Las Vegas Sun

November 16, 2009

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Fewer inmates filing frivolous civil rights lawsuits

Friday, Dec. 26, 1997 | 8:31 a.m.

Due mainly to improved court procedures and penalties for frivolous claims, fewer Nevada inmates are filing civil rights lawsuits even as the prison population grows, Del Papa said.

The number of such cases filed monthly has dropped from a high of 457 in June of 1995 to 258 in November, a 44 percent decline. During the same period, the number of inmates rose from 7,315 to about 8,500, a 16 percent increase.

As an example of frivolous cases, Del Papa cites a civil rights lawsuit filed in 1996 by Robert Bonta, a prisoner at the Southern Desert Correctional Center. He said the Department of Prisons failed to deliver to him a Christmas card sent by his mother.

The frivolous lawsuit was eventually dismissed in federal court, but not before time and money were spent by the attorney general's office defending the Prisons Department in the matter.

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