U.S. With much fanfare and hoopla, Georgia passed one of the nation’s toughest sex offender residency statutes on July 1, 2006.
That law prohibited sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, churches, ...
by David M. Reutter
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the convictions and prison sentences of two guards who were found guilty of violating a prisoner’s civil rights. The guards’ actions resulted in the sexual assault of an 18-year-old prisoner.
When J.S. was arrested for speeding and eluding ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 30
In a two-week period in July 2010, two doctors employed by Prison Health Services (PHS) were involved in scandals that led one to resign while the other was arrested.
PHS regional medical director Dr. Trevor P. Parks was accused of not being certified to provide healthcare for the 12,000 prisoners ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 20, 2010, an explosion on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico, killed 11 workers. The accident resulted in an oil spill that leaked oil into the gulf for three months, damaging both the ecology and economy of coastal states – ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 33
In March 2010, Orange County, California paid $750,000 to settle a civil rights suit filed by Matthew Fleuret, a former jail prisoner who alleged he was subjected to excessive force following his arrest in March 2006 on suspicion of obstructing a deputy in the performance of his duties, after Fleuret ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 33
The City of Boston has agreed to pay $3.25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 18 years for a series of rapes he did not commit.
Ulysses Charles was convicted in 1984 of raping three women at an apartment complex ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 34
On February 16, 2010, a California U.S. District Court certified a class action lawsuit against Nashville, Tennessee-based private prison transport company TransCor America for transporting prisoners more than 24 continuous hours without giving them an opportunity to rest overnight in a bed.
The class action suit was brought pursuant to ...
by Matt Clarke
Municipal bonds have long been considered a safe investment. However, recent defaults on bonds used to pay for the construction of privately-run prisons and jails have investors worried about losing their capital, and towns worried about their ability to raise money through future bond issues.
As far ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 35
Sheridan County, Nebraska has agreed to pay $100,000 to the estate of a prisoner who committed suicide while at the Sheridan County Jail.
Jay Spotted Elk hung himself with a belt in his cell after being arrested on a misdemeanor charge of failure to appear. Spotted Elk was intoxicated and ...
by David M. Reutter
“Florida’s experience with privatized prisons raises serious questions about whether the taxpayers are getting their money’s worth,” concludes an April 2010 policy brief report released by the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy. The report questions methods used to determine whether private prisons cost less ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 36
On May 18, 2010, Prison Legal News (PLN) and its parent organization, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), won another battle against censorship by prison and jail officials.
In 2009, PLN and HRDC sued Jack A. Stephens, Sheriff of St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana, after staff at the St. Bernard ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 37
Employees of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit prison company, are public servants within the meaning of Tennessee’s criminal code.
In July 2008, CCA guards David Gilliam and Joe Edward McCown III, who worked at the Hamilton County Workhouse in Chattanooga, were charged with official misconduct and ...
by Matt Clarke
In March 2010, the Texas State Auditor’s Office released a report on a performance audit of the Private Facilities Contract Monitoring and Oversight Division (PFCMOD).
The PFCMOD monitors private prisons and private substance abuse treatment programs under contract with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Texas ...
by Mike Brodheim
Sick and tired of being gouged by high prison phone rates, Nadia Alvarez and Rachel Fishenfeld, two California residents, filed a consumer class action suit against Global Tel*Link (GTL) in August 2010. GTL, a major telecommunications company that contracts with prisons and jails throughout the country to ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 39
A Kentucky federal court has sentenced five guards from the Fayette County Detention Center (FCDC) who were prosecuted in connection with systematic abuse of prisoners at the facility.
FCDC Sgt. John McQueen, 33, and Cpl. Clarence McCoy, 31, were convicted by a federal jury on May 13, 2010. It was ...
by John E. Dannenberg
In a unanimous per curiam opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court (USSC) summarily reversed rulings by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in two California parole cases in which the Ninth Circuit had overruled state court denials of habeas corpus relief from challenged parole denials by life-sentenced ...
Kevin Keith, 46, on Ohio’s death row for murdering two women and a 4-year-old child, and scheduled for execution on September 15, 2010, was spared by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. In commuting the death penalty portion of Keith’s sentence on September 2, Governor Strickland stated, “This case is clearly one ...
Echoing the violence of the Texas prison system during the 1970s where prisoners guarded other prisoners under an abusive practice known as the “building tenders” system, the City of New York has agreed to pay $373,000 to settle a lawsuit involving similar practices at the city’s Robert N. Davoren Complex ...
by Matt Clarke
In 2006, Anita Goodman lost her 31-year-old son Aaron to an overdose of prescription medication as a wave of similar deaths rolled through Harris, Jefferson and Orange Counties in Southeast Texas.
Aaron picked up a prescription drug habit in college and had been fighting his addiction to ...
by Matt Clarke
Former New Mexico Corrections Secretary Joe R. Williams did not pursue contractual penalties against Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) or GEO Group despite chronic understaffing by the two private prison companies, which operate four facilities in New Mexico.
GEO and CCA manage prisons for the New Mexico ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 43
In April 2010, California state prisoner Charles Chatman accepted an offer of judgment from the defendant prison officials he had sued in federal court for allegedly retaliating against him in violation of the First Amendment because he filed grievances about prison conditions, and for allegedly subjecting him to conditions of ...
A September 2010 report by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice cast light on deficiencies with the Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) furlough policy, and in doing so inadvertently highlighted the power of the federal prison employees’ union to delay changes in BOP policies.
In ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 44
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the continuing violation doctrine applies to a New York prisoner’s deliberate indifference claim under the Eighth Amendment.
Jose J. Shomo was confined by the New York City Department of Corrections (NYCDOC) from September 20, 1999 until January 4, 2001. The day ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 45
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles (BPP) failed to comport with the due process requirements of Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S.Ct. 2593 (1972) when it revoked a parolee for a crime for which he had been acquitted ...
The Maryland Court of Appeals held that prison officials cannot force a terminally ill prisoner to undergo kidney dialysis treatment.
In 1995, Troy Reid was sentenced to 40 years in the custody of the Maryland Department of Corrections (DOC). In July 2007, Reid was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease, meaning ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 46
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that as long as a court-appointed agent to serve summons for a prisoner-litigant acting pro se can locate the prison guard-defendant with reasonable effort, prisoner-litigants who provide enough information to identify the prison guard-defendant have established good cause for the failure to ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 47
The Supreme Court of Iowa held that for a prisoner to be convicted of “inmate assault” in violation of Iowa Code § 708.3B (2005), there need only be proof that the prisoner caused a corrections employee to come into contact with another person’s blood, seminal fluid, urine or feces. The ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 47
The prevailing party on appeal may be denied costs when, in a court’s discretion, taxing costs is deemed inequitable, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held on November 2, 2009.
New York resident Richard Moore sued two Delaware County Deputy Sheriffs following a search of his home ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 48
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court’s dismissal of the religious diet claims of two New York prisoners who practiced a religious faith called “Tulukeesh.”
In 2003, New York prisoner Tyheem Keesh sought permission to practice his religion, Tulukeesh. Prison officials said he could practice in his ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 48
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a prisoner need not use legal terminology nor present legal theories when exhausting administrative remedies before filing a civil rights suit.
Jermaine Donte Griffin, an Arizona state prisoner housed at the Madison Street Jail in Maricopa County, Arizona, filed a civil ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 49
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals held on March 31, 2010 that civilly committed patients are not entitled to minimum wage for the work they perform.
Hung Nam Tran and Eric L. Fankhauser are civilly committed patients confined at the Wisconsin Resource Center (WRC) as “sexually violent persons” pursuant to Wisc. ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 49
The North Carolina Department of Correction (NDOC) has agreed to settle a prisoner’s lawsuit that accused NDOC officials and guards of exhibiting deliberate indifference to his medical diagnosis of “paruresis.” The settlement includes a monetary payment, attorney fees, and a guarantee of accommodating the prisoner’s condition during the remainder of ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2011
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2011, page 50
Arizona: Corrections Corp. of America officials announced on December 24, 2010 that they had identified 43 prisoners who were involved in a riot a day earlier at CCA’s Red Rock Correctional Facility near Eloy. The prisoners, all from California, were placed in administrative segregation pending an investigation. Ten prisoners were ...
