Consumer Law

Crime and Punishment, U.S.-Style (Apologies to Dostoevsky!)

By Joe Consumer

Inhuman prison conditions in U.S. facilities aren?t unique to Guantanamo.  A federal judge in Louisiana has certified a class action on behalf juveniles abused at New Orleans' Youth Study Center. The case, first brought December 2007 by the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, says the facility ?has been plagued with escapes and reports of poor conditions, including 21-hour daily lockdowns, inadequate education and shoddy medical and mental health care.?  They are seeking no money - just that the problems be fixed. 

But more often, abuse can be costly.  As the New York Times reported last week, New York City has been sued seven times in recent years by prisoners at the notorious Rikers Island for ?beatings by prisoners while guards looked the other way, or worse, ordered the attacks.? The city settled one case for $500,000, and another for just under $100,000. A new lawsuit was filed Tuesday.?  The Legal Aid Society?s prisoners? rights project is co-counsel.

For example, as the Times reports, according to the Bronx district attorney?s office, ?two Rikers guards had recruited inmates over three months last year to serve as ?managers, foot soldiers and enforcers? to maintain order in a housing unit for adolescent men. The guards are also accused of training the inmates in how to restrain and assault their victims, and deciding where and when attacks would occur.?  In one incident, ?a Rikers guard ordered six inmates to beat two prisoners; one victim was hospitalized with a collapsed lung.? And last month, one 18-year-old inmate was killed.

In a related matter, a new report by the National Academy of Sciences, set to be released this month, presents ?a sweeping critique of many forensic methods that the police and prosecutors rely on, including fingerprinting, firearms identification and analysis of bite marks, blood spatter, hair and handwriting.?   The report comes on the heels of a number of crime lab debacles, ?including the case of Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer from Portland, Ore., and Muslim convert who was wrongly arrested in the 2004 terrorist train bombing in Madrid that killed 191 people and wounded 2,000.? American examiners matched Mr. Mayfield?s fingerprint to those found at the scene, although Spanish authorities eventually convinced the Federal Bureau of Investigation that its fingerprint identification methods were faulty. Mr. Mayfield was released, and the federal government settled with him for $2 million.?

Here's a great way to save government some money - clean up the criminal justice system.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on February 06, 2009 (boomark / email).