A U.S. District Court in Maine held that the spoliation of relevant missing or tampered documents precluded summary judgment, and that certain supervisors were not liable to the estate of a deceased prisoner, but a clinical social worker and two prison guards were not entitled to qualified immunity. The defendants' motion for summary judgment was granted, but only in part.

In this case, on October 3, 1998, a prisoner committed suicide at the Maine State Prison. At the time, the prisoner, who had an extensive history of mental illness, which included the hearing of voices, was housed in a "cell on the stabilization corridor of the Mental Health Stabilization Unit (MHSU)" at the prison. Yet, somehow he managed to hang himself with his belt.

Subsequently, a personal representative of the prisoner's estate sued numerous prison personnel, which the court divided "into two distinct groups: `the medical defendants' and `the State defendants."' The former were employees of Correctional Medical Services (CMS). The complaint alleged that the defendants were deliberately indifferent to the prisoner's safety, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Thereafter, the defendants filed two separate motions for summary judgment, which included a qualified immunity defense, and this opinion is devoted ...

A Louisiana appeals court upheld unemployment benefits for a fired Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) guard. While working at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, the guard witnessed another guard speaking offensively to a black prisoner.

The observing guard wrote a letter addressing the incident and sent copies to the warden, a grievance officer and the prisoner's brother. She was subsequently fired for violating a CCA rule regarding communication with prisoners' family members. After her unemployment claim was denied by the Louisiana Department of Labor, Division of Employment Security due to CCA's allegations that she was fired for "employment-related misconduct" the former guard requested a review by an administrative law judge (ALJ). The ALJ ruled that her actions did not meet the legal standard of employee misconduct.

CCA appealed, and a Louisiana district court upheld the ALJ's decision. CCA appealed again, and the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that "the denial of unemployment benefits ... was not based on sufficient evidence." See: Brinson v. Administrator, Division Of Employment Security, 793 So.2d 552 (La.App. 2nd Cir. 2001).

A prisoner survived defendants' motion for summary judgment after the court found a genuine issue of material fact might exist as to whether a delay in treatment demonstrated deliberate indifference to a serious medical need.

Seven prisoners from the Everglades Correctional Institute in Florida brought suit in U.S. District Court against Correctional Medical Services and their medical staff members. The seven, each with unique medical histories and claims, alleged deliberate indifference to their serious medical needs. After the defendants filed motions for summary judgment, the court found that genuine issues of material fact existed solely for plaintiff Freddie Mills.

Mills' claim grew from CMS's failure to provide bone-graft surgery. In August 1998, Mills went on sick call complaining of severe pain in his left hip. Dr. Kim, an orthopedic surgeon, diagnosed Mills with "necrosis of the left femoral head," that is, the upper portion of Mills' left thighbone was dying.

Dr Kim's diagnosis included a recommendation for bone-graft surgery that he marked "urgent."

In the ensuing 12 months, Mills submitted repeated requests for the surgery while complaining that he was sometimes in unbearable pain. In July 1999, Mills was examined by CMS's Dr. Neil Fisher who wrote a request for ...

The Tenth District Court of Appeals has denied a certificate of appealability (COA) to, and dismissed the appeal of the habeas corpus petition of a Wyoming state prisoner housed in a private Colorado prison. In so ruling, the appeals court held that all habeas corpus petitions filed by State prisoners require a COA in order to proceed on appeal.

Lorenzo Montez, a Wyoming prisoner, was transferred from a state-owned facility in Wyoming to a private facility in Colorado. Montez filed a habeas corpus petition in Colorado district court under 28 U.S.C. §2241, alleging that his transfer violated a broad variety of state and federal laws, as well as federal constitutional rights. The district court treated the petition as if filed under 28 U.S.C. §2254 and dismissed for failure to exhaust state remedies and for lack of merit. The district court also denied Montez a COA and denied leave to proceed in forma pauperis. Montez appealed, again moving to proceed in forma pauperis and for a COA. He questioned, however, whether a §2241 action required a COA.

As a threshold matter, the appeals court determined that Montez's petition was properly brought under 28 U.S.C. §2241. The district court erred in construing ...

$200,000 Awarded To Prison Nurse For Wrongful Termination


Joan Gilles, a 67-year old former prison nurse at the Northern Maine Juvenile Correctional Facility (NMJCF), in Charleston, filed a law suit against Prison Health Services (PHS), a company that provides medical services for several prisons across the country including NMJCF, where ...

Iowa Sued Over Proselytizing Fundamentalist
Christian Prison Program

by Matthew T. Clarke


On February 13, 2003, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS) filed two lawsuits in federal court, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against officials of the Iowa Department of Corrections (DOC), Prison Fellowship Ministries (PFM) and InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI), alleging that PFM's IFI program in the DOC violates the federal and Iowa state constitutional prohibitions against the establishment of a government-sponsored religion.


"This program is one of the most egregious violations of church-state separation I've ever seen," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, AUSCS executive director. "It literally merges religion and government."


The allegations include: giving special privileges to prisoners who agree to participate in the IFI program and restricting which prisoners may participate to fundamentalist Christians and willing converts to fundamentalist Christianity. The suit also alleges that state funds are used to pay for the blatantly sectarian program and the program discriminates in its hiring practices, allowing only fundamentalist Christians to become program employees.


Selection into the program involves a six-week introduction program followed by a month-long orientation program, during which the prisoner completes a "Survey of Religious Beliefs and Practices" with "Religious Attitude ...

by Matthew T. Clarke


This appeal involves the latest round in a Byzantine conditions-of-confinement class-action civil rights suit by Puerto Rico prisoners which has been pending since 1979. At issue was the transition of the prisoner health care system from the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Health (the Secretary) to a private, non-profit corporation. This transition was suggested by and stipulated to jointly by the parties.


Morales Feliciano is a story of governmental resistance to court-ordered reform of truly horrifying conditions of confinement in the Puerto Rico prisons. Details are available at 13 F.Supp.2d 151 and 497 F.Supp. 14.


To combat government foot-dragging on the court-ordered reforms, the court attempted issuing a preliminary injunction, appointing a monitor, issuing temporary restraining orders, issuing contempt citations, and, finally, "imposing fines for the defendants' most egregious failure to comply with its decrees. The fines escalated as the foot-dragging continued and the court's level of exasperation mounted. To date, the court has levied aggregate fines totaling nearly $135,000,000.00."


In this appeal, the Secretary is resisting the transition of the prisoner health care services to a private non-profit corporation. Earlier in the litigation, the court ordered the transition of the ...

Upholding a Tennessee federal district court, the U.S. Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled as meritless and frivolous a Wisconsin
prisoner's suit against the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

Jerald Treat, a Wisconsin prisoner incarcerated at the CCA-owned and
operated Whiteville Correctional Facility (WCF) in Tennessee, sued CCA,
several private prison businesses and numerous prison employees under 42
U.S.C. §1983, charging them with numerous violations of his civil rights
and state tort law, and with racketeering. The district court granted
Treat in forma pauperis status, dismissed the suit as frivolous, and ruled
that an appeal could not be taken in good faith.

Treat appealed arguing that the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) did
not apply to private prisons and that his suit was not frivolous. The
Sixth Circuit disagreed.

The appeals court characterized Treat's complaint as a diatribe against
privately operated prisons in general and CCA specifically. The court held
that the PLRA applies to private prisons because "when a state entity
contracts with a private prison corporation to house inmates, the private
corporation is performing a function traditionally attributable to the
state and may be treated as acting for the state under color of law."
Treat's claim was, therefore, ...

A New Jersey federal district court held that the failure to provide a
pretrial detainee with a prosthesis is deliberate indifference to a
serious medical need. This action was filed by a pretrial detainee against
officials at New Jersey's Cape May County Jail and employees of
Correctional Health Services (CHS). The detainee, a dual amputee, advised
medical staff at Cape May that the feet of his prosthesis were in an
obvious state of disrepair, were secured with postal tape and would bend
inward when he walked. Over a six month period the detainee continued to
complain of pain caused by the ill-fitting prosthesis that was in
disrepair.

The court held the need for a new prosthesis is a "serious medical need,"
for courts have recognized that a medical condition that threatens a
plaintiff's ability to walk, even on a non-permanent basis, falls within
the ambit of a "serious medical need." The court found Dr. Angelique
Beckett examined the detainee several times and agreed he required a new
prosthesis, and a jury needed to determine if she took adequate action to
procure that prosthesis. Dr. Beckett said she took action to obtain a new
prosthesis. The detainee said Dr. Beckett told ...

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma held that an employee of a contract health
care provider who was stabbed by a prisoner had a compensable
psychological injury claim. Sandra Shivel, an employee of Wexford Health
Sources (WHS), was attacked and physically injured by a prisoner in the
course of performing her duties. She received temporary total disability
compensation but also sought psychological overlay compensation.
A doctor approved Shivel for work with a "full duty release with permanent
restrictions." Based on this, WHS sought to have Shivel's disability
status terminated. A trial judge terminated further disability benefits
and psychological treatment. The Court of Civil Appeals vacated and
remanded. On writ of certiorari, the Oklahoma Supreme Court held that
Shivel had a compensable psychological overlay claim, as "her
psychological injury was accompanied by physical injury...." See: Shivel
v. Wexford Health Sources, 66 P.3d 414 (2003).