Overlawyered » prisoners

Correctional officers’ “bill of rights” and the Baltimore jail scandal

Walter Olson — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:44:35 +0000

Last month 13 guards and 12 others were indicted on charges of letting a gang effectively take over management of the Baltimore City Detention Center; according to the indictment, corrupt guards allegedly smuggled in drugs, cellphones and other contraband and had sex with the gang leader, several becoming pregnant by him. Since then the public and press has been asking what went wrong. A Washington Post editorial suggests one place they might look:

The absurd situation described in the indictment took root at least partly because of a “bill of rights” for corrections officers, backed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and enacted by the Maryland legislature in 2010 at the behest of the guards union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. This bill of rights grants extraordinary protections to guards, including shielding them from threats of prosecution, transfer, dismissal or even disciplinary action during questioning for suspected wrongdoing.

While Gov. O’Malley has sought to minimize the relevance of the 2010 law, the Post notes that FBI recordings suggest that a guard who was deemed “dirty” was transferred to another facility, rather than fired — transfers-instead-of-firing being a less than optimal way of dealing with public employee corruption, but one typical of systems with strong tenure entrenchment. AFSCME, which boasted at the time of its “relentless lobbying” on behalf of the law, is now doing damage control.

Tags: Baltimore, Maryland, prisoners, public employment

Correctional officers’ “bill of rights” and the Baltimore jail scandal is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Convicted killer suing murder victim’s family” (unsuccessfully)

Walter Olson — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:55:54 +0000

“Nearly 18 years after a man was convicted of murder, he filed a lawsuit against the murdered victim’s family.” [KING 5; Tacoma, Wash.] Larry Shandola alleged that Paula Henry, widow of the murder victim, had said defamatory things about him, impeding a prison transfer to his native Canada. A judge in the state of Washington has now dismissed the suit. [National Post]

Tags: criminals who sue, prisoners

“Convicted killer suing murder victim’s family” (unsuccessfully) is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

When lightning strikes at the high court

Walter Olson — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 15:15:23 +0000

An inmate filing pro se gets certiorari, then follows through with a unanimous nine-Justice SCOTUS win, Thomas, J., correcting the Third Circuit. Credit Justice Alito? [Max Kennerly]

Tags: prisoners, pro se, Supreme Court

When lightning strikes at the high court is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Police and prosecution roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:06:30 +0000

“Once your life is inside a federal investigation, there is no space outside of it.” [Quinn Norton, The Atlantic]
“Cops Detain 6-year-old for Walking Around Neighborhood (And It Gets Worse)” [Free-Range Kids] “Stop Criminalizing Parents who Let Their Kids Wait in the Car” [same]
Time to rethink the continued erosion of statutes of limitations [Joel Cohen, Law.com; our post the other day on Gabelli v. SEC]
“Are big-bank prosecutions following in the troubled footsteps of FCPA enforcement?” [Isaac Gorodetski, PoL]
The “‘professional’ press approach to the criminal justice system serves police and prosecutors very well. They favor reporters who hew to it.” [Ken at Popehat]
Scott Greenfield dissents from some common prescriptions on overcriminalization [Simple Justice]
Anti-catnip educational video might be a parody [YouTube via Radley Balko]
“Too Many Restrictions on Sex Offenders, or Too Few?” [NYT "Room for Debate"]
Kyle Graham on overcharging [Non Curat Lex] “The Policeman’s Legal Digest / A Walk Through the Penal Laws of New York (1934)” [Graham, ConcurOp]
“D.C. Council Proposes Pretty Decent Asset Forfeiture Reform” [John Ross, Reason] And the Institute for Justice reports on forfeiture controversies in Minnesota and Georgia.
Does prison privatization entrench a pro-incarceration lobby? [Sasha Volokh, more]

Tags: banks, child protection, crime and punishment, forfeiture, Georgia, illegal drugs, Minnesota, police, prisoners, statutes of limitations, Washington D.C.

Police and prosecution roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Idaho inmates: The beer made us do it”

Walter Olson — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 04:06:49 +0000

“[Keith Allen] Brown and four other inmates at Idaho’s Kuna facility are suing major beer companies, blaming their crimes on alcoholism and claiming that the companies are responsible because they don’t warn consumers that their products are addictive.” The laudatory Nicholas Kristof column practically writes itself, though one should note that the inmates “do not have attorneys and drafted the lawsuit themselves.” [Idaho Statesman]

Tags: alcohol, Idaho, prisoners, third party liability for crime

“Idaho inmates: The beer made us do it” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The Right rethinks prisons

Walter Olson — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 15:30:11 +0000

How a seemingly unlikely assortment of libertarians, religious conservatives and small-government advocates have been helping to turn around the debate on incarceration. [David Dagan and Steven Teles, Washington Monthly]

Tags: Cato Institute, prisoners, prosecution

The Right rethinks prisons is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“‘I Am Not Allowed Moisturizer,’ Complains Mass Murderer”

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:49:00 +0000

Another milestone in chutzpah, this time from the perpetrator of last year’s politically motivated atrocity in Norway. “Perhaps they have moisturizer in Hell, sir, although one thinks it unlikely.” [Lowering the Bar]

Tags: prisoners

“‘I Am Not Allowed Moisturizer,’ Complains Mass Murderer” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 13 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 04:05:50 +0000

New law grads and others, come work for liberty at the Cato Institute’s legal associate program [Ilya Shapiro]
Lawsuit against United Nations seeks compensation for mass cholera outbreak in Haiti [Kristen Boon, Opinio Juris]
“Parents Sue Energy Drink After Girl’s Death” [NBC Washington; Hagerstown, Md.] “The New York Times Reveals That 18 Servings of an Energy Drink Might Be Excessive” [Jacob Sullum]
Claim: There is no explosion of patent litigation [Adam Mossoff, Truth on the Market, and further]
“After Inmates Sue for Dental Floss, Jailers Explain the Security Risk” [ABA Journal, earlier]
Court: First Amendment protects right of “The Bachelor” producers to consider contestants’ race [Volokh, earlier]
From Florida tobacco litigation to an, um, interesting higher-education startup [Inside Higher Ed, h/t Overlawyered commenter Jeff H.]

Tags: colleges and universities, movies film and videos, patent litigation, prisoners, soft drinks, United Nations

November 13 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Inmates denied lawyer for now for dental floss lawsuit”

Walter Olson — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 04:45:25 +0000

“A group of Westchester County Jail inmates will have to fight their own legal battle for access to dental floss, a federal judge has ruled. …the 11 Westchester inmates… sued the county Sept. 10 for $500 million because they were denied access to dental floss.” [Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, White Plains Journal-News]

Tags: New York, prisoners

“Inmates denied lawyer for now for dental floss lawsuit” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Cook County jail lockdown settlement

Walter Olson — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:22:57 +0000

“The Cook County Board on Tuesday agreed to pay more than $1 million in taxpayer money to settle a federal lawsuit brought by female County Jail inmates who said their civil rights were violated during repeated weekend lockdowns at the massive detention facility. The bulk of the settlement — $850,000 — will go to attorneys who represented the four inmates in the nine-year court case. Two inmates won federal judgments totaling $143,000, and the county opted to pay two others $5,000 to end the suit. … In addition to the $1 million settlement, the county spent at least $732,144 over the years to pay an outside firm to defend it against the suit, according to county records.” The plaintiffs had failed in a bid for class action status. [Chicago Tribune]

Tags: attorneys' fees, Chicago, prisoners, taxpayers

Cook County jail lockdown settlement is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system