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			    GENERAL-RKBA Digest 347
Topics covered in this issue include:
  1) CRIMESTRIKE: 'Frivolous' Inmate Lawsuits by NRA Alerts 
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Topic No. 1
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 17:35:16 -0500 (EST)
From: NRA Alerts 
To: general-rkba-real.nra
Subject: CRIMESTRIKE: 'Frivolous' Inmate Lawsuits
Message-ID: 
                        NRA CrimeStrike's
                        CrimeWatch Weekly
            Breaking news on critical crime-fighting 
                 issues, policies and legislation
Vol. 4, No. 12                                     March 24, 1998
                   States Fighting Back Against
                   'Frivolous' Inmate Lawsuits
     Following on the heels of the federal Prison Litigation
Reform Act (PLRA) of 1996 aimed at reducing the growing number of
frivolous prison inmate federal court lawsuits, a number of
states are enacting laws to combat  the same problem with inmate
state court lawsuits.
     According to a Bureau of Justice Statistics study,  prison
inmates filed more than 68,000 suits in federal courts alone in
1996.
     The Pennsylvania Senate last week voted 42-6  for House-
passed legislation to allow judges to dismiss "blatantly
frivolous" inmate lawsuits.  The bill includes a "three strikes"
provision that limits additional suits by inmates who have had
three dismissed.
     Atty Gen. Mike Fisher, who pushed the legislation, said that
suits against the Commonwealth had soared from 251 in 1995 to 751
last year.
     In Mississippi, Gov. Kirk Fordice last week signed into law
two bills targeting inmate suits.  One sets standards for
declaring such suits frivolous and includes "earned time"
penalties. The second, say press reports, requires inmates with
three prior frivolous suits  to pay for their own filings.  
     Inmates at Mississippi's prison at Parchman in Sunflower
County have filed more than 150 suits annually for the past three
years, say county court officials.
     Lawmakers in Wisconsin, Iowa and Colorado have also been
fighting back against a rising tide of inmate suits.  Wisconsin
Atty. Gen. James Doyle said that state is spending $1 million
annually fighting the suits, which swelled from 48 in all of 1981
to 48 per month in 1997.  
     Like Mississippi, Wisconsin would require inmates with 
three prior frivolous suits to pay their own filing fees.  Two
weeks ago, the state Senate in Iowa passed a similar law that
also can cost inmates early release credit time. 
     The Colorado Senate on Monday approved an inmate suit bill
patterned on the federal law.  It would require inmates to first
exhaust correctional department remedies and would bar suits by
inmates with three prior meritless suits.
                  Inmates Dip Into Federal Till
     "Tens of thousands" of jail and prison inmates continue to
receive Social Security and disability benefits, despite
congressional prohibitions against it, a top Social Security
Administration official has told a House committee. 
     David C. Williams, inspector general for the agency,
estimated last week that an intensified crackdown could save more
than $3.46 billion over the next seven years. 
     Congress authorized bonus payments up to $400  to sheriffs
and prison officials who turn in inmates illegally receiving the
payments. 
     Meanwhile, Social Security officials have been working to
detect and block improper inmate  payments in a program they say
saved $257 million in 1995 and doubled last year.
      About 60% of the illegal payments were for Social Security
benefits, most of the balance in the form of disability checks,
the Washington Post reports.  Law requires such payments
suspended during the period the recipient in incarcerated.
                 Wisconsin Killer Back In Prison
     Paroled after serving only about 17 years of a 35-year
sentence for the 1981 sexual assault and murder of a 17-year-old
girl in Wisconsin, Herbert Droste should have counted himself
lucky.
     Even though the state attempted to keep him in custody under
its sexual predator law last year, Droste got out of prison and
into a supervised residence in Baraboo, Associated Press reported
last week.
     But after getting out,  Droste allegedly convinced a
roommate to make a bomb threat telephone call to his murder
victim's family business in Waupon, threatened the life of his
accomplice, threatened bodily harm to his parole agent, and
participated in a plan to kill a guard and escape from the Sauk
County jail. 
     Today, Droste is headed back to prison to serve out the
remaining 17 years of his sentence without the benefit of "good
time" credits to speed his release, said a parole spokesman.  The
parole revocation was ordered by the administrative law judge who
heard the parole agency's case against Droste, who can still
appeal.
              D.C. Opts For Truth-In-Sentencing Law
     Washington, D.C., city council members voted 9-4 last week
to accept a Truth-In-Sentencing Commission's proposal to
eliminate parole for those convicted of 37 different types of
serious crimes in the city beginning on Aug. 5, 2002.
     The alternative would have allowed U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet
Reno to submit her own sentencing plan to Congress.  About 30
states and the federal government now have Truth-In-Sentencing
laws that generally require violent felons to serve at least 85%
of their prison sentences prior to release.
     As part of the transition in the city's criminal justice
system, the federal government already has a plan to take control
of the city's prison inmates within the next four years.  Part of
the plan calls for closing the city's notorious Lorton prison
complex in northern Virginia.
                   E-Mail us at CrimeStrike@NRA.Org
=+=+=+=+
This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle
Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA.
This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is
available at: http://WWW.NRA.Org
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End of GENERAL-RKBA Digest 347
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