| Prison Legal News, a monthly print publication that covers criminal justice issues, is a project of the Human Rights Defense Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. |
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Florida: Prosecutors find no wrongdoing in shower death at Dade Correctional mental health unit A 101-page investigation released Friday concludes that corrections officers who locked a schizophrenic inmate in a hot shower at Dade Correctional Institution and left him there for nearly two hours - until realizing he was dead - committed no crime. The report, issued by Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, said the death of 50-year-old prisoner Darren Rainey was an accident, the result of complications from his mental illness, a heart condition and "confinement in a shower." At least six inmates claimed that the shower was specially rigged so that corrections officers controlled the temperature and were able to crank it up to scalding - or down to an uncomfortably frigid spray, thereby using it as punishment to control unruly inmates, most of whom suffered from mental illnesses. But the state attorney's two-year probe decided that the inmates' statements were not credible. While the report cited significant inconsistencies in the accounts of inmates, it acknowledged the same was true to a lesser degree of the accounts of staffers, although there was "general agreement on a core set of salient facts." |
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Americans Are Still Being Imprisoned For Being HIV Positive There has never been a documented case in which HIV was transmitted via saliva. But Willie Campbell, who is HIV positive, has been behind bars for nearly a decade and is serving a 35-year sentence for spitting at a Dallas police officer. According to the ruling, Campbell's saliva was a deadly weapon, and spitting at the officer was akin to using a firearm. In 2008, Daniel Allen, who is also HIV positive, bit his neighbor during a fight and was subsequently arrested and charged - with bioterrorism. Allen faced a possible 28-year prison sentence before the charges were thrown out. That same year, Patrice Ginn was sentenced to eight years behind bars on charges that she didn't tell her partner she had HIV. There was conflicting testimony at the trial about whether or not she told him; he brought the charges only after their relationship ended. Ginn's partner never actually contracted HIV. These are just three examples of how old laws still on the books all over the United States - laws whose very premises are contradicted by science - are still getting HIV-positive people arrested and sent to prison. Many of the behaviors that are criminalized have almost no chance of transmitting the virus. "We're not talking about cases from 10 or 20 years ago," said Catherine Hanssens, executive director of the Center for HIV Law and Policy. "People are being arrested and prosecuted right now." Read More |
BOP Settlement May Bring Female Florida Prison Workers $20 Million In one of the largest-ever employment sex discrimination class-action settlements, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and 524 current and former female workers at the nation's largest federal prison complex for males have ended a lawsuit launched in 2013. The agreement could bring class members as much as $20 million in total awards. The female workers at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando, Florida - who worked as correction officers, educators, clerks and nurses - claimed they were regularly subjected to lewd and threatening speech, gestures and conduct, against which their supervisors and other administrators failed to take effective action. The allegations of inmate misbehavior at the gigantic complex were detailed and horrific. Groping incidents and rape threats were common, and female staff reported male inmates would exhibit their genitalia when female staff came near them. A frequent complaint was that inmates would openly engage in self-abuse in plain view of female staffers, sometimes cutting holes into the pockets of their prison uniform pants so as to be able to do so with the hands in their pockets. The case is also unusual in that BOP is being held responsible not for actions of its own employees, but for failing to take sufficient measures to protect its female workers against harassing behavior by non-employees - the inmates in the huge prison complex. Read More |
Slammer sale: Closed prisons are a tough sell, states find Perched atop an Adirondack mountain, the 325-acre site for sale seems to have everything a developer could want: spectacular views, a man-made lake and close proximity to the tourist destination of Saratoga Springs. Oh, and former President Ulysses S. Grant lived out his final days in a home next door. But the property on Mount McGregor was also a former New York state prison, and if history is any guide, it will be a tough sell. States have found out the hard way that stunning views and good locations are not enough to overcome the baggage that comes with former prison sites. Massive, thick-walled cell blocks, dormitories and infirmaries tend to be too expensive to tear down and too restrictive to turn into viable enterprises. Nationwide, at least 22 states have closed or announced plans to close 94 state prisons and juvenile facilities since 2011, and only a handful have been sold or repurposed, according to a December report by The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice reform advocacy group. "This is new territory in a lot of respects," said Nicole Porter, the report's author. "This will require some creativity from developers for what to do with these spaces." Read More |
Pennsylvania: Judge tosses suit over child's destroyed card to dad in Berks jail A federal judge in Harrisburg has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Berks County Jail inmate after jailers destroyed a birthday card made by his 5-year-old daughter. The jail had filed the motion to dismiss the suit, claiming that inmate Norman Vega failed "to state a claim for which relief can be granted." U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter left open the possibility that Vega's complaint against the jail's warden and three other employees could be amended. Vega's daughter sent him a card last May drawn in pencil and pen, since the jail in Bern Township forbids drawings in crayon. Vega, 33, never received the card and was told it was destroyed due to crayon marks. He sued after his grievances were denied, claiming that his first, fifth and 14th Amendment rights were violated. Read More |
New in our Bookstore! The Federal Prison Handbook 491 pages. The Federal Prison Handbook, by Christopher Zoukis, is the definitive guide to surviving incarceration in a federal prison. This handbook teaches individuals facing incarceration, prisoners who are already inside, and their friends and family everything they need to know to protect themselves and their rights. The thorough information was compiled by someone who has first-hand experience with the federal prison system, as Zoukis is an advocate currently serving time at a federal prison. His insider's view of this unknown world guides inmates through the mental stresses of confinement. In detailed chapters broken down by topical areas, readers discover: - What to expect on the day you're admitted to prison, and how to greet cellmates for the first time
- What to do about sexual harassment or assault
- The best ways to avoid fights, and the options that provide the greatest protection if a fight cannot be avoided
- Medical, psychological and religious services
- How to communicate with the outside world through telephones, computers and mail.
- What you can buy in the official commissary and the underground economy
- How to avoid scams, schemes, theft, and other problems
- Comprehensive analysis of Federal Bureau of Prisons policy and regulatory guidelines
Importantly, this text provides detailed instructions on how prisoners can protect their rights. The author is a college-educated prisoner who has fought extensively to preserve his rights and the rights of other prisoners. Read More and Shop Here |
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From the PLN in Print Archives Medicare Penalties Await Released Prisoners Who Apply After Age 65 Add potential penalties for late Medicare registration to the list of hurdles that prisoners must clear if they are released after their 65th birthday. Medicare regulations impose a penalty of 10% per year for each year of delay after age 65, when eligible individuals can begin receiving Medicare benefits. Incarceration is not considered a valid excuse for avoiding the penalty, even though prisoners cannot receive benefits. Generally, eligible persons are supposed to sign up for Medicare Part B during their initial enrollment period, which begins three months before they reach age 65 and ends three months after they turn 65. If they are already receiving Social Security when they turn 65, they will be enrolled in Medicare automatically. Medicare Part A, which provides for payment of some hospital-related expenses after an enrolled individual reaches age 65, even if they are not yet eligible for Social Security, is free. Most people or their spouses paid the Medicare Part A fees as part of their withholding tax while they were employed. Medicare Part B, which covers some doctor bills and other medical expenses not covered by Part A, may be obtained when someone reaches age 65, but has a modest premium of approximately $109 to $134 per month on average. Unfortunately, even though Part A is free, a late filing will still trigger a 10% penalty for each year after age 65 that a person waits to enroll. The same penalty applies for tardy Part B applications. The penalty could add up to thousands of dollars of lost Social Security payments, since Medicare premiums are automatically deducted from Social Security benefits. On the other hand, Social Security payments may be deferred without penalty. In fact, many people postpone applying for Social Security at their eligible age for the purpose of increasing their payments when they finally apply for benefits. That is not the case with Medicare, however. Read More |
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New Mexico: Audit of Corrections employee finds conflict of interest The state Corrections Department audit for fiscal year 2016 released by the State Auditor's Office last month says a former Corrections official had a conflict of interest with a production company that filmed a television show on prison grounds and waived a hefty fee without explanation. But former Corrections deputy secretary and public information officer Alex Sanchez disputes the findings. The audit, released Feb. 24, says a Corrections employee who temporarily left the department between October 2015 and March 2016 to work for Lucky 8 TV, a production company that produced the show "Behind Bars: Rookie Year" about first-time prison guards, but returned to Corrections and was "allowed to make the determination of the amounts to be billed to the production." The audit doesn't mention the employee by name, per department policy, but State Auditor Tim Keller confirmed it was Sanchez. "The involvement of this employee in the determination of amounts billed and fees waived appears to be a conflict of interest as not all of the decisions appear to be in the best interest of the State," said the audit. "No evidence was provided to support" the idea that anyone other than Sanchez made financial decisions related to Lucky 8, the audit says. Read More |
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Georgia: Gwinnett Jail Death Lawsuit Highlights Correctional Health Care The daughter of an inmate who died of pneumonia in the Gwinnett County jail is suing the sheriff, health care employees and the private health provider in charge of her care. According to the lawsuit, Denise Forte's death in 2015 could have been prevented with adequate medical care. The 53-year-old had been at the Gwinnett County jail for more than a year on drug charges. Her daughter's lawyer, Mark Begnaud, said Forte had a history of lung disease and was ignored as her symptoms started getting worse. He said after an initial visit with a nurse, "they didn't even bring her up to evaluate her. They simply told her 'No. We won't see you now. You're on the list to be seen by a doctor this week.'" She died before that could happen. Begnaud said jail records show the medical director there knew Forte's condition was serious. "She should have been admitted and immediately seen by a doctor, based on the symptoms she was presenting at the time," he said. Read More |
Trump Can Help Stop Prison Rape During the lame duck session in December, Congress did something amazing: It actually passed a criminal justice bill. Tucked among the provisions of the bipartisan law were new state reporting requirements on prison rape. While that's great, there's a lot more that could be done if the federal government is serious about stopping this heinous crime. Back in 2003, Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions worked across the aisle with Democrat Sen. Ted Kennedy to pass the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). Evangelical Christians, led by Chuck Colson-the former Watergate conspirator who turned to prison ministry after his own stint on the inside-were instrumental in whipping GOP support. But the Justice Department didn't adopt national PREA standards until 2012. Four years after they went into effect, the Associated Press reported that only 12 states were in full compliance with them. A nationwide inmate survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that in 2011-12 an estimated 4 percent of state and federal prison inmates and 3.2 percent of jail inmates reported being sexually victimized by another inmate or a member of the staff. In 2013, Eli Lehrer wrote at National Review that "PREA has reasonably few real teeth and, as a result, truly awful prisons and jails can still get away with allowing rampant sexual abuse. Cultural attitudes towards prison rape, distressingly, haven't changed much." One major requirement of the law is that juveniles and other vulnerable inmates be segregated from the general adult population. This is a logistical headache for prisons and jails, especially ones in states that can try juveniles as adults, and the official consequences for failure to comply are rather minor. Under PREA, states risk losing 5 percent of their federal prison grants for noncompliance. Governors of those states are required to submit letters to the Justice Department demonstrating how they are using federal funds to bring their prisons in line. County and local jails are, by and large, not covered by the law at all. Read More |
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