| 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. |
|
Texas: Inmates inside Beaumont's federal prison share stories of grim conditions following Harvey A federal prison in Beaumont that decided Thursday not to evacuate inmates despite a precarious drinking water situation has come under criticism from the men being held inside. FCI Beaumont, a federal prison that houses 1,812 low security male inmates, said that although the facility's water source was compromised and had intermittent power, it was "adequately maintained with generator backup power when needed. There is an adequate food and water supply for both inmates and staff," the Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement Thursday. Messages from inmates obtained by Chron.com using a prison email system tell a different story. One of those inmates is a 30-something-year-old man being held at Beaumont for possession of a large quantity of cocaine and possession of three firearms. His identity, and the name of the other inmate who provided messages to Chron.com, has been confirmed, but withheld because they fear retaliation from guards for speaking out against the prison. The man's girlfriend Andrea Hasberry said one way the prison could retaliate is by moving him to another facility farther away. The man described a scene where a fellow inmate passed out Thursday night because of malnutrition; inmates haven't had a warm meal in more than five days, he said. Because of the water shortage, four portable toilets were brought in to service the man's building. No chemicals were placed in the toilets, which have already been "topped off" with waste, the man said. "Save me Jesus," the man said in an email. "I never thought nothing like this would happen in prison." Read More AND SEE Federal prison bureau updates on Beaumont inmates These are the updates on Beaumont's federal prisons from the Federal Bureau of Prisons: September 1, 2017 UPDATE: (BOP) - Power has been restored to FCC Beaumont, and generator power is no longer being used. The Inmate Telephone System (ITS) is currently operational. The FCC continues to use its own reserve of water to operate the Complex. There is ample food and bottled water for inmates and staff. August 31, 2017 UPDATE: (BOP) - The Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) in Beaumont, Texas, has not been evacuated. There was some flooding in and around areas of the FCC where inmates are not being housed, however, today the water has begun to recede. All inmates remain safe in their housing units. Although the storm impacted the city water supply, the FCC is utilizing its own reserved water supply. The FCC has experienced intermittent power, however, it is adequately maintained with generator backup power when needed. There is an adequate food and water supply for both inmates and staff.
Read More
|
HRDC's Annual Fundraiser Begins! Prison Legal News is a project of the Human Rights Defense Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and donations are tax exempt to the extent allowed by the IRS. Your donation will help us further our mission of advocating for reform of our nation's criminal justice system and protecting the human rights of people held in U.S. detention facilities. Thank you for your support! DONATE NOW! DONATE NOW! |
Virginia: Lawsuit: Prison blocked magazine over nude painting of Eve A federal lawsuit claims a Virginia prison blocked inmates from getting a humanist group's magazine because it contained a picture of a painting of Eve in the Garden of Eden with her breasts exposed. The American Humanist Association's lawsuit is asking the court to declare that the prison's "total ban on 'material containing nudity'" violates the First Amendment. The group says the issue of "the Humanist" magazine was blocked from subscribers at the Coffeewood Correctional Center in Culpeper County because it included the photo of a Flemish artist's painting. David Niose of the American Humanist Association said in a statement that there is "absolutely no basis" for withholding the magazine from inmates. A Virginia Department of Corrections spokeswoman said Friday that she could not immediately comment on the lawsuit. Source |
| 
| Click photo to subscribe now |
|
From the PLN in Print Archives Iowa Supreme Court Upholds Automatic Disenfranchisement for all Felony Convictions In a June 30, 2016 opinion, the Iowa Supreme Court held that all felonies were "infamous crimes" under the voter disqualification provision of the state's constitution. Kelli Jo Griffin was convicted of the class C felony of delivery of 100 grams or less of cocaine in 2008. At that time, Executive Order 42, which had been signed by then-Governor Thomas J. Vilsack, was in effect. The order restored the voting rights of persons who were convicted of a felony but had completely discharged their criminal sentence, including any terms of probation, parole or post-release supervision. Griffin's attorney told her that she would have her right to vote automatically reinstated when she completed parole. In 2011, then-Governor Terry E. Branstad signed Executive Order 70, which rescinded Executive Order 42. Unaware of that development, Griffin registered to vote and then voted after she completed her parole term in 2013. She was charged with perjury for registering and voting, but acquitted by a jury. Griffin filed a petition in state court for a declaration that her offense did not disqualify her from voting and that state voter registration laws which exclude felons who have not had their rights restored violate due process. The court rejected her claims and she appealed. The Supreme Court of Iowa engaged in a lengthy analysis of the concept of infamy going back to ancient Greece and Rome, paying special attention to what the term meant in 1848, when the current Iowa Constitution was adopted. It also gave a great deal of deference to Iowa Code § 39.3(8), a statute passed by the state legislature in 1995, which defined an infamous crime as any felony. The Court then held that any felony offense constituted an "infamous crime." Article II, section 5 of the Iowa Constitution provides that "a person adjudicated mentally incompetent to vote or a person convicted of any infamous crime shall not be entitled to the privilege of an elector." Thus, the constitution disenfranchises any person convicted of a felony. Accordingly, Griffin's due process claim was deemed moot. Read More |
Louisiana: Firm, Judge, Sheriff Accused of Bail Fee Extortion The American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center have joined to file a federal civil rights and anti-racketeering class-action lawsuit which claims a Louisiana district judge, the East Baton Rouge sheriff, and a firm that monitors criminal defendants released on bail while awaiting trial acted together to force defendants to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in unwarranted fees to the pre-trial monitoring firm. Ayo v. Dunn et al., filed Aug. 8 in the Baton Rouge federal court, details how two East Baton Rouge defendants say they were coerced and exploited by Rehabilitation Home Incarceration (RHI), a local nonprofit, which collects substantial pre-trial monitoring fees from defendants seeking release on bail while awaiting trial. The lawsuit attempts to show collusion between RHI, a judge who routinely makes assignment to the firm a condition of pre-trial release, and the local sheriff, who refuses to release inmates from the local prison until RHI has been paid, and arrests those who have been released if they fall behind in the hefty payments RHI demands. The lucrative scheme, the lawsuit argues, essentially amounts to holding pre-trial defendants hostage. Claiming strong political ties between the family that runs RHI and the judge who routinely makes signing up with RHI a condition for being released from pre-trial incarceration, the lawsuit notes RHI supported the judge's most recent re-election bid - the son of the lead defendant, RHI's executive director, chaired the campaign committee - and RHI managers and employees were paid for working for Judge Trudy White's 2014 re-election campaign. Read More |
| 
| Click photo to subscribe now! |
|
Georgia: Allegations of abuse at Augusta State Medical Prison grow Two additional plaintiffs have been added to a civil rights lawsuit alleging that Augusta State Medical Prison guards sadistically used excess force on inmates. In an amended petition filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, the names of Christopher Varner and Cameron Maddox were added as plaintiffs in the original suit filed on behalf of Eugene Griggs. The lawsuit names as defendants Department of Corrections Associate Regional Director Stan Shepard; Augusta State Medical Prison Warden Verneal Evans; corrections officers Janson Creager and Trei Bluitt; and former corrections officers Jerry Beard, Antonio Binns, Justin Washington, Lenon Butler, Rodgerick Nabors and Julian Greenaway. The lawsuit contends that it has been the pervasive and long-standing practice at Augusta State Medical Prison to use unnecessary force, particularly against inmates with mental illnesses. The prison was built to provide supportive incarceration for inmates with special medical needs, one-third of whom are mentally ill. But in reality, the suit contends, the inmates face significant risk of being assaulted by guards who have no meaningful oversight. Read More |
VIDEO: Utah: Plumber funds scholarship for kids with incarcerated parents A Salt Lake City plumber and former convict has developed a scholarship for potential students with incarcerated parents. He says he funds it through a small amount of donations and not having HBO. Watch Here |
| HRDC Needs Your Help to Continue the Fight for Prison #PhoneJustice! Click the Banner to Donate Today! |
|
Joe Arpaio's prison was a circus of cruelty. Now his values are spreading What I remember most about Joe Arpaio's jail is how easy it was to get in. We were interviewing people from the Hispanic community in Phoenix under siege from Arpaio's cops. This was when they were routinely scooping migrants off the streets and - sometimes even when all their papers were in order - dumping them into immigration detention jails. I assumed the BBC would have trouble getting access to such a controversial institution, but within an hour of asking we were through the doors. The jail was a tent camp: olive-green military canvas with the sides pulled up, dating from the Korean war. The prisoners - women were in a separate compound - all wore black and white striped overalls and, famously, bright pink underwear. Arpaio himself would later sign for each of my team a poster showing a brutish-looking prisoner wearing the pink underwear: it was designed, like the rest of the place, to humiliate and increase the mental torture. The physical unpleasantness was plain to see. Our car dashboard told us the outside temperature was 114F (45.5C). The prisoners lay slumped, listless in the suffocating heat. The guard escorting us said: "Everything is done as cheap as possible. They get two meals a day: bologna [sausage] and cheap white bread. We, the guards, drink only out-of-date Gatorade for hydration." And he proudly showed us the date on the bottle he was swigging from. At the slightest unauthorised physical movement - such as shading your head from the sun under a pink towel on the way to the bathroom - the guard would bark some insulting instruction at the offender until they froze. We did not see the solitary cells or the all-female chain gang - though Arpaio would have showed us if he'd had the time. The entire purpose of the hell-hole he built, in steady defiance of federal laws and regulations, was to deter migration. Read More |
Nature videos help to calm inmates in solitary confinement A little bit of nature can calm even the most stressed populations of people, according to a study conducted on prisoners in solitary confinement. In the experiment, researchers found that prisoners who watched videos with nature scenes felt less stressed and weren't as violent as those who didn't. The team, led by ecologist Nalini Nadkarni at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, published their findings on 1 September in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Nadkarni first proposed the study in 2010 while visiting a prison that housed criminals who were considered to be the highest security risks. "Six guards in Kevlar vests and full riot gear had to go in and subdue an inmate in a restraining chair," she says. "I thought, wow, if we could just calm them with nature rather than with Kevlar vests and riot gear, that would be really great." But it took Nadkarni years to find a prison that was willing to let her test her hypothesis. The experiment's results have now convinced some prison officials to offer inmates access to nature videos. However, critics of the study argue that it could be used to justify the continued use of solitary confinement - a practice that some consider too harsh. Read More |
It's Almost Impossible for Inmates to Get a Divorce Testifying one recent Wednesday morning that her marriage was irretrievably broken, a young woman told the Cook County court she was waiving her option to collect spousal support or divide any shared assets with her husband; all she wanted was to be free of him. When the woman's legal representative asked if she'd tried to work out their differences, she paused. "Well, he had an alcohol problem and had been abusive," she testified. "You can't really work that out." After a few more questions, Circuit Court Judge Grace Dickler was satisfied. From her courtroom downtown, she granted a divorce to the woman, who was imprisoned 175 miles away.
Like many prisoners with legal issues unrelated to their incarceration, the woman had previously been locked out of the court system-precisely, and paradoxically, because she was in prison. Thorny civil and domestic matters, like child custody or divorce, are hard enough to navigate for someone on the outside; they're near impossible for the average prisoner who has neither the power to compel transportation to court nor the money to hire an attorney. Read More |
Please note that the content of our newsletter mainly consists of news reports from third-party sources. We are not responsible for the accuracy or content of third parties, nor do their statements or positions necessarily reflect those of HRDC/PLN. Our newsletter content is for informational purposes only. |
|
| |
|
|
