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Disability Discrimination: Prisoners

     The existence of a consent decree containing a remedial plan for alleged disability discrimination against Colorado prisoners did not bar individual prisoners from pursuing damage claims for violations related to their covered disabilities, or from appealing the denial of their damage claims. The consent decree itself established a mechanism for individual prisoners to assert claims for damages. In this case, the individual prisoner failed to show that he suffered from a covered disability. Montez v. Hickenlooper, #08-1399, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 9543 (10th Cir.)

Drugs and Drug Screening

     A Massachusetts pre-trial detainee was addicted to heroin when first confined, and was forced to abstain from its use. Under the direction of medical personnel, he was given medication to ease the "agony of withdrawal." A federal appeals court held that no reasonable fact finder could find that a doctor had acted with deliberate indifference to the prisoner's serious medical needs, as the treatment protocol followed had been applied to thousands of prisoners undergoing drug withdrawal, and the prisoner's condition was carefully and frequently monitored. Ramos v. Patnaude, #09-2179, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 10356 (1st Cir.).

False Imprisonment

     A Missouri prisoner sought damages for false imprisonment, claiming that he remained incarcerated for fourteen months after the end of his sentence, because prison officials failed to credit him for time served prior to sentencing, contrary to the court's order. The state Department of Corrections was immune from a claim for damages under the Eleventh Amendment. The trial court acted erroneously, however, in dismissing the former prisoner's damage claims against individuals on the basis that his proper remedy was a habeas petition. He was not seeking release from custody, the appeals court noted, but compensation for prior unlawful confinement. Harris v. McSwain; #11-1320, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 9527 (Unpub. 8th Cir.).

Mail

     Upholding a jury's rejection of a prisoner's lawsuit banning his receipt of certain gift publications, a federal appeals court ruled that there was evidence from which the jury could find that that the private prison's policy was necessary to promote security and administrative interests. The jury was properly instructed that prisoners have a First Amendment right to receive mail and gift publications, but that a policy barring receipt of some such publications could be legal if reasonably related to legitimate penological or correctional goals. Blaisdell v. Corr. Corp. of Am., #09-17795, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 7600 (Unpub. 9th Cir.).

Medical Care

****Editor's Case Alert****

     A paraplegic prisoner serving a 180-day sentence in a county jail was subject to bed sores and had a condition of edema requiring foot elevation, as well as having severe spasticity requiring elevation of his upper body. The jail's director was properly held liable for $214,000 in compensatory and $250,000 in punitive damages. The facts showed that the director falsely told a judge that the jail was able to handle the prisoner's medical care, and failed to check to see that the prisoner was receiving accommodations ordered by his doctors. Schaub v. Von Wald, #10-1280, 638 F.3d 905 (8th Cir. 2011).

Overcrowding

****Editor's Case Alert****

     The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the order of a special three-judge court ordering that the California state prison system reduce its population from 156,000 prisoners, nearly double capacity, by approximately 46,000 prisoners, or 137.5% of design capacity within two years. Current overcrowding was found to have resulted in inadequate medical care and mental health treatment. The Court found that the injunctive order complied with the stringent requirements of the Prison Litigation Reform Act, and that the court below properly gave "substantial weight" to any potential adverse impact on public safety from the order. Brown v. Plata, #09–1233, 2011 U.S. Lexis 4012.

     Editor's Note: While the decision requires that California reduce substantially the number of prisoners in its state prisons, it does not necessarily require their release, and measures such as transfers to county detention facilities or out of state prisons are among the remedies being explored.

Prisoner Discipline

    After a riot in a prison recreation yard, during which members of two Hispanic gangs attacked African-American prisoners, a member of one of the gangs was subjected to discipline because he confessed during an interrogation that he joined the brawl because the gang required it. This discipline was supported by sufficient evidence, including a videotape of the incident as well as the confession, despite the prisoner's later claim at the hearing that he did not actually participate in the fight. The fact that the hearing officer may not have himself watched the video, instead receiving an investigator's summary of the evidence contained in the video, did not alter the result. The prisoner's rights were not violated because he was not shown the video since it was determined that it was not exculpatory.  Estrada v. Holinka, #10-3313, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 9377 (Unpub. 7th Cir.).

Prisoner Suicide

     A pretrial detainee who complained about a sheriff and a jail superintendent confining him to segregation on "suicide watch" for over two years did not show a violation of his due process rights. He failed to prove that the defendants intentionally disregarded a substantial risk of harm to him when what they did was follow a psychologist's recommendations. Miller v. Hertz, #10-1127, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 10202 (Unpub. 7th Cir.).

Sex Offenders

     A pretrial detainee under an Illinois Sexually Violent Person Act claimed that his constitutional privacy rights and rights under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Pub. L. No. 104-191, 110 Stat. 1936 (1996), were violated by the "stigmatizing effects" of the stamp that the facility affixes to his outgoing mail, which reads "sexually violent person treatment center." Rejecting this claim, a federal appeals court ruled that the prisoner's claim was essentially for defamation, and that the prisoner's "interest in his reputation, by itself, is not protected by the Fourteenth Amendment." As to any claim under HIPAA, the trial court correctly found that the statute does not provide for a private right of action. Carpenter v. Phillips, #10-3176, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 9417 (Unpub. 7th Cir.).

Transsexual Prisoners

     A prisoner convicted of child rape, kidnapping, and robbery finished their sentence and was then civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person. The prisoner, who is anatomically male but suffers from gender identity disorder changed their name in 1996 from David to Sandy and sought treatment including the administration of female hormones and access to female clothing. These requests were rejected as "bizarre at best and psychotic at worst." Ultimately one dose of female hormones was administered in 2009, but then further treatment ceased. A federal appeals court upheld a finding of deliberate indifference "or an unreasonable professional judgment exercised--even though it does not rest on any established sinister motive or 'purpose' to do harm." It also upheld an injunctive order requiring hormone therapy, noting that it had been fifteen years since the prisoner had requested such treatment and ten years since medical professionals had recommended that it be provided. Batista v. Clarke, #10-1965, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 10308 (1st Cir.).

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Prison Rape

• PREA Data Collection Activities, 2011, by Allen Beck (May 24, 2011 NCJ 234183). The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA; P.L. 108-79) requires the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to carry out, for each calendar year, a comprehensive statistical review of the incidence and effects of prison rape in randomly selected federal, state, and county correctional facilities. Every year since 2004, BJS has collected administrative records on allegations and substantiated incidents of sexual victimization in correctional facilities nationwide. BJS also conducted interviews with prison and jail inmates in 2007 and 2008-09 and youth held in juvenile correctional facilities in 2008-09. During 2010, BJS in collaboration with the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a feasibility study using clinical indicators to track sexual violence in prisons and jails. This report provides selected findings and status updates on each of these data collection efforts.

Private Prisons

• FY 2010 Operating Per Capita Cost Report. Cost Identification and Comparison of State and Private Contract Beds. Arizona Dept. of Corrections (April 13, 2011).

Probation

• Desktop Guide for Tribal Probation Personnel: The Screening and Assessment Process (PDF), BJA and the American Probation & Parole Association, (May 2011). This guide is intended to provide tribal probation personnel with information on how the screening and assessment process can facilitate and promote offender accountability and long-term behavior change.

Statistics

• National Corrections Reporting Program, 2009 - Statistical Tables (update) by Thomas P. Bonczar (May 5, 2011). This update adds data for 2009 to the electronic series of selected tables on most serious offense, sentence length, and time served in state prison. The National Corrections Reporting Program collects demographic information, conviction offenses, sentence length, credited jail time, type of admission, type of release, and time served from individual prisoner records in participating jurisdictions.

Reference:

     • Abbreviations of Law Reports, laws and agencies used in our publications.

     • AELE's list of recently-noted jail and prisoner law resources.