Right of Prisoner Denied, Charges Cruel Treatment with Racial Discrimination in Dannemora, New York

Press Release
October 15, 1968

Right of Prisoner Denied, Charges Cruel Treatment with Racial Discrimination in Dannemora, New York preview

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  • Press Releases, Volume 5. Right of Prisoner Denied, Charges Cruel Treatment with Racial Discrimination in Dannemora, New York, 1968. 2d851110-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/9b8bc42a-1682-4c87-a470-c773ee73ec82/right-of-prisoner-denied-charges-cruel-treatment-with-racial-discrimination-in-dannemora-new-york. Accessed July 03, 2025.

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    RELEASE - 10/15/68 

A prisoner's right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment 
and to due process of law in a prison disciplinary system will be 
tried in Federal District Court in Albany, New York, today by 
attorney William Turner of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 
Fund, Inc. (LDF). 

The case involves an inmate at Clinton Prison at Dannemora, N.Y., 
who is suing the warden for imposing solitary confinement or punitive 
segregation arbitrarily and without standards or guidelines, therefore 
depriving him of his federally protected rights. 

This case has far-reaching implications in that the limits of 
the rights of prisoners or deprivations of fundamental rights are 
being tested. 

If Judge Foley rules in favor of the plaintiff, a precedent for 
upholding significant constitutional rights for prisoners would be 
set. 

Turner will argue that the imposition of punitive segregation 
(given the unsanitary and oppressive conditions df the cells and the 
fact that prisoners automatically lose "good time" earned |to reduce 
their sentence) denies fundamental rights and interferes with the 

possible rehabilitation of inmates. 

Released to: AP, UPI - Albany, N.Y. 

Fahy sere ee Va 

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