Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1998
published in Verdict1
August, 1998, page 30
A federal district court in Utah held that prison officials must have probable cause and a valid search warrant before subjecting a prison visitor to a body cavity search. Stana Laughter is married to a Utah state prisoner. Laughter visited her husband in prison on a regular basis, often accompanied ...
Loaded on
March 15, 1998
published in Verdict1
March, 1998, page 26
California taxpayers coughed up another $600,000 to settle a use-of-force lawsuit at Pelican Bay State Prison. The biggest chunk of the award goes to the family of Jesse Castillo, who was shot and killed by guards while engaged in a fistfight on Pelican Bay's "A" Yard.
"It was an unjustifiable ...
Michael Slater, a New York State prisoner, will receive $18,000 in settlement of an excessive force civil rights claim against two guards at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. The settlement also provides for an additional $7,000 in attorney fees and costs to be paid to Prisoners' Legal Services ...
The state of Montana agreed to pay $60,000 to the parents of a prisoner killed during a 1991 uprising at the maximum security Deer Lodge prison. It was the second settlement among 13 state court cases filed against prison officials. In January 1995, the state agreed to pay $150,000 to ...
Loaded on
July 15, 1997
published in Verdict1
July, 1997, page 19
In January, 1997, a settlement was filed in federal court in the three-year-old class action based on injuries stemming from the 1993 Easter Day uprising and 11-day siege at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) at Lucasville, OH. The settlement establishes a $4.1 million fund to pay prisoner damage claims, ...
Loaded on
June 15, 1997
published in Verdict1
June, 1997, page 27
A Mass. superior court judge ruled the state owes 2,253 current and former state prisoners about $1 million because they were not given a pay raise mandated by DOC regulations.
In April 1991, new DOC regulations were issued that raised the top rate for full-time workers from $1 to $1.35 ...
Loaded on
Feb. 15, 1997
published in Verdict1
January, 1997, page 13
In the July, 1996 and August, 1994, issues of PLN we reported Malik v. Brown, 71 F.3d 724 (9th Cir. 1995) and 16 F.3d 330 (9th Cir. 1994), in which Washington state prisoner, and PLN supporter, Dawud Malik was punished by prison officials for using his legally changed religious name. ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1996
published in Verdict1
August, 1996, page 19
Gregory Stampley, 46, was convicted in 1993 of kidnapping and making terroristic threats. He was sentenced to eight years and sent to the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater. Prison doctors who examined him diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, aggressive-personality disorder and bipolar disorder.
According to court documents, on Jan. 13 or 14, ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 1996
published in Verdict1
August, 1996, page 20
On December 22, 1995, the federal district court in New Jersey signed a settlement order dismissing a class action suit filed by prisoners in New Jersey's Management Control Unit (MCU). The plaintiff class in the suit was composed of all black prisoners in the MCU since 1990. The settlement sets ...
In the April, 1994, issue of PLN we reported the filing of Scott v. Peterson which challenged numerous aspects of court access for Washington state prisoners. On October 31, 1995, most of the suit was settled and the settlement terms were effective November 30, 1995. The settlement is between five ...