by William Van Poyck
The constitutional right, based upon the Eighth Amendment's proscription of cruel and unusual punishment, of long term Close Management (C.M.) prisoners to outdoor recreation exercise yard is long and well established, nation wide, going back more than two decades. Federal courts have universally and consistently held ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 3
Most PLN readers are familiar with the US Penitentiary at Marion, IL. The prison was totally locked down in October of 1983 and has remained that way ever since. Prisoners are locked in their cells 23 hours a day in extremely harsh and punitive conditions which have been condemned by ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 3
This case has little to do with prisoner rights litigation but we thought our readers would be interested in it. Ronald Lawrenz was a probationary prison guard at the Charlotte Correctional Institution (CCI) in Florida. On January 18, 1993, Lawrenz was at the home of another guard having a barbecue ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 4
Yu Kikumura is a member of the Japanese Red Army held at the US Penitentiary in Marion, IL. A Japanese national, he can read, speak or write very little English and Japanese remains his primary language. On more than 20 occasions Marion prison officials rejected publications which were sent to ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 4
People hear the term "frivolous" litigation and what comes to mind are the guys who sue over a train whistle keeping them awake at night in prison. All too often prisoners seeking justice don't find any, not because their claims are frivolous but because they are too poor to afford ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 5
In 1980 prisoners and prison officials in the Kansas state prison system entered into a consent decree designed to improve the living conditions of prisoners confined to administrative segregation (ad seg). In 1988 the case was reactivated when the prisoners sought the court's intervention claiming the defendants had not complied ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 6
Michael McLaurin is an Arkansas state prisoner. A prison guard accused McLaurin of stealing cigarettes from another prisoner despite assurances from both prisoners that McLaurin was only holding the cigarettes as a favor to the owner. The guard struck McLaurin on the side of the face which knocked him to ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 6
In the September, 1994, issue of PLN we reported on the unconstitutionality of racially discriminatory jury discrimination with regards to criminal trials. The right to a jury composed of members of the community also applies to civil rights suits. Frederick Davidson, a black Missouri state prisoner, sued prison officials claiming ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 7
Past issues of PLN have extensively reported on the struggles by prisoners to obtain the minimum wage for industrial and production work performed in prison. Much of this litigation has focused on the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) 29 U.S.C. § 201-219 which mandates that workers be paid the ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 7
Prisoner litigants representing themselves face greater problems when litigating than do most ordinary litigants. Not only are they usually untrained in the law but they lack control over basic things such as the mail. Courts operate on deadlines which often result in penalties for a party whenever they miss the ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 8
David Eugene Brown was the chief counsel for the California Board of Prison Terms (BPT) from 1982 until June, 1994. He worked his way up through the prison system's ranks, starting as guard, then captain and going to law school, after which he was appointed to serve on the BPT. ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 8
In August, 1994, the Mississippi state legislature held a special session to deal with prison overcrowding. Rather than deal with that issue, the legislature soon became embroiled in a debate on how to worsen prison conditions even more. Proposals were made to "restore fear to prison," of canings, of making ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 8
On October 7, 1994, 15 of about 300 prisoners in the recreation yard of the Terrell Prison Unit in Livingston, TX, attacked prison staff. One guard suffered a broken nose. Prison guards beat several prisoners in retaliation for the attack. On October 9, 1994, Michael McCoy died in a hospital ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 8
Lee Barnett is a California state prisoner on death row. He filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claiming that prison officials had retaliated against him for filing civil rights suits against them; that he was denied contact visits with his attorney in violation of his right of access to ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 9
Prisoners and detainees in the Angelina county jail in Texas filed a class action suit claiming that overcrowding at the jail violated their constitutional rights. The district court agreed and entered an injunction imposing a population cap on the jail. The defendant county jail and sheriff also filed a third ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 9
On September 30, 1994, death row prisoner Timothy Pride was shot dead by San Quentin, California, prison guards after being involved in a fight with another prisoner. According to witnesses, Pride was backing away from the other prisoner when shot. A prison spokesperson justified the killing saying: "From the taxpayers ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 9
In Mid-October, 1994, Kelvin Washington, 27, was arrested and charged with the murder of Charles Farquhar, the warden of a state prison cattle ranch in Greensboro, Alabama, his wife and two prisoners. The bodies believed to be that of Farquhar and his wife were found bludgeoned in his brick ranch ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 10
In a major setback for Washington state prisoners the ninth circuit has held that prisoners do not have a right of access to prison law libraries. William Vandelft was infracted while at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton. He served a sanction of segregation and filed a state Personal Restraint ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 11
On June 3, 1994, Washington State Reformatory (WSR) guard Roger Wallace, 28, was arrested at the Monroe, Washington, prison on charges of soliciting a prisoner, Samuel McNeal, to assault Gerald "J.D." Enquist, another prisoner. On June 9, 1994, Wallace was charged in Snohomish County Superior Court with solicitation to commit ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 11
By Jan Starks
On May 26, 1994, Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson enacted a Sexual Predator Law, officially called 1993 Wisconsin Act 479. It was designed especially for two current prisoners: Gerald Turner, who in 1973 killed 9 year old Lisa French on Halloween night and Raymond Matzker, who in 1982, ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 12
Though this is an unpublished case, and one we might ordinarily consider of small consequence, the prisoner litigant - David Cerullo - provided PLN with extensive information and background on the case that lends a very unusual perspective.
David Cerullo knew he was going to do some federal time. Two ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 12
In response to prison overcrowding, the Oklahoma state legislature has passed the Oklahoma Prison Overcrowding Emergency Powers Act, Oklahoma Statute 57, § 570-576. The act permits the prison system to release prisoners with less than medium custody convicted of lesser crimes in order to free up prison space. Timothy Keeton, ...
By John W. Perotti
It's been almost two years since the 11-day siege at the southern Ohio Correctional Facility located in Lucasville, Ohio. The problem? "Spilt milk" is just the beginning.
Millions of dollars have been spent on reconstruction of the prison and prosecution of the prisoners that the state ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 14
In April of 1993, the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) at Lucasville, Ohio, erupted in one of the longest, costliest, and most violent prisoner rebellions in recent history. The rebellion brought Lucasville to national attention, but Ohio prisoners and prisoncrats had long been aware of problems leading up to the ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 14
In April, 1993, prisoners at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) rebelled in what became the longest 2>prison siege in US history that left 10 dead. PLN has provided extensive coverage of the rebellion, its origins and its aftermath. Some SOCF prisoners have claimed that the rebellion was deliberately ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 15
Since June, 1994, 8 prisoners at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center (CBCC) were placed in segregation after they allegedly gave friends and relatives a state toll free number at which to call them. The DOC operates a boiler room operation at CBCC which contracts with other state agencies and private ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 16
On November 13, 1994, 700 fundamentalist Muslim prisoners on death row, joined by 100 other prisoners, seized control of the Berrouaghia prison for several hours and tried to take guards hostage. The prison, located outside the capital of Algiers, holds several thousand prisoners. Many of the prisoners are members of ...
by Dan Pens
Keeping these twenty pages filled and mailed out to 1,200 readers is no small task. Each month I mail out about 50 letters, 75 post cards and a dozen or so invoices to PLN subscribers. I generate most of the "routine" correspondence. Paul answers most of the ...
I am in the process of compiling information for a prison resource directory. Send any info that you feel would be of benefit to prisoners, their families, ex-offenders and those working in the criminal justice arena. Any type of info can be used, i.e. legal services, educational services, medical services, ...
I was curious as to how you get your stories. They are very interesting, and that one in the Sept. issue about Emmett Jones and jury rigging in Michigan really hit close to home. I might have a story for you. I recently got fired from my job as prison ...
CT's "Gang Problem"
The RICO concept of guilt by association has recently moved from the statute books and has now made its appearance into prison management. Within the past year or so Connecticuts Department of Corrections adopted a gang management policy. The policy designates gangs and gang members, and implements ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 17
While the use of prison slave labor by China has been widely criticized by the US, less well known is the fact that Japan also has a similar system. In July, 1994, congressman Gary Ackerman (NY Dem), head of the foreign affairs subcommittee on Asia, told reporters that Japan should ...
Loaded on
Jan. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
January, 1995, page 18
I was arrested in June of 199l and charged with possession of narcotics and intent to export. The drugs weighed slightly more than five kilos. I was given "legal counsel" - I think. I was told by a man who spoke very little English, "Plead guilty. If not plead guilty ...
Governor Pete Wilson is constantly passing legislation that is cutting away at the Prisoner Bill of Rights, and has done away with conjugal visits for prisoners with certain sex convictions, and has recently signed a Bill that limits good time/work time credits to 15% (down from 33.3% -50%) for prisoners ...
Being labeled as a "Security Threat Group" (gang) means anyone that is organizing and whose actions are considered disruptive to the prison system. For the most part the state [OH] is not focusing on real gangs, but rather focusing on prison activists and jailhouse lawyers. Every activist and jailhouse lawyer ...
Hi, my name is Jeannie Pejko and I am a former prisoner, having spent five years in Dwight Penitentiary in Illinois. I live in Chicago and work with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT Up), an organization fighting to end the AIDS crisis. ACT Up/Chicago's Prison Issues Committee is ...
Right now there are 31 American women and approximately the same number of men incarcerated in Thailand prisons on drug charges. Justice and impartial legal representation are not part of the equation here. Trials take years; guilt is assumed upon arrest. You can't win even if you are innocent. There ...
Your article, Prisons TV: Luxury or Management Tool? [Vol.5 No.9, Sept. '94], raises an issue that has been debated by myself and some other prisoners here in Wisconsin. I believe that Wardens and others within the DOC have a perception that televisions are assisting them in minimizing static and disruption. ...
