Police, Prisons & Criminal Justice

Health Care in Wisconsin Prison System

Description:

A December 2002 draft report by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care sharply criticized the Wisconsin Department of Corrections for poor planning, inadequate staffing and training, poor coordination and leadership, and poor quality assurance, all resulting in substandard care in violation of the 8th Amendment.

Forum:

Undecided.

Attorneys:

David Fathi & Gouri Bhat, ACLU NPP; Todd Winstrom, Wisconsin Coalition for Advocacy; Race, Poverty & Civ. Lib. Atty and/or Legal Director.

Prison Free Speech: Internet Access, Publications with Purported "Gang Imagery", Artistic Expression

Description:

We have received complaints from prisoners and advocacy groups about restrictions on internet access, confiscation of reading material that allegedly promotes criminal or gang activity, and refusal to permit a prisoner to make nude drawings.

Forum:

NA

Attorneys:

Legal Director

Dennis E. Jones ' El and Michael Johnson v. Berge et al

Description:

Monitoring of consent decree in action challenging the conditions of confinement, adequacy of medical treatment, extreme temperatures and their religious beliefs protected by the Free Exercise clause and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act at the Supermax Correctional Institution in Boscobel, Wisconsin.

Forum:

U.S. District Court (Western District of Wisconsin)

Attorneys:

David Fathi ACLU-NPP; Ed Garvey, Pamela McGillivray & Glenn Stoddard of Garvey & Stoddard, Madison; Robyn Shellow of the Shellow Group, Madison.