by Alex Friedmann
Many of the hundred-thousand-plus prisoners of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) are familiar with the BOP's buses that shuttle convicts around the country. The federal government also maintains a fleet of a dozen planes designated for transporting prisoners, known as ConAir, which was brought to the ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 2
Eight federal prisoners being transported in a van operated by Federal Extradition Agency escaped July 30 near Ordway, Colorado. Two guards working for the private transport firm were driving nine prisoners across Colorado when they stopped to drop one prisoner off at the Crowley county sheriffs department. One guard took ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 3
A PLN subscriber wrote to describe a "mini riot" which occurred June 3, 1997, in one of the dorms at the North Central Correctional Institution in Marion, OH. He reported that six prisoners and two guards were injured.
The disturbance "was brought on by the severe takeback of our property ...
The past several months have seen a lot of changes at PLN. Our sample mailing campaign has been proceeding so that by the end of this year we will have mailed out more than 50,000 sample copies. It is still too early to tell what our total response will be. ...
Pick up your trumpet, raise your voice: it's time to make noise. 1998 will see two important efforts to win the release of all u.s.-held political prisoners and prisoners of war. These efforts need the support of all justice loving people, all those who stand against the ever increasing repression ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 6
The state of Oklahoma announced in July that it would pull 500-plus prisoners out of the Limestone County Detention Center, in part because of a conflict over the use of pepper spray on "unruly inmates."
Limestone County, Texas, contracts with a private firm, Capital Correctional Resources, Inc. (CCRI), to operate ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 6
The Brazoria County Jail, site of the video-taped beatings that aired on network television, is but one of 38 for-profit jails or prisons in the state of Texas. And it's not the only one with problems, just the one with the most press.
A week before Brazoria County erupted into ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 6
The state of Missouri was swift to react to the explosive national news coverage resulting from the release of a video tape showing Missouri prisoners being kicked and beaten during a "shake down" at a Texas Rent-A-Jail. The state of Missouri announced that it was terminating its $6 million contract ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 7
In its 1995 session the Washington state legislature considered HB 1054, which would have censored a wide variety of publications sent to prisoners based on their "sexual" or "violent" content. HB 1054 was not passed but the DOC got the message and "reinterpreted'' its 1992 mail censorship policy, DOC policy ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 7
If you are on the row in the USA and would like to have your story broadcast over radio and/or published, call collect and we will talk. I will record our conversation(s) and mail copies to the News Net service in your state, Pacifica Radio, and the National Radio Project. ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 8
In the October, 1996, issue of PLN we reported the class action suit Johnson v. Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice, 910 F. Supp. 1208 (WD TX 1995) in which a federal district court in Texas ordered the state parole board to not consider "protest letters" unless the letters were disclosed ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 9
In the May, 1993, issue of PLN we reported that PLN editor Paul Wright had won a reversal and remand from the ninth circuit court of appeals in an unpublished ruling, Wright v. Rebiero, a retaliation suit filed against Washington state prison officials. On May 6, 1997, the case was ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 9
A federal district court in Ohio held that factual disputes required a trial to determine if Ohio DOC medical staff were liable in the death of a prisoner who died from an asthma attack. Ernest Davis was an Ohio state prisoner with asthma. Assigned to work in the prison kitchen, ...
By Paul Wright
If you are a jail or prison litigator have you ever wished for a digest of all the major and most of the minor cases dealing with the subject you're litigating? I know I have. Hours spent poring over the West's digests where prison cases reside in ...
Books dealing with criminal law and its practice are relatively common. Many such books are multi-volume sets totaling thousands of pages and costing hundreds of dollars. The result is they tend to be used more as references of last resort for those able to purchase them. Apparently tired of that ...
Over the years, countless people have asked me The Question. People who have never been imprisoned (and who think my 16 years behind bars makes me an expert) are especially prone to ask it.
"You seem to be very well informed about criminal justice issues," The Question usually begins, "how ...
By Jon Marc Taylor
Under federal and various state laws, conviction of a felony has consequences that may continue long after the sentence has been served. Convicted felons may lose essential rights of citizenship, such as the rights to vote and to hold public office, and may be restricted in ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 12
The court of appeals for the fifth circuit held that Texas prisoners have a due process liberty interest in their good time credits as it affects their mandatory parole release date. Nesbitt Madison, a Texas state prisoner, was infracted for allegedly assaulting his cellmate. At the disciplinary hearing Madison attempted ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 13
The 1987 Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual had 325 pages. In 1988 there were 225 federal sentencing appeals. The 1996 Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual had ballooned to 1,137 pages. In 1995 there were 8,731 federal sentencing appeals.
There were 41 federal prisons constructed between 1900 and 1980.
States and the federal ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 14
New Mexico state corrections chief Rob Perry announced a proposal in June 1997 to allow disciplinary segregation prisoners to reduce their seg time if they agree to break rocks with sledgehammers. The proposal may have had more to do with publicity than punishment. The rock-breaking plan was duly reported by ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 14
The court of appeals for the ninth circuit held that a Bureau of Prisons (BOP) policy which created a new definition of "non-violent" offense could not be applied retroactively to deny a one-year sentence reduction to prisoners who had successfully completed a substance abuse program. 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e)(2)(B) allows ...
By Julia Lutsky
William T. Mack, 53, was convicted at the end of May in a continuing federal investigation of corruption at the Mansfield Correctional Institute (MANCI) in Ohio. Mack, who had been chief of security at MANCI prior to his transfer to Grafton Correction Institute (GCI) in February of ...
Greetings from Alliance of Incarcerated Canadians in American Prisons (AICAP). Our purpose is to have all foreign citizens [not just Canadians] to serve their sentences in their home countries. In September, 1996, Congress enacted new amendments under the Immigration Reform Act, which allows for transfer of offenders to serve their ...
A news item you might want to use in the paper: Washington Post (Feb. 18, l997) reported that the OMB [a federal budget office] compiled a "secret list" of 254 federal programs that could be cut to save money. They wouldn't release the entire list at that time (I think ...
When I saw Dan Pens' front page PLN article [Oct. '96] on UNICOR production of bullet resistant vests (there's no such animal as "bullet proof" vests) I was struck by the difference in perspective. I read some of the same material he relied on for his article. Sure, the BOP ...
Prisoners' loved ones are hit with a $3.00 surcharge [connect fee] whenever they accept a collect call from a California prisoner. The $3.00 surcharge is in addition to the per-minute billing.
The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved this $3.00 surcharge after MCI presented it to them. The PUC approved ...
I have received new insight into the warden [Tana Wood's] motivations for arbitrarily taking away as many EFV [Extended Family Visit, aka trailer visit] privileges as she can.
In the early 90's at MSC [the Medium Security Annex of the Washignton state penitentiary at Walla Walla], they built three EFV ...
The Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) is conducting a pilot program at the Cook Unit. If they like the results, ADC will implement the program state-wide.
I am sure you are familiar with these electronic ankle bracelets that people on home arrest are required to wear? [Editor's Note: Yes. They ...
I'm a prisoner from Idaho doing time in a private facility in Minnesota. I'm sure you all never hear much about the DOC in Idaho. It's pretty small, a little less than 4,000 prisoners. It has much of the same problems as the rest of the states. However, prison news ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 17
A federal district court in California held that media witnesses who attend state executions must be allowed to witness the entire proceeding. When California began lethal injection executions in 1996, it did not allow witnesses to enter the observation room adjoining the execution chamber until the victim was already strapped ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 18
A federal district court in Arizona held that the PLRA's administrative exhaustion requirement, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a), requires prisoners to exhaust administrative remedies and the failure to do so deprives the court of subject matter jurisdiction. Dallas Morgan, an Arizona state prisoner, filed suit claiming prison guards endangered ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 18
The court of appeals for the third circuit held that a district court erred when it dismissed a prisoner's In Forma Pauperis (IFP) suit because three prior suits had been dismissed, when the instant suit claimed the plaintiff was in imminent danger. Henry Gibbs is a Pennsylvania state prisoner and, ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 19
The court of appeals for the seventh circuit held that district courts must make clear, specific factual findings when ruling on contested issues relevant to prisoners' constitutional claims. Aaron Isby, an Indiana state prisoner, filed suit claiming his eighth amendment rights were violated when he was placed in a freezing ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 19
The old Italian proverb postulates that "revenge is a dish best served cold." Justice is a dish also usually served cold, although those with a taste for justice rarely prefer it so. Maybe somebody should ask Frank Smith.
Twenty-six years after Smith was beaten and tortured in an orgy of ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 20
The court of appeals for the seventh circuit held that a prisoner's fear of being attacked, by itself, does not violate the eighth amendment. The court also held that prison officials who retaliate against prisoners who complain about prison conditions are not entitled to qualified immunity. John Babcock, a federal ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 21
Wrightsville Arkansas, prison farm labor camp, July, 1997. The sweltering daytime temperature tops 100 degrees. It's still more than 80 degrees just after midnight. And then a spark is lit.
A guard at the Arkansas DOC Wrightsville Unit, reportedly acting on a tip, went into one of the 50-man barracks ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 21
In an unpublished ruling, the court of appeals for the ninth circuit held prison officials were not entitled to qualified immunity for intentionally withholding a prisoner's video taped court transcript. Robert Wrinkle a Washington state prisoner at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center, sought to submit a pro se brief to ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 21
The court of appeals for the ninth circuit held that state prosecutors, judges and jail officials violated the fourth amendment and the now defunct Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb, by secretly taping the confession a jail detainee gave a Catholic priest. Conan Hale was being detained ...
Loaded on
Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 22
AR: The DOC announced plans to convert the Hiland Mountain Correctional Facility into a women's prisons as the legislature refuses to provide funds to build one. Hiland currently houses 230 male sex offenders undergoing treatment. During a 1-year transition, the prison will be co-ed, housing male sex offenders and female ...
