In a 48-hour stretch during January 2018, three men were booked into the Fresno County Jail. One was beaten into a coma. Two died soon afterward. Their cases kicked off a nightmarish year in a local jail where problems trace back to California’s sweeping 2011 prison downsizing and criminal justice reforms.
by Jason Pohl, The Sacramento Bee, and Ryan Gabrielson, ProPublica
On the night of January 17, 2018, Lorenzo Herrera walked into the Fresno County Jail booking area and sat down for an interview. Yes, he had a gang history, an officer wrote on his intake form. But Herrera, 19, said he did not expect problems with others inside the gang pod he’d soon call home.
His parents had encouraged him to barter for books and newspapers – anything he could to preoccupy himself until his trial on burglary and assault charges. His father, Carlos Herrera, offered advice: “Just be careful, and only trust yourself.”
Herrera survived the violent chaos of the Fresno County Jail for 66 days, including living through a brawl that left another prisoner unconscious. Then, on an afternoon in March, jail officers found him strangled.
Herrera didn’t get a trial or a plea deal. He got a ...
by Douglas Ankney
On March 29, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana denied in part a motion filed by private prison company The GEO Group, seeking to dismiss a class-action suit filed on behalf of prisoners in the Mental Health Unit (MHU) at ...
by Paul Wright
For the past 29 years, HRDC has been reporting on the myriad problems in California prisons and the class-action lawsuits that have led to wholesale transformations of the criminal justice system in that state. The most significant prison conditions case of the 21st century is Plata ...
by David M. Reutter
In January 2019, a Missouri federal district court certified a class in a lawsuit alleging the state incarcerates thousands of people without providing due process before depriving them of their liberty interest during “sham” parole violation proceedings. The class could number up to 15,000.
PLN previously ...
by Ed Lyon
Vermont state prisoner Jeffrey-Michael Brandt won a correspondence claim through a Stipulation and Agreement of Dismissal (SAD) in a lawsuit filed in state court against the Vermont Department of Corrections (VDOC). The SAD allowed Brandt to correspond by mail with prisoners in states other than Vermont.
The ...
by Ed Lyon
San Francisco, California mayor London N. Breed has unique views regarding people who have become caught up in the criminal justice system. Her views extend to the families of prisoners and pretrial detainees, too.
Breed, unlike many U.S. politicians, grew up in public housing. Further, her knowledge ...
by David M. Reutter
I’m done. I’m beat up. I’m tired,” Iberia Parish, Louisiana Sheriff Louis Ackal, 75, said in November 2018, upon announcing his decision not to seek re-election. However, his words more accurately described the detainees at the Iberia Parish Jail and citizens in his community who were ...
by Kevin Bliss
Former warden Jody Bradley depended on gang leaders at a privately-run Mississippi prison to maintain control of the facility.
That was one finding of a December 2018 internal audit by Management & Training Corporation (MTC) at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility (WCCF), which the company operates for ...
by Caroline Isaacs, Program Director, AFSC
In 1998, I was a budding anti-prison activist, volunteering for the American Friends Service Committee in Arizona (AFSC-AZ). I was fortunate enough to attend the very first Critical Resistance gathering in Oakland and learn that I was actually part of a movement – a ...
by Jayson Hawkins
In April 2019 the U.S. Department of Justice released an analysis of its Annual Survey of Jails, which has tracked jail capacities, populations and demographics since 1982. The most recent year for which data was available, 2017, found the overall jail incarceration rate had dropped 12 percent ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 18, 2019, a federal district court sanctioned the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) for failing to comply with a prior order and judgment requiring prison officials to provide a state prisoner incarcerated in Virginia with envelopes and postage so he could send legal requests and ...
by Mark Wilson
An Oregon jail guard’s 22-year career ended in handcuffs in May 2019 when she was booked into jail on a five-count indictment, including witness tampering and official misconduct.
Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) deputy Janet Eagleston was indicted on four counts of first-degree official misconduct – for ...
by David M. Reutter
After 25 years of proclaiming their innocence in a rape case, three Louisiana prisoners accepted plea bargains that cleared their way for release. The plea offer came after the victim recanted his testimony in April 2018.
While serving a year-long sentence for burglary, Byron Morgan, who ...
by Ed Lyon
It is, or should be, fairly common knowledge that most prisoners are disadvantaged, impoverished, often have substance abuse addictions or mental health issues, and have made poor life choices.
It would seem that this population has enough problems and thus should not be exploited. Alas, that has ...
by Matt Clarke
Although the website of the Congressional Black Caucus states that banning private prisons is part of its agenda during the current congressional session, the legally separate but affiliated Congressional Black Caucus Institute (CBCI) has accepted donations from CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America, and the Institute’s 21st ...
by David M. Reutter
The Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) agreed to pay $157,500 to settle a lawsuit alleging it had discriminated against a female prison guard.
Merrianne Weberg, 58, began working for the MDOC in 1992 and was promoted to sergeant in 1995 while at the Western Wayne Correctional ...
by David M. Reutter
A federal district court in North Carolina has ordered expanded hepatitis C (HCV) treatment in a class-action suit brought by three state prisoners. The court’s entry of a preliminary injunction on March 20, 2019 enjoined the NC Department of Public Safety (DPS) from enforcing its existing ...
Loaded on
Oct. 4, 2019
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2019, page 28
According to a February 8, 2019 news report, a lawsuit filed by North Carolina prisoners Tavieolis Hunt, 39, Benjamin White, 35, and Sean Smith, 38, settled for a total of $62,500. The settlement was reached after the trio and two other state prisoners, Orlando Harshaw and Stacey Wynn, sued Lanesboro ...
by Scott Grammer
Monte Whitehead was incarcerated at the Otero County Prison Facility in New Mexico, operated by for-profit contractor Management & Training Corp. (MTC). He filed suit in state court raising various claims under the federal constitution and New Mexico Tort Claims Act, alleging in part “that certain defendants ...
by Douglas Ankney
Twenty-six-year-old pretrial detainee and capital murder defendant Latoni Daniel gave birth to a baby boy on May 29, 2019. But she wasn’t pregnant when she was processed into the Coosa County jail in Alabama 17 months earlier, and claimed she didn’t remember having sex while incarcerated.
Daniel’s ...
by Ed Lyon
On February 10, 2015, Alexander Jeffrey Sutherland was arrested in Manteca, California and charged with public intoxication. The police took him to the San Joaquin County Jail (SJCJ).
After booking, Sutherland, 27, was placed in an isolated sobering cell, which required him to be monitored at 15-minute ...
by Scott Grammer
Jason Nishimoto, 44, committed suicide on August 27, 2015 by hanging himself with a bedsheet after being placed in solitary confinement at the Vista Detention Facility (VDF) in San Diego, California.
Nishimoto had been diagnosed as a “high-functioning paranoid schizophrenic” at age 18, and, according to a ...
by Scott Grammer
In early June 2019, Captain Amy Le, 51, former president of the Santa Clara County Correctional Peace Officers’ Association, was walked off the sheriff’s office property and placed on paid leave. The reasons for her abrupt departure were not immediately forthcoming; neither sheriff’s officials nor Le would ...
by Scott Grammer
On October 11, 2018, world-famous author and attorney John Grisham published an editorial in a North Carolina newspaper regarding capital punishment in that state.
“Today, there are 141 people on North Carolina’s death row,” Grisham wrote. “By comparison, in Virginia, a state with similar politics, demographics, and ...
by Matt Clarke
On May 7, 2019, Maricopa County, Arizona agreed to pay a prisoner $175,000 to settle claims related to jail guards reading his legal mail, sharing it with the Attorney General and FBI, and failing to deliver his letters to his attorney.
Thomas Orville Bastian, who represented himself ...
by Matt Clarke
New York federal jury awarded a former state prison teacher $9.19 million after she proved that a guard had sexually harassed and stalked her – both at work and at home – and that high-ranking prison officials who were informed of the problem retaliated against her and ...
by Douglas Ankney
In April 2019, the Cook County Board of Commissioners agreed to pay $1.7 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of Devin Lynch, a Marine Corps veteran and active reservist, while he was held at the Cook County Jail.
Lynch, 26, was booked into the facility ...
by Scott Grammer
Miguel Delgado, incarcerated at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex (MOCC), alleged in a civil rights complaint that MOCC Warden David Ballard had authorized policies and procedures that allowed guards to use force against prisoners in the segregation unit without any requirement that they first “make efforts to ...
by David M. Reutter
A Michigan federal district court has awarded $18,325.28 in attorney fees and costs in a prisoner’s civil rights action, which followed a jury verdict on First Amendment retaliation and conspiracy claims that totaled $11,500.
Prisoner Arthur L. Campbell was housed at the Mound Road Correctional Facility ...
by Scott Grammer
On April 18, 2016, Rikki Martinez, 39, was a pretrial detainee at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Santa Clara, California. According to a complaint filed in federal court, on that day deputies alleged that Martinez had kicked another deputy in the face. As a result, he was ...
by David M. Reutter
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a grant of summary judgment to guards who tased a prisoner three times during a 70-second period. In its May 10, 2019 ruling, the appellate court also found error in the district court’s dismissal of a defendant for failure ...
by Chad Marks
n May 2013, a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of prisoners housed at the Monterey County Jail in California. A settlement agreement was reached on May 1, 2015, in which the City of Monterey agreed to develop plans to improve medical care, services, programs and activities ...
by Matt Clarke
Cutting the U.S. prisoner population by half is the goal of the #cut50 and End Mass Incarceration movements, and of the criminal justice reform group JustLeadershipUSA, but that will not be possible for at least 75 years unless the issue of long sentences for violent offenses is ...
by Ed Lyon
Christina C. Riley was a model prisoner at the Maui Community Correctional Center in Hawaii, and thus was allowed to participate in a work-release program. Parking her car at the jail, she left for work in the mornings and returned afterward to the lock-up. MCCC guard James ...
by Matt Clarke
At a September 2019 hearing, a U.S. District Court judge threatened to throw officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) into the same excessively hot prison cells that the agency had failed to air condition.
Despite agreeing in 2018 to install cooling at the Wallace ...
by Ed Lyon
On April 15, 2019, a New York Court of Claims awarded prisoner Dain Morawski a total of $30,000 for pain and suffering caused by an overdose of incorrectly filled prescription medication. The judgment followed a four-day bench trial in which the defendants and medical experts presented testimony. ...
by Matt Clarke
In May 2019, a federal district court issued an amended judgment awarding $300,000 to a former employee of the Idaho Department of Correction (DOC) in a lawsuit over sexual harassment and a hostile work environment for women.
Cynthia Fuller worked for the DOC for eight years. Hired ...
by Matt Clarke
An investigation by the Dallas Morning News into the Christmas Eve 2016 death of prisoner Andy Debusk at the Parker County jail revealed that not only did the guards at the privately-operated facility contribute to Debusk’s death, but several were untrained and employed under temporary licenses. The ...
by David M. Reutter
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals held on August 8, 2019 that the provision of showers “is a part of the programs, activities, or services” referred to by the Rehabilitation Act (RA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The appellate court concluded that prison officials ...
by David M. Reutter
Wally Lamb was an English teacher when he published his first novel, She’s Come Undone, in 1992. It became a huge hit after Oprah Winfrey selected it for her book club. In 1999, Lamb began a writing workshop at a Connecticut women’s prison, the York Correctional ...
by Kevin Bliss
Diana Sanchez gave birth to her son on July 31, 2019 at the Denver County Jail (DCJ), with no assistance from the medical staff. Guards and medical personnel watched from a remote location through a live video feed as Sanchez went through five hours of labor, ultimately ...
by Matt Clarke
In August 2019, thanks to the efforts of newly elected Denver, Colorado councilwoman Candi CdeBaca, the city council declined to renew contracts worth a total of $10.6 million with GEO Group and CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America) to operate six halfway houses. With a total of ...
by Matt Clarke
The Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) generated a media storm when, on July 22, 2019, it published a draft of a new department order that excluded elected officials and the news media from a list of people eligible for tours of state prisons.
The draft order was ...
by Mark Wilson
In a 4-to-3 ruling, departing from its previous recent decisions, the Oregon Supreme Court held on May 23, 2019 that secretly recording a prisoner’s solicitation of another prisoner to kill two witnesses and assault a prosecutor in his pending criminal case did not violate his constitutional right ...
by Ed Lyon
In what it called “a legal question of first impression” within its jurisdiction, on May 24, 2019 the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the lack of a discharge plan to obtain medication and treatment for mental health care after a detainee is released from custody ...
by Dale Chappell
Overturning the convictions of five defendants, the Third Appellate District Court of Appeal in Sacramento, California held on June 11, 2019 that Proposition 64’s decriminalization of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana also applied to possession in a state prison.
The five defendants, separately convicted ...
by Matt Clarke
In March 2019, Kern County, California agreed to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the parents and estate of a man who committed suicide at the county’s jail. The suit alleged jail staff ignored obvious signs of his mental instability and self-harm behavior at ...
by Kevin Bliss
Harney County, Oregon expects an $800,000 budget shortfall in the next fiscal year. Nonunion employees and elected officials in the county are already being furloughed 10 hours a month to help make up existing shortfalls, the county jail fails to meet state law standards, and there are ...
by David M. Reutter
In a precedential ruling, on June 19, 2019, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that a district court did not abuse its discretion when it declined to appoint successive counsel in a prisoner’s civil rights action after initialcounsel withdrew from the case.
In 2010, Pennsylvania ...
by David M. Reutter
Organizations that supported Amendment 4 – a 2018 ballot initiative to amend the Florida Constitution to restore voting rights to most people with felony convictions – have sued to block a new law that not only undermines the intent of the initiative but also “creates wealth-based ...
by Ed Lyon
For over a decade, the Education Justice Program (EJP), an extension of the University of Illinois, has taught classes at the Danville Correctional Center (DCC), a facility in the east-central part of the state run by the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC). Core classes in subjects like ...
by Matt Clarke & David M. Reutter
In July 2019, seven prisoners died in facilities operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections (DOC). The deaths followed a similar spate in August 2018, when 16 deaths occurred at the DOC’s three state prisons. Media coverage of the most recent deaths was ...
by Matt Clarke
On November 23, 2018, Maricopa County, Arizona agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit over the death of a prisoner at the Maricopa County Jail while self-styled “America’s Toughest Sheriff” Joe Arpaio was still in office.
Anthony Singleton, 27, was arrested on October 21, 2015. He ...
by Kevin Bliss
Attorney and retired judge Gary Oxenhandler conducted a study in 2017 on the prisoner population at the Boone County Jail (BCJ) in Columbia, Missouri. He reported that prisoners were complaining about the quality and quantity of meals at the facility – specifically, that they were not receiving ...
by Douglas Ankney
On April 18, 2019, the state of Alaska agreed to pay $400,000 to John Green, the father of Kellsie Green, to settle his lawsuit against the Alaska Department of Corrections over his daughter’s death in an Anchorage jail.
Alaska has a unified corrections system where the DOC ...
Loaded on
Oct. 7, 2019
published in Prison Legal News
October, 2019, page 63
Arizona: On January 31, 2019, dramatic footage was released of a two-hour hostage incident in the library at ASPC-Lewis in Buckeye. The video shows a librarian working alone when prisoner Timothy Monk enters, closes the door, bends over, then grabs the librarian by the neck with one arm while ...
