By Christopher Zoukis Sangye Rinchen and Christopher Zoukis Today I bring a story that hits a bit too close to home that requires your immediate attention. For the past two years Sangye Rinchen, a close friend of mine, has been battling a serious, debilitating nerve injury to her leg. For years she — Sangye’s a
While the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons has done a great job of promoting itself as the global leader in the humane treatment of prisoners, the reality is that the BOP is now operating at 143 percent of capacity, and its ability to deliver services to the 215,470 men, women, and children in its
By Lila Panagides / Springfield News-Leader There has been much talk about national security lately, focusing mostly on the Middle East. Here at home, we are facing a serious national security crisis that, fortunately, is getting some attention — but perhaps not enough from the public. This crisis developed over the last 20 years due
By Prison Legal News In the wake of a Tennessee federal district court hearing in a lawsuit challenging conditions at the Maury County Jail (MCJ), the number of suits filed by prisoners against the jail has nearly doubled. At a September 2012 hearing, prisoners held at the MCJ testified they were losing weight and that
A Florida jury has awarded a prisoner $1.2 million in a negligence suit against the GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest for-profit prison company, following a trial that was delayed more than a year after a juror said he was afraid to reach a verdict.
The case stemmed from an August 28, 2007 argument between prisoners Roy D. Hyatt and Rodney Smith in the dayroom of their unit at the South Bay Correctional Facility. Following the spat, Smith used a microwave to boil a container of water. He then returned to the dayroom and threw the water on Hyatt, who sustained first- and second-degree burns to approximately 30% of his body and lost the use of one eye.
Hyatt sued GEO in state court, alleging the company was aware of other incidents in which prisoners had used microwaves to boil water to assault other prisoners.
Hyatt’s complaint, filed by attorney Philip G. Thompson, claimed that GEO had breached its duty of care by allowing prisoners unrestricted “access to microwaves to boil water which could be used as a weapon against other inmates.” The suit also alleged that it was reasonably foreseeable that the incident involving Hyatt and Smith could occur, since GEO did not remove or restrict prisoners’ access to microwaves.
On May 10, 2011, shortly before the trial in the case was to begin, a juror told Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley that he feared for his safety if he returned a verdict against Hyatt.
By Kimberly Weinberg / Bradford Today Dr. Tony Gaskew, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, understands the concept of social justice from both a personal and academic perspective. In his new book, “Rethinking Prison Reentry: Transforming Humiliation into Humility,” Gaskew uses his experiences as a young black man in
By Derek Gilna / Prison Legal News
In an 8 to 3 decision, the en banc Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a ruling by Illinois U.S. District Court Judge Wayne Anderson, as well as an appellate panel that had partly affirmed that ruling, and held the judiciary should not “create a right of action for damages against soldiers who abusively interrogate or mistreat military prisoners, or fail to prevent improper detention and interrogation.”
The three appellate judges who dissented from the majority opinion argued that the plaintiffs, private American security contractors in Iraq, should have been afforded a Bivins remedy to redress their claims.
The dissent noted that both the facts and law provided an avenue by which Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel, employees of Shield Group Security (also known as National Shield Security) stationed in Iraq, could seek damages for what they contended was torture by U.S. military personnel.
According to the en banc decision, “Vance came to suspect that Shield was supplying weapons to groups opposed to the U.S.,” and became an FBI informant. However, after the individuals they had fingered accused Vance and Ertel of “gun-running,” they were arrested by American military officials in April 2006.
They were then “held in solitary confinement and denied access to counsel … [and] interrogators used ‘threats of violence and actual violence, sleep deprivation and alteration, extremes of temperature, extremes of sound, light manipulation, threats of indefinite detention, denial of food, denial of water, denial of needed medical care, yelling, prolonged solitary confinement, incommunicado detention, falsified allegations and other psychologically-disruptive and injurious techniques.’” Vance and Ertel were classified as “security internees.”
By Katherine Sellgren / BBC News Image courtesy bbc.uk.co Inmates are allowed 12 books in their cell but new privileges regulations, introduced last year, stopped them receiving parcels, including books. The Prisoners’ Education Trust (PET) is urging ministers to improve access to books and materials to assist learning. Prisons minister Andrew Selous said he was
By Prison Legal News A California high school football star who was exonerated after serving five years in prison for kidnapping and raping a classmate has fulfilled his dream of playing for the NFL, and there are plans to make a movie about his ordeal. Meanwhile, the woman who falsely accused him has been ordered
By Dianne Frazee-Walker Kevin McCauley is a medical doctor and recovering alcoholic/drug addict. He has spent the last ten-years studying addiction and the theories behind the causes of addiction. He imaginatively uses the backdrop of some of Utah’s most beautiful state park scenery to illustrate his analogy of how the brain of an addicted person
We have profiled every prison within the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Learn about each prison’s location, security level, educational and recreational offerings, and much more.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best P.C.
1501 Belle Isle Avenue, Suite 110
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
This site may be considered attorney advertising in some jurisdictions. Each case is unique; past results do not guarantee future outcomes or success. This website is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best P.C. is based in Columbia, South Carolina. Mentions of other locations do not imply offices or lawyers there. We collaborate with independent local counsel licensed in their respective jurisdictions.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best P.C. is a private law firm that is not affiliated with the federal government. We limit our practice to cases involving federal courts and agencies.
For specific legal advice, please contact our office directly.
