Ten of Louisiana’s 12 prison physicians have had their medical licenses restricted or suspended at some point. The state’s incarcerated people have nowhere else to turn during a pandemic.
by Addy Baird, BuzzFeed News
In 2006, Randy Lavespere, a Louisiana doctor, was convicted of buying $8,000 of methamphetamine in a Home ...
by Ed Lyon
On April 29, 2021, Los Angeles attorney Jennifer A. Bandlow filed a federal civil rights lawsuit urging four causes of action on behalf of two unnamed female prisoners who suffered actual sexual assaults while acting as bait to catch prison guard Stephen Merrill sexually harassing them. They ...
by Paul Wright
This month’s cover story on prison’s using doctors with revoked or suspended medical licenses is an ongoing story for PLN readers. Given the six figure salaries prison doctors are paid it seems odd that the government can’t find any medical staff to hire that don’t kill, rape ...
by Derek Gilna
Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), the parent company of Prison Legal News (PLN), entered into a stipulation and consent decree involving Napa County, California’s jail, on June 11, 2020, settling a federal civil action that ended what HRDC termed “a Defendants’ Mail Policy (that) is ...
by Matt Clarke
In June 2021, the Vera Institute of Justice issued a report entitled People in Jail and Prison in Spring 2021, detailing the changes in jail and prison populations through the end of March 2021. The report showed that, following an unprecedented decline of 14%, from 2.1 ...
by Derek Gilna
A report by the California State Auditor found that Los Angles, Alameda, and Fresno counties have failed to properly account for funds provided to them by the state of California to house prisoners transferred from state prisons to relieve overcrowding. The report is entitled, “Public Safety Realignment: ...
by Chuck Sharman
A review of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) report and adopted order on rates for interstate inmate calling services (ICS), released May 24, 2021.
When this rule takes effect—90days after its release—ICS interstate call rates will be capped at 12 cents per minute for prisons and 14 ...
by Ed Lyon
In the antebellum South, the Missouri Compromise allowed for every slave to count as four-fifths of a person for census and representative purposes.
In our current, much more enlightened nation, every prisoner counts as an entire person for census and representative purposes. One thing that has yet ...
by David M. Reutter
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that when a prisoner deliberately misrepresents their financial status when seeking in forma pauperis (IFP)status, the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) requires dismissal. In another case in the same opinion, the court held a lawsuit was improperly dismissed without ...
by Daniel A. Rosen
Throughout the pandemic, The Marshall Project (TMP) has done thorough and comprehensive reporting about the impact of COVID in prisons and on prisoners. Staff writers Joseph Neff and Keri Blakinger recently looked at the statistics on compassionate release for federal prisoners during the pandemic and came ...
by Chuck Sharman
The publisher of Prison Legal News(PLN)and Criminal Legal News (CLN)filed a federal lawsuit against the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) on August 10, 2021, for “ongoing censorship” of both monthly publications in the state’s prisons.
The complaint by the Human Rights Defense ...
by David M. Reutter
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a prisoner does not have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” in his HIV status while in a prison medical unit. The court further held that individuals have no private right of action under the Health Insurance Portability and ...
by Michael D. Cohen MD
The U.S. is experiencing the worst increase in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths since last winter. As I write in mid-August there are more than 150,000 new cases per day and over 1,000 daily deaths nationally. Over 95% of hospitalizations and deaths are among people ...
Three years after the First Step Act required the Bureau of Prisons to treat more people
with medications for opioid addiction, only a tiny fraction are receiving them.
by Beth Schwartzapfel, The Marshall Project
In 2018, Congress passed the First Step Act, a wide-ranging prison reform legislation that, among other things, required the federal prison system to expand access to medications for people addicted to opioids. Amid a historic spike in overdoses, both inside prisons and jails and in the country at large, the idea was to save lives: These medications reduce drug use and protect against overdose, and the weeks just after release are a particularly vulnerable time for formerly incarcerated people.
The Act came with tens of millions of dollars for implementation. Yet bureaucratic inertia and outdated thinking about addiction treatment means the federal program is still serving only a tiny fraction of those eligible, The Marshall Project has learned.
As of July, the Bureau of Prisons had only 268 people on medications to treat opioid dependence, according to Jeffrey A. Burkett, who helps oversee the rollout of the program as the National Health Services Administrator for the BOP. This is less than 2% of the more than ...
Loaded on
Sept. 1, 2021
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2021, page 25
In May 2021, a former Brockton, Massachusetts police officer was indicted for allegedly lying about performing checks on a man in police custody who died in his cell of a drug overdose.
Alfonso Brandao, 27, was arrested on November 13, 2020, after crashing his car into a police cruiser and ...
by Kevin Bliss
The Florida Cabinet and Governor Ron DeSantis collaborated to restructure the state’s clemency rules, streamlining the application process and automating certain aspects in an effort to expedite civil rights restoration for ex-offenders.
The Cabinet, comprised of Governor DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried, and ...
Prisoners Remain Exposed and Without Evacuation Plans
by Panagioti Tsolkas
"We kept seeing them move the cows, but they didn’t move us.”
That was one reply to a series of interviews with people recently held at the Manatee County Jail, conducted by Jenn Hayes for Southerly magazine, published in August ...
by Derek Gilna
The COVID-19 pandemic and resultant shut-downs have focused attention on the need for connection between all members of society, and for many prisoners, denied in-person visits, a contraband cellphone has helped them keep in touch with family. But that didn’t stop the Mississippi Supreme Court from affirming ...
by Chuck Sharman
On August 18, 2021, a lawsuit was filed in the circuit court for Cook County in Chicago, Illinois by the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), the publisher of Prison Legal News (PLN) and Criminal Legal News (CLN), accusing the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) of failing to ...
by Daniel A. Rosen
An Alabama judge recently ruled on a legal challenge seeking to block Governor Kay Ivey’s plan to lease three new privately-built mega-prisons in the state, siding with the Governor. Republican State Auditor Jim Ziegler and others had sued to block the leases, claiming they were an ...
Loaded on
Sept. 1, 2021
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2021, page 30
The County of San Diego Board of Supervisors (Board) voted unanimously February 27, 2021 to stop charging prisoners and detainees in county jails and juvenile detention centers for phone calls. The initiative called for the Board to develop a plan by May 4 which prohibited the county from generating revenue ...
by Dale Chappell
Finding that qualified immunity prevented a lawsuit against a jailer who failed to notify a receiving jail that a prisoner was at-risk for suicide and he killed himself at that jail, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed the denial of summary judgment to ...
by David M. Reutter
The death of a Black man who was Tasered multiple times at South Carolina’s Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in Charleston is the latest case to raise questions about law enforcement’s use of force in dealing with mentally ill prisoners. Likewise, the continued assertion that Tasers ...
by Dale Chappell
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a report and warning in March 2021 to GEO Group for misuse and abuse of a disinfectant at its ICE Processing Center in Adelanto, California. The report says that GEO was applying HQD Neutral in a manner that was in violation of ...
by David M. Reutter
A $750,000 settlement was reached in the methamphetamine overdose death of a female South Dakota pretrial detainee. The lawsuit brought claims against two separate county jails, state troopers, and guards at the jails.
Sarah Lee Circle Bear, 24, was arrested on July 3, 2016, after a ...
by Kevin Bliss
Michigan Institute of Technology (MIT) Department of Economics professor Peter Temin released a report last April titled “Mass Incarceration Retards Racial Integration.” He says that it was systemic racial prejudice which initiated the move toward mass incarceration and now it was that same intense level of incarceration ...
by Douglas Ankney
On March 16, 2021, the Queens Daily Eagle reported that the federal government had declined to renew a contract with for-profit prison contractor GEO Group to operate the Queens Detention Facility (QDF). QDF was New York City’s last privately-operated jail.
GEO contracted with the U.S. Marshalls Service ...
by Douglas Ankney
In 2020, California enacted Senate Bill No. 132, the Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act (SB 132). SB 132 requires, inter alia, that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) house prisoners “in a correctional facility designated for men or women based on the individual’s preference” ...
by David M. Reutter
When the Florida Legislature opened for its annual 60-day session in March 2021, hopes were high that at least some of the criminal justice reform bills would pass. High on the list was the savings of about $140 million by closing four prisons. By the end ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 22, 2021, the Civil Rights Division (CRD) of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a notice to Alameda County, California and its Santa Rita Jail, finding that both engage in practices which violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131-12134, and ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 29, 2021, the Supreme Court of Mississippi reversed the dismissal of a Mississippi Department of Corrections (DOC) prisoner’s pro se lawsuit challenging a prison disciplinary action. In doing so, the court applied pro se leniency and accepted service of the petition for judicial review (PJR) ...
Loaded on
Sept. 1, 2021
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2021, page 42
A former guard at the Highland County jail in Ohio was sentenced to 24 months in prison and lifelong registration as a Tier III sex offender for engaging in sexual activity with a female prisoner at the detention facility where he worked.
Robert Diskete was hired at the Highland County ...
by David M. Reutter
Prisoners have faced a “substantially elevated total mortality risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the elevated risk for COVID-19 infection found in previous studies,” concluded a study titled, “Assessing the Mortality Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Florida State Prisons,” by Neal Marcos Marquez ...
by David M. Reutter
New Mexico’s Lea County paid $350,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging guards at the Lea County Detention Center (LCDC) failed to protect a pretrial detainee.
John Cordova was housed at LCDC on April 29, 2017, on a probation violation. Guards Joe Portillo and Dillon Phipps observed ...
by Ed Lyon
On May 8, 2021, 32-year-old prisoner Regial Ingram died at Alabama’s Bullock Correctional Facility. On May 6, 2021, 58-year-old prisoner Jody Potts died at Alabama’ s Limestone Correctional Facility. On May 4, 2021, 23-year-old Ian Rettig died at Alabama’ s Fountain Correctional Facility. Although the mortal week’s ...
by Keith Sanders
On February 25, 2021, the estate of Carmela DeVargas, who died while in custody at the Santa Fe County Detention Center, filed a federal lawsuit against the Santa Fe County Board of Commissioners and its employees. The suit alleges officials at the Detention Center failed to provide ...
by Kevin Dayton, Honolulu Civil Beat
A jail prisoner who admitted to the fatal beating of another prisoner in 2019 has been acquitted of murder, concluding a case that triggered scrutiny of the state’s practice of withholding information when prisoners die in custody.
Judge Rowena Somerville on Wednesday cited mental ...
Loaded on
Sept. 1, 2021
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2021, page 47
On July 9, 2021, a federal jury awarded $2.1 million in damages to an alleged Kentucky shoplifter who was beaten by fellow prisoners at the Shelby County Detention Center on the orders of a jail guard.
According to the complaint, Joshua Reece was 31 when he was arrested for pilfering ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 2, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a federal prisoner’s claims of insufficient due process used in maintaining his Special Housing Unit (SHU) status for 280 days. In doing so, the court refused to expand the ...
by Matt Clarke
On May 28, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that Corrections Corporation of America (now known as CoreCivic) was not entitled to summary judgment in a lawsuit over a pretrial detainee held for 355 days in solitary confinement without a court ...
by David M. Reutter
For many years, the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility (WNMCF) has had a “horrific and widespread” rodent infestation that makes the prison “a dangerous place.” Those allegations form the basis for a lawsuit filed in federal court by two former WNMCF prisoners.
The lawsuit was filed ...
Loaded on
Sept. 1, 2021
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2021, page 50
On Monday, October 5, 2020, prison guard Chris Koziol allegedly severely assaulted an unnamed prisoner at the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois. The assault was investigated by the Illinois State Police’s (ISP) Division of Internal Investigation (DII).
On May 5, 2021, the Will County State’s Attorney charged Koziol ...
Judge Orders Facilities Housing Disabled Prisoners
to Install Surveillance and Body Cameras
by Derek Gilna and Doug Ankney
On March 11, 2021, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in the Northern District of California ordered the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to require its guards to wear body cameras and install ...
California Inspector General’s office issues another reports highly critical of health care at Corcoran and statewide prison employee disciplinary process
by Matt Clarke
In April 2021, the California Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a report highly critical of the medical care prisoners received at the 2,976-man California State Prison ...
Loaded on
Sept. 1, 2021
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2021, page 53
The U.S. Department of Justice created the Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs (“PATTERN”) to help determine who is eligible to earn credits for early release under the First Step Act. An interactive version of PATTERN available at apps.urban.org shows how each risk factor raises or lowers ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 8, 2021, a California court of appeals held that a prisoner’s habeas corpus challenging San Quentin State Prison’s withholding of eight issues of Artists Magazine was mooted when the prison allowed him to receive the censored issues.
California Code of Regulations, title 15, section 3006(c)(l7) ...
by Matt Clarke
On May 5, 2021, the Fifth Circuit court of appeals reversed the dismissal of a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by a Texas state prisoner who alleged an assistant warden failed to protect him from an attack by a prisoner who had previously threatened him.
According to ...
by Matt Clarke
On May 18, 2021, two jail guards at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico were indicted for involuntary manslaughter in connection with the asphyxiation death of a prisoner at the jail in 2019.
Video recordings show that guards used force on MDC prisoner Vicente ...
by David M. Reutter
A California federal district court held that CoreCivic, Inc., must pay attorney fees in a defamation lawsuit. The court held the calculation of fees in abeyance until the resolution of appeals related to the dismissal and whether it could award fees.
The court’s April 6, 2021 ...
by Dale Chappell
Over five years ago, federal prosecutors in Kansas used recordings of attorney visits and phone calls to obtain convictions in numerous criminal cases. The recordings were made by a private prison in Leavenworth owned by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA, which has since changed its name to ...
by Keith Sanders
A recent investigation by KARE 11, a Minnesota-based NBC news affiliate, has brought much-needed attention to systematic failures at jails throughout Minnesota. Many local and state correctional facilities in that state, according to the months-long investigation, do not provide prisoners with adequate medical and mental health care. ...
by Kevin Bliss
Myriam Parada was awarded $30,001 from the Minnesota District Court January 28, 2021 for false imprisonment in the Anoka County Jail. The county’s unwritten policy was to contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) whenever a foreign-born United States resident was booked into the jail. The American Civil ...
by Matt Clarke
On May 19, 2021, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled on three questions relating to medical parole despite the two prisoners who filed for judicial review having since died.
Raymond Harmon and Brian Racine were Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) prisoners who applied for release under ...
Loaded on
Sept. 1, 2021
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2021, page 62
Alabama: A former guard at the Mobile Metro Jail was scheduled to be arraigned on May 19, 2021, after being indicted for his role in an alleged scheme to smuggle cellphones into the Alabama lockup in exchange for bribes. According to a report by local TV station WALA, Taeric Montez ...
