by David M. Reutter
When Florida lawmakers used a backdoor approach to try to privatize almost 30 state detention facilities in 2011, they likely did not anticipate the outcome. By the time the political dust had settled, the union representing prison employees had successfully sued to stop the privatization plan, ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 8
A ten-month study of over 1,100 parole hearings in Israel indicates that the odds of a prisoner being found suitable for parole seem to be affected by the interval between the hearing and the time the board members last ate, with the odds decreasing dramatically as the length of that ...
On June 24, 2011, the Alaska Supreme Court held that state law allows the Alaska Department of Corrections (ADOC) to seek reimbursement of medical costs from former prisoners.
Dewell Pearce was an ADOC prisoner from 1994 to 2008. He suffered from a number of medical conditions that required outside care ...
I would like to thank everyone who donated to our end-of-year fundraiser. It was very successful, and I am pleased to announce that we have added a second staff attorney to join Lance Weber, our chief counsel, as part of our legal team. Alissa Hull is a recent law school ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 11
In May 2011, as the rising Mississippi River threatened to flood vast stretches of riverfront territory, Louisiana prisoners from a number of parishes, including East Carroll, Madison, Tensas, Pointe Coupee and Concordia, filled sandbags in an effort to save lives, buildings and property.
Their efforts did not go unnoticed. “They’re ...
Private corrections company The GEO Group celebrated the holiday season by opening a new 1,500-bed prison in Milledgeville, Georgia on December 12, 2011. The $80 million facility is expected to generate approximately $28 million in annual revenues.
Though GEO (formerly Wackenhut Corrections) is hardly a household name, it is a ...
Seven years ago prisoners at a private prison in southeastern Colorado went on an all-night rampage, chasing the shorthanded staff from the premises, attacking suspected snitches, setting fires and causing millions of dollars in damages. Now documents filed in a long-running legal battle confirm what many prisoners have been saying ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 14
On January 10, 2012, Prison Legal News settled a First Amendment censorship suit against the Sheriff’s Office for Berkeley County, South Carolina.
The settlement includes changes at the Berkeley County Detention Center (BCDC) related to the receipt of publications and religious materials by jail prisoners, as well as the payment ...
After Rikers Island officials discovered 65,000 pounds of spoiled meat at the jail, at least one official suggested that it be served to prisoners. The meat, valued at $130,816, was found rotting on July 11, 2011 when nauseating smells began emanating from two freezer trailers that had stopped working.
A ...
by Mike Brodheim
In “Balancing Punishment and Compassion for Seriously Ill Prisoners,” published in the July 19, 2011 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, Doctors Brie A. Williams, Rebecca L. Sudore, Robert Greifinger and R. Sean Morrison propose changes to address “medical-related flaws” in compassionate release programs for prisoners.
The ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 18
In the 1980s, Bill Weimar became a rich man when his company, Allvest Corporation, owned and operated a chain of private halfway houses in Alaska. He heavily promoted building a private prison in Alaska, too, in conjunction with Cornell Corrections, but fell under the scrutiny of the FBI. In 2006 ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 18
In April 2011, in apparent repayment of a political debt for helping him get elected, California Governor Jerry Brown approved a 200-page labor contract that gives the 31,000-strong California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) a number of benefits that, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, will create a “huge ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 19
An audit by the Florida Department of State found that the GEO Group, Inc., the nation’s second-largest private prison company, had been violating Florida law by making contributions to politicians from GEO’s Political Action Committee (PAC) in excess of the $500 limit.
In a letter to state election officials, GEO ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 20
Under the federal Adam Walsh Act, also known as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), states were required to implement standardized and stringent registration requirements for sex offenders by July 27, 2011 – following two extensions from the original July 2009 deadline – or risk losing 10% of ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 20
A bill introduced in the Kentucky legislature proposed removing approximately 3,500 Class D state prisoners currently held in county jails and transferring them to private prisons owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Opponents claimed the bill made no fiscal sense. The state pays the counties $31.34 per ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 22
Oregon’s expedited deportation program, touted as saving $2.1 million by transferring about 200 illegal immigrant prisoners to federal custody for early deportation, came up $1.9 million short, causing state officials to kill the program.
According to the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC), 1,289 prisoners, or about 9.2% of the state’s ...
The Rikers Island jail in New York City was built atop a toxic landfill that is causing cancer, according to lawsuits filed by seven cancer-stricken Rikers employees.
“That island is toxic and it’s killing people,” said guard Vanessa Parks, 49, who was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 2009. “I’ve spent ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 23
The October 2011 sale of Global Tel*Link Corp. (GTL), the nation’s largest prison and jail phone company, demonstrates what a goldmine prison phone services are for the provider side of the market. The sale, reportedly valued at $1 billion, was highly unusual because it was a leveraged deal at a ...
On October 28, 2010, a 26-year-old prisoner named Terrell Griswold was found slumped over and unresponsive in his cell at the Bent County Correctional Facility, a private prison in southeastern Colorado. The official cause of death was listed as cardiac hypertrophy, or an enlarged heart. But Lagalia Afola says the ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 24
The former head jailer at Missouri’s Washington County Jail (WCJ), about 60 miles from St. Louis, has been convicted of violating the civil rights of four prisoners and obstruction of justice. His daughter, a guard at the jail, also was convicted of obstructing justice.
The charges against the former jail ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 25
As part of a settlement agreement, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agreed to pay $12,000 to prisoner Bobby James Williams to settle a lawsuit Williams filed in 2005. Williams claimed that the CDCR had violated his state and federal constitutional rights when he was placed in a ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 26
On June 28, 2011, the New York Court of Appeals held that a motion to extend the obligations of New York City officials to provide mental health services to jail prisoners was timely because it was filed before the settlement agreement in the case expired.
A group of mentally ill ...
During the 2008 Democratic primary election, Idaho voters had three choices for president: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Keith Russell Judd.
At the time, Judd was serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas on a 1999 conviction for making threats on the University of New Mexico campus. ...
by Matt Clarke
In 2005, Washington Department of Corrections Secretary Harold Clarke reprimanded DOC employee Belinda D. Stewart for selling Avon products to her co-workers at the Purdy women’s prison after she was ordered not to conduct private business with DOC staff.
Instead of learning a lesson about co-mingling her ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 28
A March 2011 report by Minnesota’s Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) found that while civilly committing sex offenders increases public safety, the prohibitive costs associated with administering the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) could be reduced by, among other means, developing alternatives to commitment at high-security facilities and improving ...
The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has agreed to pay $625,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a prisoner who was raped by a guard at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York.
In the early hours of November 25, 2001, Karleen Toni Remice was forced to perform ...
Guards at a private prison in Idaho looked on, but did not intervene, as a prisoner was beaten into a coma. Video footage of the January 2010 incident has sparked an FBI investigation into civil rights violations at the facility.
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest private prison ...
by Matt Clarke
In July 2011, anyone with at least $5 million to spare was invited to bid on a 373-bed, state-of-the-art, turn-key minimum-security prison on 30 acres of land in the cotton-farming town of Littlefield, Texas.
The tiny town, with a population of 6,500, agreed to build what was ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 33
Charles Mader, a registered sex offender, was homeless when he was released from jail, so he listed a dumpster at an intersection in Albuquerque, New Mexico as his residence.
That was fine with authorities. However, after Mader moved to an abandoned house across the street from a nearby homeless shelter ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 34
Two Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) officers were suspended in May 2011, one with pay, in connection with anonymous, threatening phone calls made to a hospital where a critically wounded prisoner was being held, apparently in an effort to create additional overtime opportunities for DOC guards.
On April 25, 2011, ...
In March 2011, PLN reported on the political machinations that led to the construction of Florida’s Blackwater River Correctional Institution (BRCI), which is operated by GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest private prison firm. BRCI was opened at a time when there was excess bed space in Florida’s prison system and ...
U.S. probation officer Mark John Walker, 52, supervised federal prisoners on parole, probation and other forms of supervised release in Eugene, Oregon from May 1987 until July 2009. Now, however, it will be Walker who is on supervised release after he completes a 10-year federal prison sentence for sexually assaulting ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 36
The Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC) is examining the rates for phone calls made by prisoners. To help it in that determination, the PSC has hired outside counsel to analyze rates, review regulations and compare them with other states to decide if they are “just, fair and reasonable.”
PLN previously ...
by Matt Clarke
In September 2010, the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee calculated that over a four-year period, former Governor Bill Richardson (D) failed to collect $18.6 million in penalties from private prison companies that breached their contracts with the state by allowing their for-profit facilities to remain understaffed by ...
With an economic malaise still affecting the nation, millions of people are looking for work. Florida is among the states that have seen job losses over the past four years, and ex-cons are especially hard-pressed to find employment upon release. Rather than offering more jobs to people in the community, ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 39
A Washington Department of Corrections (WDOC) prisoner was shot and killed at the Clallam Bay Corrections Facility during a June 29, 2011 escape attempt.
At approximately 10:00 a.m., state prisoner Dominick Maldonado, 25, used a pair of scissors to take a guard hostage in the prison’s garment industry program area, ...
As previously reported in PLN, the Oregon Department of Justice (ODOJ) recently turned its prosecutorial power against a hotshot small-town district attorney. [See: PLN, Oct. 2011, p.39].
By the time it was over the DA had resigned, but the ODOJ skulked away with a fat lip and an ugly black ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 43
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has entered into a settlement agreement with former state prisoner Alexis Giraldo, paying her $10,000 in exchange for a voluntary dismissal of a lawsuit she filed in San Francisco Superior Court in 2007.
In her suit, Giraldo, a male-to-female transgender prisoner, claimed ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 44
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that a man who erroneously remained free on an appeal bond for 21 years was entitled to full credit toward his sentence.
Claus Detref Thiles was sentenced to 16 years in prison in a Dallas County plea agreement in 1982. He appealed. The ...
Ninth Circuit Applies Turner Test to Evaluate First Amendment Interest in Prisoners’
Receipt of Unsolicited Publications
by Mike Brodheim
On January 31, 2011, a divided Ninth Circuit panel reversed the grant of summary judgment to two California sheriffs who had adopted mail policies that prevented detainees in their county jails ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 45
Whitewater Draw near McNeal, Arizona is a unique desert wetland with a shallow lake that hosts thousands of Sandhill Cranes and other water fowl. Water comes to the 600-acre wildlife area from the mountains that ring Sulfur Springs Valley. However, the water tends to arrive in the form of infrequent ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 46
In March 2011, Michael Taaffe, 56, retired from his $91,000-a-year job as an assistant administrator for the Health Services Division of the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC). Three days earlier he had been hired by Correctional Health Partners (CHP), a private medical services company.
While employed with the ODOC, Taaffe ...
by Matt Clarke
An article in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome reported that the HIV infection rate among people being booked into New York City jails was much higher than the average in the general population, but lower than the 1998 rate. In ...
by Matt Clarke
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles was required to provide due process in the form of a hearing similar to a parole revocation hearing before imposing onerous sex offender restrictions (Special Condition X) on prisoners who had been ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 48
In January 2011, a Powers County, Colorado jury acquitted a prisoner who was charged in the stabbing death of another prisoner. Prior to trial, prison officials were accused of using coercion to persuade prisoners to testify for the prosecution, including putting one in segregation for a year when he refused ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 49
Richard Allen Barton, Sr. has settled a lawsuit he filed against the State of California and officials at Avenal State Prison, agreeing to accept $175,000 in exchange for dismissal of the suit.
On July 11, 2008, while visiting a prisoner at Avenal, Barton slipped on a wet bathroom floor that ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 2012
published in Prison Legal News
February, 2012, page 50
Alabama: Jonathan Windham, 24, was acquitted of manslaughter on October 4, 2011 in connection with the January 2009 death of Northwest Florida Reception Center prison guard Timothy Fowler. Fowler had an altercation with Windham over a card game, and Windham hit him in self-defense. Medical evidence indicated that Fowler died ...
