Spokane, Wash. — A jury has awarded $8 million to the family of inmate Dale Stahl, who died in 2012, The Associated Press reports. The lawsuit claims guards ignored Stahl’s medical condition and kept him restrained after he had a diabetic seizure.
Sacramento — Three years after California began sending lower-level offenders to local lockups instead of state prisons, the number of inmates being released by county jails has increased by 37 percent, according to state auditors, The Associated Press reports.
Sacramento – Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. has appointed Brian Duffy as warden of California Health Care Facility, Stockton. Warden Duffy, 55, has served as acting warden since 2014.
San Quentin — On April 22 Raymond Edward Steele, 67, was found unresponsive in his cell in San Quentin Prison and pronounced dead, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.
San Quentin — Richard James Poynton, 64, was found unresponsive in his cell in San Quentin Prison and pronounced dead on April 23. Two other Death Row inmates died this year of natural causes, officials said. Last year, a federal judge declared the state’s use of capital punishment unconstitutional because inmates lingered on Death Row for years or even decades. Currently there are 752 people on Death Row.
San Francisco — The California Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence of Paul Gordon Smith Jr., The Associated Press reports. The unanimous court agreed that an expert was improperly barred from testifying that Smith would be less of an escape risk on San Quentin’s Death Row than he was while awaiting trial in the Shasta County Jail. The jury was told of Smith’s several attempts to escape from jail and violent attitude toward guards. A prison expert was barred from telling the jury that security is tighter at San Quentin.
Los Angeles — Susan Mellen, 59, a mother of three who spent 17 years in prison for murder before she was exonerated, is suing Los Angeles, The Associated Press reports. Mellen was convicted in 1998 of killing a homeless man in Lawndale. She was freed last fall by a judge who said she was innocent and had been convicted on the word of a habitual liar.
Phoenix, Ariz. — Prisoners at the Maricopa County Jail were served a vegetarian lunch by actress Pamela Anderson, The Associated Press reports. The new diet supports Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s effort to cut costs. The diet allows peanut butter sandwiches with oranges and some crackers for brunch and a hot meal of various vegetables and soy dishes for dinner. It has saved an estimated $200,000 per year.
Farmington, N.M. — Several San Juan County prisoners are suing the jail, claiming they were left injured or in pain after being denied basic medical care, The Daily Times in Farmington reports. In the April 17 complaint, they allege the jail’s health care providers displayed a “severe and deliberate indifference” to their medical needs.
Lincoln, Neb. — As a way to reduce prison crowding, the state legislators scaled back the use of mandatory minimum prison sentences for Class 1C and 1D felonies, including robbery, assault on a police officer and certain drug crimes, The Associated Press reports. The bill would also limit “habitual criminal” sentence enhancements to violent crimes.
Missouri — Andre Cole, 52, was executed on April 14 for killing a man 16 years ago. Cole was the third person put to death this year in Missouri, The Associated Press reports.
San Antonio, Tex. — Three immigrant mothers held at a Texas detention facility filed a lawsuit alleging that they were held in isolation in retaliation for their hunger strike to protest their detention and conditions at the center. The three women, who are from Latin America and are seeking asylum, are part of a class-action complaint filed against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and the private operator of the facility in Karnes City, southeast of San Antonio.
Montgomery, Ala. — The Legislature has approved changes to sentencing and probation standards in an effort to relieve severe overcrowding in state prisons, The Associated Press reports. The state’s prisons currently house twice the number of inmates they were designed to hold.
