Latest news with #correctionalofficers
The Independent
2 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Los Angeles County will pay $2.7M to teen boy attacked in ‘gladiator fights' at detention facility
Los Angeles County on Monday agreed to pay $2.7 million to a teenager who was attacked by at least six other young people at a juvenile detention center in so-called 'gladiator fights' that were allegedly facilitated by probation officers. The boy's beating in 2023 at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall was captured on surveillance video that also showed several officials standing idly by and some of them shaking hands with the participants in the beating. A state grand jury in March charged 30 correctional officers for their role in allowing and sometimes encouraging nearly 70 fights to take place between July and December 2023. The officers face charges including child endangerment and abuse, conspiracy, and battery. More than 140 victims between the ages of 12 and 18 were involved, according to authorities. Attorney General Rob Bonta said after the charges were announced that it seemed the attacks were planned. 'They often wanted them to happen at the beginning of the day, in a certain time, in a certain place. A space and a time was created for the fights, and the plan was for the fights to happen,' he said. The investigation began after the Los Angeles Times first obtained and published video footage that shows a then-16-year-old being attacked by at least six other young people, who came at him one by one as officers stand by watching. The video was first made public during a court hearing during which a public defender for the boy, now 17, argued to a judge that he was not safe at Los Padrinos and should be released ahead of his trial. His attorney, Jamal Tooson, said the settlement was a 'first step' in recognizing the 'egregious' conduct of the LA County Probation Department. 'Our priority needs to be not just protecting my client but all children in similar circumstances under the care and watch of the probation department,' Tooson said. 'There were lawsuits prior to this. I personally represent several individuals who've been harmed at the same facility after this.' According to a correction action plan written by the department, staff failed to review CCTV footage of the facility, delayed taking the teen to the hospital, and waited too long to notify his parents. To address these issues, the department will ensure CCTV monitors are 'staffed routinely' and conduct random footage audits, and develop a protocol for making sure young people in custody are given medical care and their parents are informed appropriately. A judge ruled in April that the LA County Probation Department could not continue housing juveniles at Los Padrinos and approved a plan in May to move more than 100 youths out of the facility. California 's state board overseeing local correctional facilities has previously ordered Los Padrinos to be shut down. Tooson believes there is a pervasive 'culture problem' extending throughout the probation department's facilities that cannot be addressed by the correction action plan. He has filed at least 19 lawsuits in federal court alleging issues from physical violence allowed by officials to sexual assault by staff members in LA County's youth detention centers, he said. 'Until we actively start changing the mindset and behavior of those who are put into a caretaking responsibility of these youth, I think we're going to find ourselves in the same situation,' he said.
Associated Press
2 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
Los Angeles County will pay $2.7M to teen boy attacked in ‘gladiator fights' at detention facility
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County on Monday agreed to pay $2.7 million to a teenager who was attacked by at least six other young people at a juvenile detention center in so-called 'gladiator fights' that were allegedly facilitated by probation officers. The boy's beating in 2023 at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall was captured on surveillance video that also showed several officials standing idly by and some of them shaking hands with the participants in the beating. A state grand jury in March charged 30 correctional officers for their role in allowing and sometimes encouraging nearly 70 fights to take place between July and December 2023. The officers face charges including child endangerment and abuse, conspiracy, and battery. More than 140 victims between the ages of 12 and 18 were involved, according to authorities. Attorney General Rob Bonta said after the charges were announced that it seemed the attacks were planned. 'They often wanted them to happen at the beginning of the day, in a certain time, in a certain place. A space and a time was created for the fights, and the plan was for the fights to happen,' he said. The investigation began after the Los Angeles Times first obtained and published video footage that shows a then-16-year-old being attacked by at least six other young people, who came at him one by one as officers stand by watching. The video was first made public during a court hearing during which a public defender for the boy, now 17, argued to a judge that he was not safe at Los Padrinos and should be released ahead of his trial. His attorney, Jamal Tooson, said the settlement was a 'first step' in recognizing the 'egregious' conduct of the LA County Probation Department. 'Our priority needs to be not just protecting my client but all children in similar circumstances under the care and watch of the probation department,' Tooson said. 'There were lawsuits prior to this. I personally represent several individuals who've been harmed at the same facility after this.' According to a correction action plan written by the department, staff failed to review CCTV footage of the facility, delayed taking the teen to the hospital, and waited too long to notify his parents. To address these issues, the department will ensure CCTV monitors are 'staffed routinely' and conduct random footage audits, and develop a protocol for making sure young people in custody are given medical care and their parents are informed appropriately. A judge ruled in April that the LA County Probation Department could not continue housing juveniles at Los Padrinos and approved a plan in May to move more than 100 youths out of the facility. California's state board overseeing local correctional facilities has previously ordered Los Padrinos to be shut down. Tooson believes there is a pervasive 'culture problem' extending throughout the probation department's facilities that cannot be addressed by the correction action plan. He has filed at least 19 lawsuits in federal court alleging issues from physical violence allowed by officials to sexual assault by staff members in LA County's youth detention centers, he said. 'Until we actively start changing the mindset and behavior of those who are put into a caretaking responsibility of these youth, I think we're going to find ourselves in the same situation,' he said.
CBC
26-05-2025
- CBC
Quebec unveils measures to curb drug-smuggling drones in detention centres
Social Sharing Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel announced a series of measures to boost safety in the province's detention centres after drones have been used to smuggle drugs into jails. Between January and March, 274 drones were observed flying near jails — 195 of them carried packages, according to the ministry's statistics, and 134 packages were seized. "We've made huge strides on several fronts to prevent drone delivery of packages, detect contraband entering our facilities and secure entrances," Bonnardel told reporters on Monday at the Rivière-des-Prairies detention centre. To prevent drones from delivering packages to inmates, Bonnardel said fences will be installed above and around their windows in the coming months. These structures have proven to be "very effective" after being tested in some detention centres, Bonnardel noted. The second measure of the government's plan includes installing body scanners to detect objects that might be concealed in inmates' body cavities upon entry. All inmates will also be scanned before they return to their sleeping quarters. Those suspected by correctional officers of carrying objects will also undergo scanning. According to the minister, it's "a first" in Quebec. WATCH | The case of a convicted drug trafficker caught smuggling drugs using drones: Drones are flying drugs into prisons, but the inmates involved face little punishment 4 months ago Duration 2:14 The case of a convicted drug trafficker whose online drug-selling platform was connected to the death of a Quebec teen has some calling for stronger actions against inmates who commit crimes while in prison. "It's a tool that is, I would say, more efficient, faster and less intrusive than strip searches," Bonnardel explained. So far, six scanners have been installed in the province's detention centres, with 11 more expected by March 31, 2027. "I've seen how the body detector works. I tell the inmates: 'It's going to be a lot more complicated,'" Bonnardel said of the attempt to smuggle in contraband. Bonnardel stated that all visitors and employees entering jails will also have to pass through detection arches and have their personal effects checked by X-ray devices to help secure entrances. Six detention centres are still without arches and should have them by March 31, 2026, he said. The next steps of the government's plan is expected to involve technological measures to address cellphone smuggling, including jamming cellular waves, which takes more time since it falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Between January and March, the ministry's statistics show a total of 896 cellphones were seized as a result of searches, investigations or interceptions by correctional officers. SAPSCQ, the union that represents prison guards in Quebec, said their president wasn't available for an interview.
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- The Guardian
Alabama paid a law firm millions to defend its prisons. It used AI and turned in fake citations
In less than a year-and-a-half, Frankie Johnson, a man incarcerated at the William E Donaldson prison outside Birmingham, Alabama, says he was stabbed around 20 times. In December of 2019, Johnson says, he was stabbed 'at least nine times' in his housing unit. In March of 2020, an officer handcuffed him to a desk following a group therapy meeting, and left the unit, after which another prisoner came in and stabbed him five times. In November of the same year, Johnson says, he was handcuffed by an officer and brought to the prison yard, where another prisoner attacked him with an ice pick, stabbing him 'five to six times', as two correctional officers looked on. According to Johnson, one of the officers had actually encouraged his attacker to carry out the assault in retaliation for a previous argument between Johnson and the officer. In 2021, Johnson filed a lawsuit against Alabama prison officials for failing to keep him safe, rampant violence, understaffing, overcrowding and pervasive corruption in Alabama prisons. To defend the case, the Alabama attorney general's office turned to a law firm that for years has been paid millions of dollars by the state to defend its troubled prison system: Butler Snow. State officials have praised Butler Snow for their experience in defending prison cases – and specifically William Lunsford, head of the constitutional and civil rights litigation practice group at the firm. But now, the firm is facing sanctions by the federal judge overseeing Johnson's case after an attorney at the firm, working with Lunsford, cited cases generated by artificial intelligence – which turned out not to exist. It is one of a growing number of instances in which attorneys around the country have faced consequences for including false, AI-generated information in official legal filings. A database attempting to track the prevalence of the cases has identified 106 instances around the globe in which courts have found 'AI hallucinations' in court documents. Last year, an attorney was suspended for one year from practicing law in the federal middle district of Florida, after a committee found he had cited fabricated AI-generated cases. In California earlier this month, a federal judge ordered a firm to pay more than $30,000 in legal fees after they included false AI-generated research in a brief. At a hearing in Birmingham on Wednesday in Johnson's case, the US district judge Anna Manasco said that she was considering a wide range of sanctions – including fines, mandated continuing legal education, referrals to licensing organizations and temporary suspensions – against Butler Snow, after the attorney, Matthew Reeves, used ChatGPT to add false citations to filings related to ongoing deposition and discovery disputes in the case. She suggested that so far, the disciplinary actions that have been meted out around the country have not gone far enough. The current case is 'proof positive that those sanctions were insufficient', she told the lawyers. 'If they were, we wouldn't be here.' During the hearing, attorneys with Butler Snow were effusively apologetic, and said they would accept whatever sanctions Manasco determined were appropriate. They also pointed to a firm policy that requires attorneys to seek approval when using AI for legal research. Reeves attempted to take full responsibility. 'I was aware of the limitations on use [of AI], and in these two instances I did not comply with policy,' Reeves said. 'I would hope your honor would not punish my colleagues.' Attorneys with Butler Snow were appointed by the Alabama attorney general's office and are being paid by the state to defend Jefferson Dunn, the former commissioner of the Alabama department of corrections, in the case. Lunsford, who holds the contract with the state for the case, said that he had begun conducting a review of prior filings to make sure that there weren't more instances of false citations. 'This is very fresh and raw,' Lunsford told Manasco. 'The firm's response to this is not complete yet.' Manasco said that she would allow Butler Snow to file a motion within 10 days to explain what their process will be for addressing the problem before making a decision regarding sanctions. The use of the fake AI citations in the case came to light in relation to a scheduling dispute in the case. Attorneys with Butler Snow had contacted Johnson's attorneys to set up a deposition of Johnson, who is still in prison. Johnson's attorneys objected to the proposed dates, pointing to outstanding documents that they felt they were entitled to prior to Johnson being deposed. But in a court filing on 7 May, Butler Snow countered that case law mandated Johnson be deposed expeditiously. 'The Eleventh Circuit and district courts routinely authorize incarcerated depositions when proper notice is given and the deposition is relevant to claims or defenses, notwithstanding other discovery disputes,' they wrote. The attorneys listed four cases ostensibly backing up their assertion. It turns out they were all made up. While some of the cited cases resembled citations for real cases, none of them were relevant to the issue before the court. For instance, one was for a 2021 case entitled Kelley v City of Birmingham, but according to lawyers for Johnson, 'the sole existing case styled as Kelley v. City of Birmingham that Plaintiff's counsel could identify was decided by the Alabama Court of Appeals in 1939 regarding the resolution of a speeding ticket'. Earlier this week, lawyers for Johnson filed a motion pointing out the fabrications, and suggested they were the product of 'generative artificial intelligence'. They also found another apparently fabricated citation in a prior filing related to a dispute over discovery. The very next day, Manasco scheduled a hearing to determine whether the Butler Snow attorneys should be sanctioned. 'In the light of the seriousness of the accusation, the court has conducted independent searches for each allegedly fabricated citation, to no avail,' she wrote. In a declaration to the court, Reeves said that he had been reviewing the filings that were drafted by a more junior colleague, and wanted to include citations for what he 'believed to be well-established points of law'. 'I knew generally about ChatGPT,' Reeves wrote, continuing that he put in a search for supporting case law he needed for the motions, which 'immediately identified purportedly applicable citations for those points of law'. But in his 'haste to finalize the motions and get them filed', he 'failed to verify the case citations returned by ChatGPT through independent review in Westlaw or Pacer before including them.' 'I sincerely regret this lapse in diligence and judgment,' Reeves wrote. 'I take full responsibility.' Cases in which false AI content is making its way into legal filings appear to be increasing in frequency, said Damien Charlotin, a Paris-based legal researcher and academic who is attempting to track the cases. 'I'm seeing an acceleration,' he said. 'There are so many cases from the past few weeks and months compared to before.' So far, though, the response by courts to the problem has been remarkably lenient, Charlotin said. The more serious sanctions – including large fines and suspensions – tend to come when lawyers fail to take responsibility for their mistakes. 'I don't expect it to last,' Charlotin said. 'I think at some point everyone will be on notice.' In addition to the Johnson case, Lunsford and Butler Snow have contracts to work on several expansive civil rights cases against the Alabama department of corrections – including one brought by the United States Department of Justice under Donald Trump in 2020 that identifies many of the same wide-ranging systemic issues that Johnson pointed to in his suit, and alleges that the conditions violate the eighth amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The contract for that case alone was worth nearly $15m dollars over two years at one point. Some Alabama lawmakers have questioned the amount that the state is spending on the firm to defend the cases. But it doesn't appear that the mistake this week has shaken the attorney general's confidence in Lunsford or Butler Snow to continue with their work, so far. On Wednesday, Manasco asked a lawyer with the attorney general's office, who was present at the hearing, whether or not they would stick with Butler Snow. 'Mr Lunsford remains the attorney general's counsel of choice,' he responded.
ABC News
11-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Violent assaults, self-harm incidents, use of 'chemical agents' occurring at Darwin prison, FOI documents show
Violent assaults and incidents of self-harm are occurring regularly inside Darwin's overcrowded prison, with government documents also revealing the use of "chemical agents" by officers. Warning: This story contains details of self-harm. Executive incident reports from the Darwin Correctional Centre (DCC), the Northern Territory's largest prison, have been released to the ABC in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. They detail events over a 24-day period, between January 10 and February 3 this year, across both the men's and women's sections of the facility. The reports show that prisoners assaulted or attempted to assault other inmates and correctional officers 11 times during that period, often resulting in injuries and medical treatment. One report from January stated a prisoner was placed "at risk" after they told a nurse they were going to kill their cellmate. It said officers had earlier used "chemical agents" to break up a fight between the incarcerated pair, after they had taken "a disliking to one another". Another January report said oxygen was administered to a prisoner after they were found "wailing" and struggling to breath. It was later discovered the prisoner had been assaulted by multiple other inmates. "[The victim] didn't clean up so we hit [them]," one of the perpetrators said during an investigation into the incident. The reports also detailed three incidents of self-harm by prisoners, including through asphyxiation. The insights into life inside the DCC comes as the prison is overflowing with inmates. More than 1 per cent of the Northern Territory's population is currently locked up, with prisoner numbers having risen by more than 500 since the Country Liberal Party government was elected in August. As of Tuesday, there were 2,822 people incarcerated across the Northern Territory. Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley has said he expects the prison population to reach 3,000 "in the not-too-distant future", following the government legislating "Australia's toughest bail laws" last month. Amid the prisoner population increase, rehabilitation services have either stopped or been disrupted. Erina Early, secretary of the United Workers Union NT, which represents prison officers, said it was "chaos" inside the DCC, leading guards to question their futures in their roles. "I'm very concerned about the wellbeing of my correctional officers at the moment," she said. "I'm dealing with four or five at-risk calls a month from officers who are upset they can't go on. Over the past 12 months, 59 correctional officers have quit their jobs while 157 have been recruited. The ABC's FOI request only picked up some of the incidents at the DCC this year. Last Tuesday, a correctional officer was hospitalised after he was allegedly assaulted by a prisoner, with the incident referred to NT police. Ms Early said two prisoners had also recently spent time in hospital after allegedly being assaulted by other inmates. "We've had a prisoner put boiling hot water in the microwave, so it was really, really hot, and then they scalded another prisoner," she said. "We're aware of another incident where a female prisoner, I believe she was about 120 kilograms, actually put her body weight and foot on another female prisoner, and basically that prisoner couldn't breathe." Overcrowding at the prison was leading to more serious incidents, Ms Early said. "As soon as you bring more and more prisoners in and you don't have the infrastructure to accommodate them, there's always that high risk of more assaults on prisoners and also officers as well," she said. "They're rammed into a little cell as well. Depending on if they've got enough officers on that day, some prisoners don't leave the cell, they get locked up. A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said it acknowledged "that overcrowding can cause difficulties". "Corrections is making careful and necessary decisions to maintain the order and safety of the community, our staff, and people in our supervision," they said. "Staff wellbeing remains a priority and is supported through workplace initiatives to improve engagement, upskilling and leadership. "Corrections is continuing to build its workforce through ongoing recruitment to boost our staffing compliment."
