A federal judge in Illinois has granted class action status to a group of Cook County prisoners who were subjected to painful medical tests without their explicit consent.

Plaintiffs Robert Jackson, Joseph McGrath and Derrell Smith claimed that during the intake process at the Cook County Jail they were forced to undergo screening for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). As part of the screening process, a medical technician with Cermak Health Services shoved a cotton swab into the prisoners' penises to collect a sample.

The prisoners acknowledge they signed a consent form during the hectic intake process. But they contended that "the totality of circumstances at the receiving unit makes it impossible for anyone to give valid consent to the insertion of the urethral swab."

The plaintiffs moved for class action certification in the U.S. District for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. In support of their motion the plaintiffs submitted affidavits from 14 other prisoners who swore they were subjected to similar procedures at the jail. The plaintiffs further alleged that the "invasive procedure has been applied to more than one thousand persons from January 27, 2004 to the present."

On December 14, 2006, Judge David H. Coar granted ...

In partially reversing a Nebraska federal district court's grant of summary judgment, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has held the Nebraska State Tort Claims Act (NSTCA) does not apply to contracted medical service providers.

That ruling came in the appeal of Nebraska prisoner Otha Smith, who filed an action alleging violation of his constitutional rights and negligence. Smith named as defendants Harold Clarke, then-director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, and Dr. Patrick Colerick. The district court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment.

Smith's claims arose due to a tumor that was removed surgically from his left eye. While working in the prison kitchen in March 1999, Smith accidentally splashed clear fluid in his left eye. He requested to see a doctor but was not examined until November, despite an appointment being scheduled for June.

At the November examination, Dr. Colerick found Smith's pupil response was normal. Six months later Smith complained of redness in the eye. Dr. Colerick attributed it to Smith's age and sun exposure. In May 2001, Dr. Colerick observed Smith's pupils were not reacting normally. An ophthalmologist determined Smith had a tumor on his pituitary gland that was pinching an optical nerve. Removal ...

by Matt Clarke

On April 9, 2007, a federal district court in Texas held that the conditions of confinement at a privately-run facility used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold families detained due to immigration issues violated the terms of a class-action settlement related to the detention of children.

Challenges to conditions at the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center were raised in sixteen civil rights suits filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
The plaintiffs were minor children who entered the United States illegally with their parents. Prior to 9-11, immigration detainees with families were released on bond and given a date to appear in court, which was referred to as the ?catch and release? policy.

After 9-11 and the creation of ICE under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), immigration policies were tightened and immigration detainee families were incarcerated using separate facilities for men, women and children. In response to concerns about removing children from their parents, ICE developed the concept of family detention centers (FDCs). There are two FDCs; one in Berks County, Pennsylvania is a converted nursing home, while the other, the Hutto facility, located in Taylor, Texas, is a converted medium-security prison that has ...

by John E. Dannenberg

Compass Group USA, Inc. doing business at the Los Angeles County Jail as Canteen Services (Canteen), was booked by the county auditor for extracting $640,213 in excess profits from its gross prisoner canteen revenues of $78 million between 2000 and 2005 and spending this sum on expenses not related to the county contract. This included wining and dining unidentified Sheriff?s department officials to the tune of $169,465. The $640,213 in disallowed deductions should have instead been booked as ?profit sharing? paid to the county for prisoner-benefit programs. Compass Group responded to the audit by claiming that it, an $8.4 billion corporation, actually underbilled the county for its corporate overhead, and was thus owed money.

Canteen?s five-year contract with the county jail provides that it shall return 31%; of net commissary sales to the county, as well as 50% of any profits in excess of a 6% target. Thus, the county exacts a 31% ?commission? for the privilege of doing business with them, plus incentifies the vendor to make excess profits. All of this cost basis, of course, simply goes to artificially jacking up the cost of canteen purchases to the prisoners and the low-income families who ...

by David M. Reutter

In May 2007 the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) issued a 22-page report which found that $12.7 million in overpayments to the state's private prison contractors did not result from an intent "to steal or defraud." PLN previously reported on this investigation, which was ordered by Gov. Charlie Crist after the overpayments were discovered by state auditors. [See: PLN, June 2007, p.32; Nov. 2007, p.38].

The private prison contractors involved, GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections) and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), were under contracts supervised by the state's Correctional Privatization Commission (CPC). The Florida legislature created the CPC in 1993 to oversee limited privatization of the state's prisons. The commission was abolished in 2004 after numerous scandals; one of its executive directors was fined by the state Ethics Commission, while another is serving time in federal prison for embezzlement of CPC funds.

The FDLE report found that the legislature had reviewed the contracts and annual budgets, so nothing had been hidden. "There was no evidence that the budget requests were fraudulent or incomplete," the report stated. Nor was there any evidence "that any group or individual ever solicited or accepted any compensation in return for ...

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that individual employees of a privately-operated prison are not subject to Eighth Amendment liability under a Bivens action. Before the Court was the defendants' appeal of a North Carolina federal district court's denial of the defendants? motion to dismiss.

Ricky Lee Holly, a prisoner at Rivers Correctional Institution, a privately-operated prison run by the GEO Group, Inc. under contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, alleged the defendants had failed to provide him with adequate medical care since his arrival at Rivers in August 2002.

Holly is a diabetic. He contended that medical staff ignored his complaints that his insulin dosage was insufficient, resulting in frequent black-outs. He also alleged his complaints led to retaliation in the form of being locked in the medical unit for twenty-four days with a threat that he would remain there until he completed his sentence. Holly sought to establish liability under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971).

Bivens held that a "violation of [the Fourth Amendment] by a federal agent acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages," despite the ...

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 ...