by David M. Reutter

Almost everyone with experience on the incarceration side of America's criminal justice system will tell you they would rather do time in prison than in a jail. The primary reason is that the overall conditions of confinement are better and less restrictive in prisons. The transient nature of a jail population makes it difficult for prisoners to improve conditions through legal challenges, as they are often released or transferred elsewhere before they can act; also, jails do not have the programs and resources available at prisons, which are designed for a longer-term sentenced population.

Most non prisoners have no concern for conditions in prisons or jails, assuming they will never be subjected to them. "I just did not care at all about what it was like. But when I went to prison, my whole view of prison and people in prison changed," said Joe Kramer, who served almost four months in Pennsylvania's Dauphin County Jail for assault and violating probation on a marijuana possession charge. "I still think about it to this day. I've had nightmares, and waking up in the middle of the night," he stated. The experience of incarceration in our nation's penal system ...

Pro se Tennessee State prisoner Omawali Shabazz, aka Fred Dean, appealed a 1999 ruling denying certain documents and requiring fees for others. Dean had brought an action to compel the production of documents from various Tennessee Department of Corrections personnel, Prison Health Services, Inc. (PHS), and their employees under the Public Records Act (Act). The judgment was affirmed.

Dean requested a number of documents to be delivered to the Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex where he was incarcerated at no charge.
His request being denied, he brought action. The court ruled that some of the requested documents were exempt as interrogatories, some were non existent, some were not in the possession of the agency they were requested from, and the ones that were discloseable would require a fee of 20 cents per page. Dean appealed.

The Middle Section Court of Appeals of Tennessee at Nashville affirmed the judgment and denied Dean's additional complaints against PHS and it's employees since they were not government entities. The court noted that Dean could not view the documents prior to making payment and needed to specify which documents were sought. See: Shabazz v. Campbell, 63 S.W.3d 776 (Tenn. App. 2001).

On November 15, 2001, Leticia Smedley was arrested by police in Tulsa, Oklahoma on suspicion of being intoxicated. She was jailed at the David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center, a facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Medical staff discovered that Smedley was having a hypoglycemic reaction due to low blood sugar. Even so, jail officials gave her no food to bring her blood sugar up, and physically and verbally assaulted her. Through her lawyer, Joseph Clark, Jr. of Tulsa, she sued CCA in federal district court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court found that CCA could not be held liable for its employees' behavior unless the same was the result of CCA's inadequate training, supervision or employee policies. Finding no such assertion, the district court dismissed. Smedley appealed.

On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit found that a statement by Smedley's lawyer to the district court that CCA's supervision of its employees was "pretty poor" was insufficient to state an inadequate supervision or policy claim. It therefore refused to consider that claim and affirmed the district court's ruling. See: Smedley v. Corrections Corp. of America, 175 Fed.Appx. 943 (10th Cir. 2005) ...

While imprisoned in Florida's Palm Beach County Jail, a 35 year old Haitian laborer was beaten by guards. He sustained in June 1985, a broken neck and was left in his cell with no medical treatment. When he was finally taken to the jail's hospital, nurses accused him of faking ...

On January 11, 2006, a Montana state district court set aside two prisoners, convictions for escape and acquitted them after holding that no evidence had been presented that they were in the custody of a peace officer, a requirement for the crime of escape in Montana.

William Leonard Brown and Brian Joseph Holliday, Montana state prisoners, were being transported by employees of TransCor, Inc., a private company owned by Corrections Corporation of America that transports prisoners under contract with the Montana Department of Corrections, when they fled from the TransCor van. The TransCor employees were not peace officers.

A jury convicted Brown and Holliday of felony escape. They then filed a motion seeking to set aside the verdict and be declared not guilty by the court. The basis of the motion was that state law defined escape as knowingly or purposely eluding official detention. Section 45-7-306, MCA.
Official detention is in turn defined as "placement of a person in the legal custody of a municipality, a county, or the state as the result of the actual or constructive constraint or custody of a person by a peace officer pursuant to arrest, transport, or court order." Section 45-7-306(1)(a)(ii), MCA. The trial ...

Waukesha County, Wisconsin, paid a prisoner $25,000 to settle claims related to a heart attack he suffered while imprisoned.

Mr. Blavat was denied his prescribed heart medication while confined in Waukesha County Jail, causing him to suffer a heart attack. Blavat sued in state court, alleging jail officials negligently caused ...

by John E. Dannenberg

In the continuing saga of a troubled private prison in Adelanto, California, the facility was sold to the County of San Bernardino for $31.2 million in February 2006. However, controversies haunted the county for another year. The facility's owner, Maranatha Corrections (in turn owned by Moreland Family, LLC), was slow to make needed and agreed-upon repairs, causing late occupancy by the county. In addition, uncertainty remained as to whether the sale was tainted by conflicts of interest between the private prison company and local officials.

The Adelanto facility was originally built on spec by Maranatha and leased to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). The lease was terminated when CDCR tried in vain to reduce its population, and the building fell into disrepair. The terms of the prison's sale to the county included fixing the fire and smoke alarms, refurbishing heating/air-conditioning/ventilation equipment, replacing broken glass, and adding security panels and dorm dividing walls. When Maranatha fell behind in this work, the county withheld $500,000 in payment as a "hammer" to force compliance. The work was completed two months behind schedule, resulting in a $260,000 penalty assessed by the county for late occupancy of the ...

On February 20, 2007, the Dallas County, Texas, Jail agreed to pay $950,000 for its negligent mistreatment of three mentally ill individuals, one of whom died, while imprisoned at the jail awaiting competency hearings.

In 2004, James Monroe Mims, a man in his 50s, was sent from the state mental ...

by Matt Clarke

Seven months after arriving at the Dickens County Correctional Center (DCCC), a private prison in Spur, Texas operated by the GEO Group, Idaho state prisoner Scot Noble Payne, 43, was dead by his own hand. The reason he gave for committing suicide? Squalid conditions at the privately-run lockup.

Payne arrived at DCCC on August 27, 2006 along with 125 other Idaho prisoners who were transferred from a troubled GEO-run facility in Newton, Texas. In December 2006, Payne escaped from DCCC by scaling a fence. He was captured a week later, returned to the prison and placed in solitary confinement. In a letter to his uncle, Payne wrote that he welcomed death because "it sure beats having water on the floor 24/7, a smelly pillow case, sheets with blood stains on them and a stinky towel that hasn't been changed since they caught me."

Just after midnight on March 4, 2007, he used a razor blade to cut two 3-inch gashes in his throat.

Following Payne's suicide, Don Stockman, the health care director for the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC), inspected the GEO facility and declared it the worst prison he had ever seen. "The physical condition of ...

reviewed by John E. Dannenberg

In a classic case of "follow the money," The Institute On Money In State Politics (IMSP) reviewed influence-peddling by private prison corporations (and their leaders, lobbyists, and subcontractors) who made political contributions to curry favor for their firms -- leading inexorably to vast increases in the prison privatization business.
Although such private interests in 44 states gave politicians over $3.3 million between 2000 and 2004 (the study period), Policy Lock-Down focused on the top ten states.

Florida led the pack with $647,600 (almost 20% of the total) followed by Texas ($519,000) and New Jersey ($323,000). Six states logged no private prison contributions: Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota and South Dakota. To insulate the real donors, most of the money given out passed through the hands of lobbyists. Popular targets for givers were states with tough-on-sentencing laws: $2.1 million went to 22 states with "three-strikes" laws, while only $1.2 million went to 22 states without such laws. Two-thirds of all monies went directly to political candidates, while one-third went to state political parties.
Two-thirds of the money for candidates supported incumbents, thus reducing the odds of a challenger to existing privatization contracts from gaining ...