THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 3, 1995 TAG: 9412300032
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
The worth of a lawsuit, lawyers say, is not only whether you can file it but whether you can win.
By that standard, the overwhelming majority of lawsuits filed by inmates of Virginia's prison system isn't worth the paper they're printed on or the time it takes to prepare the complaints and get them into the court system. Still, inmates continue to litigate for everything from inadequate medical treatment to having no raisins in rice pudding.
And that range illustrates the difficulty of imposing any broad controls to reduce the volume of prisoner-filed civil lawsuits - 1,470 last year in Virginia - and the burden they impose on the legal system, including eight attorneys, four legal assistants and three secretaries in the attorney general's office to defend cases against the state.
In 1977, inmates of Bland Correctional Center in southwestern Virginia were victors in a lawsuit alleging that conditions violated their constitutional rights. Jailers were ordered to stop using drugs to control inmate behavior and to build a hospital and establish a law library.
At the other end of the spectrum is Frank Altizer, an inmate at Keen Mountain Correctional Center in Buchanan County, who is serving two life terms plus 10 years for abduction and sexual molestation. He has filed 90 lawsuits since 1973 - all dismissed before trial.
He calls his litigiousness ``part of the game.'' Maybe for him - he has nothing but time - but not for taxpayers who bear the cost of such silliness, upwards of $2 million a year for the attorney general's employees alone, or even for inmates who believe they have meritorious cases.
What to do? The U.S. Supreme gave individuals direct access to federal courts and broadened the scope of claims that could be made against government officials. That includes prisoners.
A system to monitor the suits and throw out frivolous allegations such as cruel and unusual living conditions because a prison has no food warmer might cost more than the existing mess.
Peer monitoring is about the best we can ask. Inmate Michael Fulcher, head clerk of the law library at the Bland prison, knows that ``frivolous cases are messing it up for the rest of us,'' claiming attention that rightly should go to meritorious complaints.
He and his counterparts should encourage others to focus on whether they can win, not simply whether they can file. Overloading the court system is in no one's interest.
KEYWORDS: JAILHOUSE LAWYER by CNB