by W. Wisely

In reaction to bad publicity, lawsuits, and legislative hearings following a record number of fatal shootings of unarmed male prisoners, staged fights, and the sexual abuse and medical neglect of women prisoners, California established the allegedly independent Office of Inspector General within the state's Youth and Adult Correctional Agency. Posters were ordered to be put up at all department and Youth Authority facilities asking prisoners to report staff misconduct by calling a tollfree number. Unfortunately, neither the Department nor the Youth Authority will allow prisoners to make tollfree calls.

"We informed the Office of Inspector General of that," a spokes- woman for the Department told the Sacramento Bee . "But, they went ahead with the posters anyway." Martin Hoshino of the Inspector General's Office admitted the problem, but said there was no choice. "We're required [by a new state law] to put the posters up, and that's what we did," Hoshino told the newspaper.

The Inspector General's Office is optimistic a solution will be worked out. But, since last October, the Department and Youth Authority have both refused to change their rules to allow prisoners to report staff misconduct by using an 800 number. The poster campaign ...

The Third Circuit held that in claims alleging the malicious use of force by prison guards the wantonness of the attack, rather than the degree of injury suffered, is the dispositive issue for courts reviewing such claims on summary judgment.

Pennsylvania state prisoner Alan Brooks filed suit claiming that prison guards terminated an approved phone call to his attorney by rushing him and repeatedly punching him in the head, slamming him into a wall, threatening him and choking himalmost rendering him unconsciousall while he was handcuffed to a waist chain. The only actual injuries Brooks suffered, however, were abrasions and scratches on his neck and hands.

Relying on the analysis in Norman v. Taylor , 25 F.3d 1259 (4th Cir. 1994)(en banc) of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Hudson v. McMillian , 503 U. S. 1, 112 S.Ct. 995 (1992), the District Court ruled that since the injuries were de minimis , that alone was conclusive proof that only de minimis force was used in the attack. In doing so, the Court did not follow the Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e) standard for summary judgment, which is not to rule on the evidence itself, but only to decide whether there are genuine ...

Notes From The Unrepenitentiary: Whose Security?

by Marilyn Buck

Two children, both with mothers imprisoned at FCI Dublin, died within a two-week period. Both children were adolescent boys, aged 13 and 9, repectively. One of the children ran away from his abusive father's home. He froze to death sleeping in a church bus he'd found for shelter. The other child committed suicide. I can't tell you why. The bottom line is: these children didn't have their mothers home with them. Criminal "justice" in Amerika deemed that society was better off punishing these women. I don't think their children thought so.

These women are far from home. They seldom, if ever, saw their boys, who needed help, support and solace. Such is the situation of Federal prisoners all over the U.S., like state prisoners who are "housed" outside their home states; the same is true for prisoners in Pelican Bay, CA, or Attica and Clinton, NY.

Too many children are suffering grievously the loss of one or both parents to U.S. prison systems. We prisoners know that being an offender of the law doesn't make one a bad parent. Many are imprisoned precisely because they were trying to obtain economic stability ...

A federal district court in Kentucky held that the filed rate doctrine barred any claims for money damages against Phone Company and county jail defendants. However, injunctive relief was still available. The court questioned the legality of an exclusive service provider contract.

In the August, 1999, issue of PLN we reported the filing of Daleure v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, class action lawsuit that challenged the phone rates charged by prisons and jails in Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana and Arizona. This ruling addresses the defendants' motion to dismiss the suit. In a footnote the court notes that in previous unpublished orders it has dismissed as defendants the states of Arizona, Missouri and Indiana for lack of personal jurisdiction and the state of Kentucky was dismissed based on its Eleventh amendment immunity. The Kentucky jails remain as defendants only for purposes of injunctive relief.

In their suit, the plaintiffs claimed that the high phone rates and exclusive phone contracts violated the Sherman Anti Trust Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1 and the equal protection clause. In this ruling the county jail and phone company defendants sought dismissal of the suit for failing to state a claim. The court granted the motion in part and ...

An Ohio prisoner will spend an additional three years and three months in prison after pleading guilty to theft charges stemming from an elaborate credit card and telephone scam he ran from behind bars.

Lonny Lee Bristow, 27, was already serving a 9year 11month sentence at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, OH, for retaliation, aiding an escape, harassment by an inmate and telephone harassment, when he was convicted September 5, 2000 of three counts of theft.

Prison officials began investigating Bristow in December 1999 after he'd lost his telephone privileges for making threats and throwing something at a guard. Informants also told prison investigators that Bristow had been using a bogus credit card to make mailorder purchase by phone.

An internal prison investigative report obtained by the Columbus Dispatch revealed that Bristow stole the identity of Praveen Arcot after reading Arcot's name in a newspaper announcement of his hiring as a software engineer by a Columbus company.

Prison investigator David See told the Dispatch that Bristow devised a way to bypass security features on the automated inmate telephone system. That allowed him to call the Nelsonville, Ohio police department and, posing as a deputy from California, obtain the ...

In the June 2000, issue of PLN we reported that a federal district court in Illinois had dismissed a class action lawsuit challenging the phone rates charged to consumers who accept phone calls from prisoners in Illinois prisons and jails. The court's ruling is published at: Arsberry v. Illinois, 117 F. Supp.2d 743 (ND IL 2000).

The case is on appeal and PLN will report its outcome. A number of similar suits challenging prison jail phone rates have been dismissed by federal courts around the country and are on appeal. This is the first of those rulings to be published. Other suits challenging prison and jail phone rates in state courts are still pending.

Five weeks after it opened, the Idaho Correctional Center (ICC), went on lockdown following a non-violent protest by prisoners there. Corrections Corporation of America operates the $50 million 1,250-bed prison.

In early July 2000, CCA began moving Idaho prisoners from its New Mexico facilities. According to prison officials, the prisoners objected to more stringent rules at the new CCA prison south of Boise, including a prohibition on beards and higher telephone call charges.

The work-stoppage prompted an immediate response from state prison officials, who issued an "open letter" to ICC prisoners reminding them that, "refusing to work will not be tolerated.. and could result in placement in Administrative Segregation for an extended period of time."

PLN doesn't know how long the protest and lockdown lasted.


Source: The Associated Press

A Washington DOC investigator allegedly left his job at the state women's prison in Purdy with a souvenir: a tape recording of Mary K. Letourneau talking on the phone with her attorney.

After starting a new job at the state Attorney General's office in 1998, the investigator played the tape to entertain co-workers, sources inside the AG's office told the Seattle Times.

Robert McGuire, who was a DOC "Intelligence and Investigations Officer" at the state reformatory before assuming the same position at the Purdy prison, denies ever having the tape. But two co-workers say they heard it, and a third says she turned down an offer to hear it.

"He was right over there, playing it loud, and they were making jokes," said Steve Schrum, an auditor who says he heard the tape twice.

On the tape, the witness say, Letourneau complained to her lawyer about a comment her estranged husband made on a TV talk show. She asked why she couldn't get visitation rights to see her children, and her lawyer told her a convicted child molester loses that option.

Joseph Gragnelli, a fellow investigator, says he reported the tape-playing incident to his boss, Curtis Edwards, in late June ...

A former Alabama state auditor, County commissioner and another man pleaded guilty in July 1999 to federal charges stemming from a prison pay phone scam operated in Alabama and Louisiana by Global Tel*Link, a Mobile-based company. Former state auditor Terry Ellis pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Former Mobile County Commissioner Dan Wiley and salesman Donald G. Bahouth pleaded guilty to tax evasion and money laundering.

In exchange for the pleas, the government dropped conspiracy and mail fraud charges, according to The Associated Press. In addition, the three agreed to testify against the two remaining defendants named in the indictment. They are political consultant and lobbyist Willie F. "Buddy" Hamner and businessman William T.J. "Billy" Boyett.

The federal indictment accuses the five men of defrauding the federal government, the state of Alabama, Mobile county

taxpayers and families of jail detainees and prisoners over a four-year period.

Global Tel*Link, previously known as Global Telcoin and United Telcoin, bilked customers who accepted automated collect calls from prisoners by padding minutes and adding hidden charges. Then in order to lower the size of the commissions paid by the company to state and local governments, fake phone sales figures were used in accounting reports.

Ellis, ...

On June 20, 2000, a class action suit was filed in King county (Seattle) superior court in Washington. The suit claims that various phone companies that have contracted with the Washington Department of Corrections to provide collect call services for Washington prisoners have violated RCW 80.36.520 and RCW 19.86.090, of the Washington Consumer Protection Act.

The complaint states that people receiving in state long distance calls from Washington prisoners are not informed of the rates they are being charged for the call. People residing in other states who receive long distance collect calls from Washington prisoners were not afforded an opportunity to learn the rates they were being charged prior to November 1, 1999, when the Federal Communications Commission mandated disclosure of the rates. This lack of rate notification violates RCW 80.36.520 which requires that phone companies inform consumers of the rate they are being charged for phone services. Violations of the statute are actionable in state court with damages presumed as the cost of service, plus $200 per violation (i.e., per call). RCW 19.86.090 allows for civil suits that seek triple damages, injunctions and attorney fees for violations of the state Consumer Protection Act.

The class representative plaintiffs are ...