Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 1
In the November, 1994, issue of PLN we reported Carper v. Deland, 851 F. Supp. 1506 (D UT 1994) which involved a class action suit filed by Utah state prisoners claiming that the DOC's method of providing court access, contract attorneys with no law library access, was constitutionally deficient. The ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 2
A district court in Texas has held that placing a jail detainee in a cell with an inoperable sink and toilet and barely functioning shower and denial of hygiene materials violates the eighth amendment. Isiah Sanford was a detainee in the Ector County Jail in Texas when he was placed ...
Welcome to another edition of PLN. We have published continuously for five and a half years now. A lot of people write and ask the same question, "Gee, how did you guys do it?" The answer is simple, hard work and persistence. It's pretty much the same tried and true ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 3
The court of appeals for the third circuit has held that opening a prisoner's legal mail outside his presence violates his right of access to the courts. The court also held that this right is well established so that prison officials who violate it are not entitled to qualified immunity ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 4
The court of appeals for the seventh circuit has held that pretrial detainees are entitled to adequate medical care and have a right to be free from retaliation for complaining of guard misconduct. Richard Murphy was a pretrial detainee in the Tazwell and Mason county, Illinois, jails. He filed suit ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 4
A Wisconsin state appeals court has upheld DOC rules which establish minimum periods that lifers are required to serve in maximum security prisons. The DOC rules assign each lifer to one of four security classifications, based on the prisoner's conviction, criminal history and sentence structure. The DOC's chief of classification ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 5
The ninth circuit has agreed with other circuits, holding that when a state prisoner is transferred to another state, the sender is responsible for ensuring the prisoners' access to the courts. James Boyd is a Kansas state prisoner who was transferred to the Washington State Penitentiary. He filed suit against ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 5
The court of appeals for the tenth circuit has issued its first ruling analyzing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-1, holding that it may well require prison officials to provide Native American prisoners with sweat lodge facilities. Robert Werner, a Utah state prisoner, filed suit under ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 6
The eighth circuit court of appeals has affirmed an award of money damages to Michael Weems, a Missouri state prisoner, who was denied a review hearing while in administrative segregation. The court reaffirmed that Missouri state prisoners have a due process liberty interest of remaining in population and upheld the ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 6
The court of appeals for the eighth circuit has held that a state court reversal of a prison disciplinary hearing does not preclude the prisoner filing suit for money damages in federal court. The appeals court also criticized and reversed the lower court for dismissing a claim under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 7
California prison guard, Mark B. Hardisty, not satisfied with his share of gravy from the state trough, decided he'd get himself some extra overtime pay. "That is the allegation they've come up with," says Hardisty's lawyer, Mike Rains of the Department of Corrections' case against his client.
According to state ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 7
In the past fifteen years of massive prison expansion many prison systems have opted to build open dormitory type prison barracks because they are substantially cheaper to build than conventional cell blocks. There are inherent shortcomings in this type of prison design. The Connecticut DOC recently discovered it can't "lock ...
The 1995 Iowa legislature passed a new wave of bills that affect many Iowa prisoners and ex-prisoners. Among these new laws are: The refusal of the county treasurer to renew vehicle registrations if the person has unpaid delinquent restitution; the inmate hard labor law [Iowa Code § 904.701] which provides ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 8
While prisoners have no right to a job or work assignment they may not be discriminated against on the basis of their race. Lawrence Quinn, a white Pennsylvania state prisoner, applied for the position of clerk in a prison shoe plant. The plant foreman told him he could not have ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 9
A federal district court in New York has held prison guards liable for withholding a prisoner's legal papers for more than two years. The court awarded the plaintiff one dollar in nominal damages and $500 in punitive damages to deter further conduct by prison guards. Donald Frazier, a New York ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 9
A federal district court in New York entered a jury verdict in favor of a state prisoner who was beaten by prison guards, the court also ruled in favor of one of the guards who sued the prisoner out of events arising from the same incident. The ruling in this ...
On January 23, 1995, Judge William Dwyer, US District Court in Seattle, accepted a stipulated motion in Lopez v. Riveland, Case No. C93-1030WD, a wide ranging lawsuit which challenged the almost complete lack of translation facilities for non- English speaking prisoners in the Washington DOC. This is one of the ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 11
The court of appeals for the first circuit has reversed a district court ruling that pretrial detainees may not, consistent with the constitution, be punished for misconduct in the jail. In the Dec. '94 issue of PLN we reported Collazo Leon v. US Bureau of Prisons, 855 F. Supp. 530 ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 12
Harry Schutte was the medical director at the Marion Correctional Institution in Marion, OH when his license to practice medicine was suspended after he was arrested and convicted for forging prescriptions. Schutte, who was addicted to the drug Stadol and synthetic morphine, did not notify prison officials of his license ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 12
A far reaching consent decree governing the delivery of mental health care to Ohio prisoners was entered on 10 July 1995. The consent decree resulted from a §1983 suit filed in 1993 and certified as a class action on June 7, 1995. The prisoner plaintiffs were represented by Robert B. ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 13
A district court in Texas has held that jail prisoners have a right to law library access in order to defend against lawsuits in which they are the defendant, the court also held that a "bookmobile" system of allowing prisoners to check out specifically requested law books on a periodic ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 13
In early August, 1995, hundreds of political prisoners began a hunger strike to demand their freedom and the end of national security laws that prohibit contact with people in North Korea. The government denied the strike was taking place and stated that anyone taking part would be denied release because ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 14
A federal district court in the District of Columbia (DC) granted extensive injunctive and declaratory relief for a class of women prisoners who filed suit challenging their conditions of confinement in DC prison facilities. The rights of women prisoners were also violated under Title IX when they were denied access ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 15
In September, 1995, several prisoners from the 3,490 man Graterford state prison testified before the Pennsylvania senate judiciary committee about corruption at the state prison. The prisoners testified that prison officials accepted bribes typically between $100 and $300 to expunge prisoners' record of infractions. The testifying prisoners, Jonathan Brown, Jerry ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 16
Since 1990, when Washington state passed the Community Protection Act (CPA), many states have followed suit and copied its provisions. The Washington CPA is one of the most draconian laws of its type in the country concerning the registration and civil commitment of sex offenders. Ironically, it has withstood repeated ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 16
For almost 20 years Michigan state prisoners have been embroiled in class action prison litigation designed to ensure constitutional conditions within the Michigan prison system. Despite entry of consent decrees, the Michigan DOC has constantly sought to terminate their legal obligations imposed under the decrees. In twin rulings on motions ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 17
A federal district court in Massachusetts has held that a prison policy denying witnesses from the prison's general population to segregated prisoners' disciplinary hearings was unconstitutional. Brendan McGuinness is a Massachusetts state prisoner who was infracted for allegedly getting into a fight with a guard. At the disciplinary hearing McGuinness ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 17
In 1988 the Florida state legislature enacted Fla.Stat. § 944.277 (1988) which extended the amount of gain-time awarded to prisoners. This was one of several statutes enacted by the Florida legislature in order to maintain the Florida prison population within the limits imposed by a series of federal court orders. ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 18
A federal district court in Indiana has held that requiring prisoners to pay for medication when they are able to does not violate the eighth amendment. However, prison officials' refusal to provide over the counter medication to indigent prisoners with serious medical problems violates the eighth amendment. As more and ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 19
In the July, 1994 issue of PLN we reported Lucero v. Gunter, 17 F.3d 1347 (10th Cir. 1994) where the court of appeals reversed dismissal of a Colorado state prisoner's suit alleging a fourth amendment violation where he was subjected to a harassing urinalysis test. The court had held that ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 19
The court of appeals for the third circuit has held that New Jersey state prisoners have a due process liberty interest, enforceable in federal court under § 1983, to remain in general population. David Sheehan is a PLN reader at the New Jersey state prison in Trenton. While housed in ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 20
A federal district court in Arizona granted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to an Arizona state prisoner who filed suit seeking relief for violation of his religious rights to a Kosher diet, to long hair, a colored head covering and to maintain a vow of poverty. Paul Luckette is an ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 20
The court of appeals for the eleventh circuit, in a case of first impression for that circuit, held that the right to a jury trial is fundamental and reversed a bench trial ruling against a prisoner holding he should have received a jury trial. The case involves Robert Burns, a ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 21
The court of appeals for the ninth circuit has affirmed a lower court ruling holding that the right of court access requires either access to law libraries or the assistance of counsel only through the pleadings stage of civil rights complaints or habeas corpus petitions. The case arose from a ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 21
The court of appeals for the seventh circuit has held that physicians hired by a prison to provide medical care are entitled to qualified immunity when sued by prisoners. As more and more prison systems attempt to cut medical care costs by contracting the care out, prisoner suits against the ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 22
A federal district court in Texas awarded $700 in compensatory damages to a county jail prisoner placed in administrative segregation without due process and held there for fourteen days. The court also considered the matter of prisoners' right to safety from attack by other prisoners. Benny Nettles was held in ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 22
The Department of Justice has released its latest statistics on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in prison and jail facilities for 1993. As of that year 21,538 out of the 880,101 prisoners in state and federal prisons, 2.4% of the total, were known to be infected with HIV. 3,765 prisoners, or ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 23
The court of appeals for the sev enth circuit has extended prior rulings and held that state prisoners are entitled to rely on the Marshalls service to serve their lawsuits on prison officials. The Marshall's failure to properly serve prison officials is "good cause" to avoid dismissal under Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(m) ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 1995
published in Prison Legal News
December, 1995, page 23
Venezuela: On September 22, 1995, police entered the Catia prison in Caracas to search for weapons and drugs when prisoners shot at them. In a five hour riot four prisoners were killed and 26 people injured, including a guard and a policeman. Hundreds of soldiers stormed the prison and regained ...
