Nevada: Incorrect Analysis of Fact and Law is Harmless Error in Denying Motion for New Trial

The Nevada Supreme Court held that a trial court abused its discretion by wrongly categorizing a fact and subsequently applying the incorrect legal standard to it in denying the defendant’s motion for a new trial. But, finding the abuse of discretion was “harmless error,” the court affirmed the denial of the defendant’s motion.

Wackenhut of Nevada, Inc. (“Wackenhut”) had judgment entered against it after a jury trial, and Wackenhut subsequently filed a motion for a new trial, alleging claims of misconduct by the plaintiffs’ counsel. The trial court denied the motion and Wackenhut appealed. As the trial court had not supported the judgment with its findings, the Nevada Supreme Court remanded the case to the trial court for it to do so. The trial court then supported its judgment with findings that misconduct by the plaintiffs’ counsel had not been objected to and that the plain error standard applied. On July 18, 2014, the Nevada Supreme Court determined that, although the trial court had erred in its reasoning, the error was harmless.

Of each of the attorney misconduct claims that Wackenhut alleged in support ...

Vermont DOC Practive of Imprisoning People After Rejecting Parole Plan

The Vermont Department of Corrections’ (VDOC) process of reviewing prisoners’ post-prison accommodations plan is the subject of a prisoner’s lawsuit alleging VDOC abuses its discretion in denying prisoners release after rejecting their plans.

The suit was brought by Wendy Pelkey-Grant, who was scheduled to be released in October 2013 after serving the minimum on her six to fifteen-years sentence. Pelkey-Grant is a violent offender based on a voluntary manslaughter charge for killing her abusive husband.

With her release looming, VDOC’s regional office began analyzing Pelkey-Grant’s release accommodation plan. Based upon information from that office, her daughter used her own savings to secure a two-bedroom apartment in West Rutland. A probation officer gave a favorable report and VDOC gave preliminary approval.

“He said he thought it was perfect for her to come live with us,” testified Alyssia Pelkey. Then, VDOC received a victim complaint about Pelkey-Grant living in her home town of Rutland, and it rejected her release plan.

“It felt like we were being toyed with a little bit because we don’t have any money to pay people to look into it for us or anybody in our family who ...

Prisoner Calls 911 on Escapees

On Tuesday, September 24, 2013, Joshua Silverman was one of eight prisoners being transported to their respective destinations, in different states, by the Prison Transport Service. (PTS) The van transporting the prisoners parked at a hospital while the drivers took two men inside for treatment. While inside, the guards left the keys in the van with the engine running, and the remaining eight men unsupervised. That is when Lester Burns and Michael Coleman decided to make their getaway.

The two men managed to kick down a partition that separated the prisoners from the cab of the van. After driving a short distance they turned off the road and continued their escape on foot. Of the six remaining prisoners, all but Silverman remained with the van.

After Burns and Coleman left Silverman eased into the front seat, found a cellphone and called 911.

“Ma'am, you're probably not going to believe this,” he said, “but I'm a prisoner in a van, and I'm here with a couple of these other cats. A couple of the guys that were in the van jacked the van at the hospital,” Silverman explained to the operator. “We're in Oklahoma somewhere, I ...

$425,000 Settlement in Suit over South Carolina Jail's Failure to Treat Diabetic Prisoner

by Matt Clarke

In June 2013, Sumter County, South Carolina and Southern Health Partners, Inc. (SHP), the contract provider of health care for prisoners at the Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center (the jail), settled a lawsuit brought by ...

No Qualified Immunity for Private Doctor Working in Prison

On August 12, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a private doctor under contract at a prison is not entitled to assert a defense of qualified immunity when sued for deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of a prisoner.

Timothy Hughes was incarcerated at the Butler County Prison in Southern Ohio, arriving there in March of 2007.

During his intake interview, Hughes answered "no" when asked if he was suicidal, but also told the officer that he had attempted suicide in the past year. As a result, a suicide alert was noted in Hughes' electronic file.

Ten days later it was discovered that Hughes had not been taking his prescribed medication, Seroquel, but was not referred to a doctor. Hughes, however, then sent written requests to the prison psychiatrist, Dr. Kenneth Tepe, to get back on his medication. His request was screened by a social worker that worked with Tepe, and she denied Hughes' request to see the doctor.

Days later, Hughes was taken to segregation after getting into an altercation with his cellmate. While there, Hughes told a sergeant he was thinking ...

New Mexico County Jail Pays $1.5 Million to Mentally Ill Prisoner

by Derek Gilna

In February 2014, Valencia County, New Mexico agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a federal civil rights complaint alleging deliberate indifference to a prisoner’s known physical and mental illnesses.

Jan Green, 50, was arrested in ...

PLN Settles Censorship Suit against GEO Group at Indiana Prison

In August 2015, Prison Legal News settled a federal lawsuit against The GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest for-profit prison company, over First Amendment violations at the New Castle Correctional Facility in Indiana.

PLN filed the suit in November 2014 against GEO Group and New Castle Superintendent Keith Butts. According to the complaint, GEO had censored at least ninety issues of PLN’s monthly publication mailed to prisoners at the facility, allegedly because “Prison Legal News contains advertisements from companies that provide pen-pal services to prisoners,” and “[t]he Indiana Department of Correction has a policy, applicable to New Castle, prohibiting prisoners from participating in pen-pal services.”

However, noting that state prisons in Indiana did not censor its publication, PLN argued that GEO’s policy “has no rational basis as many publications that prisoners are allowed to receive contain advertisements promoting the sale of items and/or services that the prisoners cannot access.” Additionally, GEO Group had failed to provide notice of its rejection and censorship of PLN’s monthly publication.

PLN sought monetary damages, as well as declaratory and injunctive relief plus attorney fees and costs. On January 22, 2015, the district court entered ...

CCA Prison in Ohio Loses BOP Contract

The privately-owned Northeast Ohio Correctional Center (NOCC) in Youngstown no longer holds prisoners for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) after the federal agency declined to renew its contract with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

According to CCA, around 1,400 BOP prisoners and 580 detainees for the U.S. Marshals Service were housed at the 2,016-bed facility. The prison employed about 400 people.

The non-renewal of the two-year contract between CCA and the BOP was announced in late December 2014, and the contract expired in May 2015. The BOP’s new contract, with CCA competitor GEO Group, is worth $792.3 million and lasts for at least four years with options to extend up to 10 years.

The BOP prisoners at NOCC were transferred to the GEO-operated Moshannon Valley Correctional Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania and Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton, Oklahoma. NOCC will continue to house detainees for the U.S. Marshals under a contract that expires in 2018; however, that small population is unlikely to sustain the facility over the long-term.

The decision to award the BOP contract to GEO Group did not sit well with local officials. Mahoning County Commissioner Dave Ditzler blamed President Obama: ...

California: Private Medical Provider can be Liable for ADA Violations; Class-action Suit Settles

by David M. Reutter

A California federal district court held in September 2014 that a jail’s private medical provider may be held liable under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); the class-action lawsuit later settled, with the jail agreeing to make a number of policy changes.

At issue was a complaint that alleged the Monterey County Jail (MCJ) had substandard conditions that included “violence due to understaffing, overcrowding, inadequate training, policies, procedures, facilities, and prisoner classification; inadequate medical and mental health care screening, attention, distribution, and resources; and lack of policies and practices for identifying, tracking, responding, communicating, and providing accessibility for accommodations for prisoners with disabilities.” [See: PLN, June 2014, p.1].

The defendants, including the County of Monterey, Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and California Forensic Medical Group (CFMG), filed motions to dismiss. MCJ frequently houses more than 1,100 prisoners; the majority are pretrial detainees who stay an average 30-40 days.

Health care at the facility is provided under a contract with CFMG, which is responsible for determining “the method, details, and means of performing services.” The complaint in the class-action suit listed ...

Inside the Small California Town with a Lot of Prisons, but Not Much Opportunity

by Matt Tinoco

Adelanto, California is a small high desert town just a two-hour drive northeast of Los Angeles, but it feels a long, long way away from Southern California’s stereotypical palm trees and beaches.

This is a town, like many others around the country, that exists largely thanks to America’s overgrown prison industry. There are three incarceration facilities within its city limits, providing beds for up to 3,340 prisoners. Two of these facilities are privately owned and operated by GEO Group, one of the U.S.’s largest private prison operators. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department operates the third. On Adelanto’s border with its neighbor city Victorville is a gigantic federal complex that’s home to another 4,600 prisoners.

In late November 2014, the town’s outgoing city council decided that they needed more prisons, approving by a vote of four to one plans for the construction of two new correctional facilities. One was to be a privately owned and operated 1,000-bed facility from GEO Group, and the other a $327 million, 3,264-bed facility developed independently by Doctor Crants, the co-founder of the private prison company Corrections Corporation of America, that’s intended to house overflow from Los Angeles County’s ...