Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 1
Well Established Right To Release From Control Unit
Harvey hall is a Missouri State prisoner. While in protective custody at the Missouri State penitentiary (MSP) Hall was found in possession of contraband and placed in the Special Management Facility (SMF). After six months in the SMF the classification committee recommended ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 1
Eric Schroeder is a Hawaii State prisoner. While working in the prison law library he assisted other prisoners with their legal problems. Another prisoner asked Schroeder to serve Tranquillino Mabellos, a staff education specialist at the prison, with a summons and complaint in a civil action. Schroeder agreed and served ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 2
This 42 U.S.C. § 1983 case was initiated by ten present and former prisoners at Glades Correctional Institution (GCI) in Florida. They sought money damages and injunctive relief for cruel and unusual punishment and other unconstitutional conditions of confinement. The district court held a trial and granted damages and issued ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 3
Wisconsin regulations governing the transfer of state prisoners to "temporary lockup" status do not create a protected liberty interest under the fourteenth amendment due process clause, a majority of the Wisconsin supreme court ruled June 3, 1993. The majority agreed with Smith v. Shettle , 946 F.2d 1250 (7 th ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 3
Standard For Modifying Consent Decrees Explained
In 1976 prisoners in the Hamilton County, OH, jail filed suit challenging their conditions of confinement. The parties entered into a consent decree which settled all claims. Within five weeks of the decree's entry, in 1985, the jail's population began to exceed its design ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 4
Scott Swoboda was a jail detainee in Doniphan County, Kansas. He filed suit under § 1983 over numerous conditions of confinement at the county jail. The district court dismissed the suit pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.12(b)(6), concluding that the lawsuit failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.
The ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 4
Santiago Ramirez is a New York state prisoner. An informant told a prison sergeant that Ramirez had a shank concealed in his cell. Acting on this information Ramirez's cell was searched and a shank was found. Ramirez was infracted and at his disciplinary hearing he requested that the sergeant and ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 4
Helen Woodson was a federal prisoner serving twelve years on four counts of destroying government property arising out of protests at ICBM missile sites. She is a member of the Plowshares, a Christian group that takes literally the bible's command to beat swords into plowshares (i.e., they enter military bases ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 5
Stephen Buckley sought damages, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, from prosecutors for fabricating evidence during the preliminary investigation of a highly publicized rape and murder case in Illinois, and for making false statements at a press conference announcing the return of an indictment against him. He claimed the prosecutors violated ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 5
Richard Salahuddin was a Muslim New York State prisoner. In 1985 he was transferred to the Sullivan Correctional Facility (SCF), which was still under construction. At the time of his transfer and during his stay at SCF he was on "keeplock" status, as were all other prisoners at the prison ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 6
Federal courts in New York have held that due process requires a prison disciplinary body to establish a reasonably reliable chain of custody as a foundation for introducing the results of urinalysis tests into evidence at prison disciplinary hearings. This chain of custody requirement, the courts have said, mandates a ...
By Nick DiSpoldo
The present Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, has modified nearly all of the rights granted prisoners under the Warren court (1953 -- 69). Mr. Rehnquist, whom I suspect serves as technical advisor for television's Night Court , was appointed to the court in 1972 ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 9
Biased hearing Officer Violates Due Process
Robert Ramirez is a federal prisoner. He had been imprisoned at the US penitentiary in Marion, IL, and had gone through that prison's transfer process and was moved to Leavenworth. While at Leavenworth Ramirez was infracted for involvement in a drug operation and was ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 9
Douglas Arey is a Maryland State prisoner. While at a recently built pre release center he complained that the lack of shower curtains and bathroom partitions, which allowed female guards to observe his genitals, violated his right to privacy. Prison officials took no corrective action.
While Arey was using the ...
By Paul Wright
In last month's issue of PLN , I reported on President Clinton's crime bill, which he unveiled at an August 11, 1993, press conference. It turns out that a week before this, with considerably less fanfare, Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kansas) and House Minority Leader Michel ...
Editorial Comments
By Ed Mead
Welcome to another issue of Prison Legal News . This month I want to bring you up-to-date on how we have been doing with our efforts to increase our subscriber base and the number of paying readers. Since last May, every month we have been ...
Report From The Hole
By Adrian Lomax
The guard stood in the middle of the seg unit, counting, 26 of the 40 cells had the 3x12 inch Plexiglas windows in the cell doors covered with paper form the inside. The 5:00 PM count approached, and the guard knew that if ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 12
At the Madison County Jail in Indiana a pre-trial detainee named Jones became despondent and tried to hang himself, after learning that his four months pregnant girlfriend had taken a job as an exotic "topless" dancer. Jail officials busted Jones and moved him to a barren detox cell, where he ...
By Ed Mead
Peoples' fear of being victimized by crime has steadily risen over the past couple of decades. This has been particularly true for women, the elderly, and minority communities.
While there has always been a substantial amount of crime in the U.S., its general level (rate of crime ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 15
We are an autonomist collective in Spain. Right now we are working on releasing a compilation tape of music to help fund the distribution of a booklet on political prisoners. We would like to receive as much information as possible from political prisoners and groups that work with and around ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 15
The American media has recently reported on the massacre of street children in Brazil by policemen paid by merchants to "get rid of" their crime problem. Due to massive poverty there are hundreds of thousands of homeless children in Brazil who survive any way they can, even if it means ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 15
Close to 700 Prisoners of the Utita prison, about 60 miles east of the Moroccan capital of Rabat, escaped on May 22, 1993. The escape took place after the prisoners rioted and burned down virtually the entire prison. The 1,600 prisoners rioted when one of the guards brutally beat a ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1993
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1993, page 15
Stop the Forced Psychiatric Treatment of Georges Cipriani!
Georges Cipriani was captured in February, 1987 together with three other militants of Action Directe in France. The French government charged them with several armed actions against the military industrial complex and NATO. The took responsibility for the actions as members of ...
