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Disability Discrimination: Prisoners

     Prisoner failed to prove that he was disabled in terms of his conditions of Hepatitis C, back pain, and psychiatric conditions affecting his ability to perform major life activities. He therefore could not continue to pursue his claim that he was barred from participation in prison work and education programs on the basis of disability discrimination. Hale v. King, #07-60997, 642 F.3d 492 (5th Cir. 2011)

First Amendment

     A prison's prohibition on inmates advertising for pen pals or receiving information from publications and websites that publish such ads did not violate their rights under the First Amendment. The regulation was reasonably related to a legitimate objective of preventing inmates from committing fraud through the mail. Woods v. Commissioner of the Indiana Dept. of Corrections, #10-3339, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 14732 (7th Cir.).

Governmental Liability: Policy/Custom

     Prisoners who sued a county for alleged acts of excessive force against them by correctional employees were entitled to a new trial on their claims. The model jury instructions that the trial court gave the jury on municipal liability and what constitutes an unconstitutional custom or practice failed to adequately state that this could be proven "through evidence that incidents of excessive force were not investigated and their perpetrators were not disciplined." Hunter v. County of Sacramento, #09-15288, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 15309 (9th Cir.).

Mail

     Prison personnel might be liable to a prisoner for violating his First Amendment rights by prohibiting him from receiving mail containing a comic book deemed too violent in its depicted story. While material that might incite violence may be screened out, the prisoner asserted that the comic book in question did no such thing. He noted that the comic book depicted stories that Japanese children watch on television, and argued that the prison allows other publications depicting violence, including wrestling, boxing, karate, and gun magazines. Kaden v. Slykhuis, #10-2751, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 17747 (8th Cir.).

Medical Care: Dental

     A prisoner can go forward with his claim of inadequate dental care, assuming that he has exhausted his administrative remedies through the grievance process, which was not clear from the record. "A complete denial of readily available treatment for a serious medical condition constitutes deliberate indifference." The court therefore ordered further proceedings on the exhaustion of remedies issue. Bingham v. Thomas, #09-10349, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 18293 (11th).

Officer Assault: By Inmate

     A correctional officer was attacked by two prisoners while she was escorting them to a jail's law library. The library was located in a drunk tank cell with handles on the front and back of the door. She claimed that one of the prisoners threw her off balance when he grabbed the inside door handle, and the prisoners then took her hostage. The officer failed to prove that the attack was a "state created danger" with the incident facilitated by jail understaffing and a dangerous door handle in violation of due process. The alleged actions of the sheriff and county commissioners in allowing understaffing and the door handles did not rise to the level of deliberate indifference and were not shocking to the conscience. Fields v. Abbott, #10-2805, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 18027 (8th Cir.).

Prisoner Restraint

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

     A prisoner claimed that after he refused to stand for an afternoon prisoner count, officers grabbed him from his cell, handcuffed him, and left him in an observation cell in an uncomfortable position for approximately 12 hours. During that time, he asserted, he was not able to push a button to ask for water or pull down his pants to use the toilet. If true, these actions violated his Eighth Amendment rights, since there was no legitimate reason to keep him restrained in handcuffs after putting him in the cell or for denying him use of the toilet or access to water for that length of time. Barker v. Goodrich, #10-3195, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 16411 (6th Cir.).

Religion

     An Orthodox Jewish prisoner failed to show that a prison's shaving policy, which limited beards to a length of 1/4 of an inch, violated his right to religious freedom. The policy was rationally related to a legitimate and substantial interest in maintaining prison security, and was the least restrictive means of accomplishing that objective. Kuperman v. Wrenn, #10-2083, 645 F.3d 69 (1st Cir. 2011).

Segregation: Administrative

     A federal appeals court ruled that prison officials violated a prisoner's due process rights by denying him "meaningful" periodic reviews during a long period of confinement in administrative segregation at a certain level of the facilities "Quality of Life" program. The prisoner had a protected liberty interest in being able to progress to other levels of the program with fewer restrictions and more privileges. But the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity from liability since it was not clearly established law during the years 2005-2009 that the kind of review process provided was inadequate. Toevs v. Reid, #10-1535, 646 F.3d 752 (10th Cir. 2011).

Therapeutic Programs

     A prisoner was removed from a prison's substance abuse program after he took a towel from the prison property room. This failure to complete the program meant that he had to finish serving his 15-year sentence, rather than being eligible for earlier release on probation. The court ruled that this did not violate his rights, since he had no constitutionally protected liberty interest in sentence reduction. Persechini v. Callaway, #10-1867, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 16417 (8th Cir.).

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     Jail Administration: "Leadership Development for Jail Administration ," BJA, the Center for Innovative Public Policies, the American Jail Association, and the Correctional Management Institute of Texas, (June 2011). With funding from BJA, the Center for Innovative Public Policies, the American Jail Association, and the Correctional Management Institute of Texas, Sam Houston State University developed several tools to enable jails to successfully develop and implement their own leadership development and succession planning initiatives.

     Probation: "A Ten-Step Guide to Transforming Probation Departments to Reduce Recidivism," BJA and the Council of State Governments Justice Center, (August 2011). This guide provides probation leaders with a roadmap to overhaul the operations of their agencies so they can increase public safety in their communities and improve rates of compliance among people they are supervising.

Reference:

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

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