Search | Prison Phone Justice

Appeals Court Reverses Summary Judgment of Washington Phone Suit

Article • March 15, 2007 • from PLN March, 2007

Filed under: State Law Claims, Telephone Rates, Immunity/Liability, Contractor Liability

Appeals Court Reverses Summary Judgment of Washington Phone Suit by A Washington appeals court has overturned a lower court's grant of summary judgment to telephone companies in a lawsuit ...

From the Editor

Article • February 15, 2007 • from PLN February, 2007

Filed under: Editorials, Telephones, Telephone Rates

and be able to, if not meet them yet, at least talk on the phone. Texas is the only prison system that does not allow its prisoners to have telephone access. Last month's issue of PLN had a cover story ...

Confronting Confinement, A Report On Safety and Abuse In America’s Prisons, Vera Justice Institute (2006), 118 pp.

Article • February 15, 2007 • from PLN February, 2007

Filed under: Reviews, Medical, Systemic Medical Neglect, Totality of Conditions, Failure to Protect (General), Guard Brutality/Beatings, Telephone Rates

Confronting Confinement, A Report On Safety and Abuse In America’s Prisons, Vera Justice Institute (2006), 118 pp. by John Dannenberg Confronting Confinement, A Report On Safety and Abuse In America's Prisons, Vera Justice Institute (2006), 118 pp. Reviewed by John E. Dannenberg The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's …

Cleaning up Mississippi’s Supermax: Conditions Suit Settled

Article • February 15, 2007 • from PLN February, 2007

Filed under: CMS, Medical, Contagious Disease -- Misc., Exercise, Sewage, Sanitation, Reading Materials, Vermin, Restraints, Telephone Rates, Ad-Seg Hearings, ACA

Cleaning up Mississippi’s Supermax: Conditions Suit Settled by David Reutter Cleaning up Mississippi's Supermax: Conditions Suit Settled by David M. Reutter A class action lawsuit filed on behalf of prisoners at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman charged that the totality of conditions are so "hellish" that it makes "Unit …

Ex-Communication: Competition and Collusion in the U.S. Prison Telephone Industry

Article • January 15, 2007 • from PLN January, 2007

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Contractor Misconduct, Crime, Statistics/Trends, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates

of prison telephone access in the U.S. is itself of relatively recent vintage. Until the early 1970s, prisoners of the state and federal prison systems were limited to one collect call every three months ...

Tenth Circuit Reinstates Colorado Ad Seg Conditions Claims

Article • January 15, 2007 • from PLN January, 2007

Filed under: Retaliation for Filing Grievances, Exercise, Showers, Frivolous Litigation (PLRA), Court Access, Law Library Access/Adequacy, Limitations, Telephone Access

confinement in three state prisons from September 2000 to August 2003. He was locked down all but five hours per week and alleges he was denied access to a telephone, showers, outdoor exercise, law library ...

Missouri Prisoner Calls Get Cheaper; But Lowest Bid Rejected

Article • December 15, 2006 • from PLN December, 2006

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

Missouri Prisoner Calls Get Cheaper; But Lowest Bid Rejected by The competitive bid process is normally used by state agencies to compel companies to compete with lower bids while providing the same service. Usually, the lowest bid prevails. In the case of providing collect calls for Missouri prisons, the contract …

Texas Prisoner Gets 40 Years For Cellphone; Guards Get Probation

Article • October 15, 2006 • from PLN October, 2006

Filed under: Guard Misconduct, Crime/Demographics, Criminal Prosecution, Crime, Telephone Access

Texas Prisoner Gets 40 Years For Cellphone; Guards Get Probation by Michael Rigby In April 2006 a Texas prisoner was sentenced to 40 years in prison for possessing a contraband cell phone--8 years more than the 32-year sentence he was already serving for auto theft. The sentence, the longest anyone …

Virginia's General Assembly Sells Out Prisoners' Families for Phone Money

Article • October 15, 2006 • from PLN October, 2006

Filed under: Telephone Rates, News, State Legislation

Virginia's General Assembly Sells Out Prisoners' Families for Phone Money by Gary Hunter Virginia's General Assembly reneged on their agreement with a prisoner advocate group to substantially reduce phone rates between prisoners and their families. Virginia's Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) had lobbied for years to have …

Florida DOC Cuts Prisoner Collect Call Costs by 30%

Article • October 15, 2006 • from PLN October, 2006

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

Florida DOC Cuts Prisoner Collect Call Costs by 30% by David Reutter by David M. Reutter For over 10 years, the family and friends of Florida prisoners have paid exorbitant costs to communicate with their imprisoned loved one. I dont think that's right, said interim secretary of Florida's Department of …

Survivors of Texas Jail Suicidee Win $516,000 Against Phone Provider

Article • August 15, 2006 • from PLN August, 2006

Filed under: Attorney Fee Awards, Damages, Costs, Telephone Access, Municipal Liability, Product Liability, Mental Health, Suicides

Survivors of Texas Jail Suicidee Win $516,000 Against Phone Provider by Matthew T. Clarke The mother and son of a prisoner who committed suicide by hanging himself from a telephone in his ...

Montana Awards New Prison Phone Contract

Article • May 15, 2006 • from PLN May, 2006

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

Montana Awards New Prison Phone Contract by The State of Montana has contracted with Public Communications Services (PCS), Inc. to provide phone services to prisoners in the Department of Corrections, according to a January 3, 2006 press release. PCS holds itself out as a bargain for both the DOC and …

Indiana v. Marion County, IN, Plf Supp of Mot for SJ, Phone Rates, 2006

Brief • May 8, 2006

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

who are incarcerated, separated from family, friends and legal counsel by the fact of incarceration. Telephone access is particularly important for the significant percentage of the incarcerated ...

NY DOC's 60% Telephone Call Surcharge" Violates First and Fourteenth Amendments

Article • March 15, 2006 • from PLN March, 2006

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates, Fathers in Prison, Mothers in Prison

NY DOC's 60% Telephone Call Surcharge" Violates First and Fourteenth Amendments by NY DOC's 60% Telephone Call Surcharge" Violates First and Fourteenth Amendments by John E. Dannenberg ...

BOP Awards Unisys Corp. Nationwide Prison Phone Contract

Article • March 15, 2006 • from PLN March, 2006

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Access

BOP Awards Unisys Corp. Nationwide Prison Phone Contract by The U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) contracted with Unisys Corp. (Bluebell, Pennsylvania) to install new telephone systems ...

Private Prison Contractor Who Allegedly Diverted $1.6 Million in Telephone Revenues Sues California DOC

Article • February 15, 2006 • from PLN February, 2006

Filed under: Private Prisons, Marantha Private Corrections, Telephone Rates

Private Prison Contractor Who Allegedly Diverted $1.6 Million in Telephone Revenues Sues California DOC by Private Prison Contractor Who Allegedly Diverted $1.6 Million in Telephone ...

American Bar Association Recommends Expanded Prisoner Telephone Access

Article • February 15, 2006 • from PLN February, 2006

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Access, Telephone Rates, Attorney Calls

American Bar Association Recommends Expanded Prisoner Telephone Access by by John E. Dannenberg The Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association (ABA) made a formal ...

Indiana State Courts Have Jurisdiction In Prisoner Phone Contract Case

Article • January 15, 2006 • from PLN January, 2006

Filed under: Administrative Exhaustion, Class Certification, Telephones, Telephone Rates, Municipal Liability

-1-2-38 because the class was challenging the reasonableness of telephone rates and charges. The trial court granted the dismissal on November. 7, 2002, based on this statute and § 8-1-2-54 containing ...

Disclosure of Washington State Prisoner Phone RatesDisclosure of Washington State Prisoner Phone Rates Stymied by the Courts

Article • December 15, 2005 • from PLN December, 2005

Filed under: Standing, Disclosure of Records, Mootness, Telephones, Telephone Rates

by the Courts by John E. Dannenberg When recipients of Washington state prisoner-originated long distance phone calls sought to compel disclosure of the telephone rates for those calls, the Washington superior ...

Mere Pendency of Proceedings Deprives Court of Jurisdiction in Jail Collect Call Case; Attorney Fee

Article • August 15, 2005 • from PLN August, 2005

Filed under: Attorney Fee Awards, Public Defenders, Injunctions, Standing, Mootness, Telephones, Telephone Access, Attorney Calls

alleged that HCJC's policy of allowing prisoners to make only collect telephone calls, in combination with the Hamilton County Public Defender's policy of refusing collect calls operated to deny pretrial ...