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Inmate, wife file suit over visitation ban

December 10, 2011

A state inmate and his wife are suing Northpoint Training Center Warden Steve Haney and other state prison officials because they are no longer allowed to have “face-to-face” visits at any of Kentucky’s correctional facilities.

Gerald and Leslie Young filed the complaint recently in U.S. District Court in Lexington, alleging their civil rights are being violated because they have not been allowed see each other since Haney permanently banned Leslie Young from visiting any correctional facility on Dec. 1, 2010.

According to the lawsuit, Gerald Young is serving a life sentence for complicity to commit murder. He was transferred from another prison to Northpoint in October 2010 and was allowed regular face-to-face visits with his wife until Nov. 29 of that year, when he was placed in segregation while a complaint he made against a Northpoint officer was being investigated, the lawsuit states.

Haney’s letter banning Leslie Young provides no “factual basis” for the prohibition against visits, only cites Department of Corrections policies and procedures. She tried to obtain from several sources, including Haney, an explanation for the ban and how she might have her visitations restored , but did not get any responses.

Gerald Young also filed a grievance seeking an explanation and reinstatement of the visits but the grievance was denied, the lawsuit maintains.

The Youngs were married in 2009 at Western Kentucky Correctional Facility.

The U.S. Constitution affords the rights of familial association, and creating and maintaining a relationship as husband and wife, including the right to “some form of face-to-face visitation” in a prison setting, the complaint contends. Haney’s ban is punitive and violates the couple’s rights to free association and due process, and subjects Gerald Young to cruel and unusual punishment, according to the lawsuit.

“Face-to-face visitation is essential for families who seek to sustain relationships with loved ones,” the lawsuit states. It “improves the mental health of inmates and reduces disruption in the prison system.”

Letters and phone calls are not adequate alternatives to face-to-face visits, the lawsuit states.

The complaint, filed by Lexington attorney Robin Cornette, alleges both of the Youngs have suffered severe mental and emotional anguish as a result of the ban, which has also denied Gerald Young the chance to see his minor daughter. It seeks to restore Leslie Young’s visitation rights and have such bans declared unconstitutional. It also seeks unspecified compensatory damages.

Along with Haney, the wardens at Kentucky’s other correctional facilities are named as defendants, along with Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson and Deputy Commissioner Jim Erwin.

None of the defendants have yet responded to the allegations in the complaint.

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