John Doe

Interesting story on how WI inmates are taking advantage (and not in a good way) of an old state law allowing "John Doe hearings" to be requested to require state officials to formally investigate crimes. The inmates are filing the requests against their prison guards, and, under the law, a full investigation, complete with hearings, must be conducted. If misconduct truly occurred, of course, this is a good thing, but judges are contending that most of the hearings are just revenge against a CO the inmate is mad at. And the judges are contending that the resulting hearings are a drain on resources at a time when the state has fewer resources to drain. The worst thing about it all, true or untrue, is that now, whenever an inmate has a legit grievance that could benefit from this practice, it will automatically be considered pointless. But then, I guess if people took other people into consideration when running their games, we wouldn't be needing prisons at all, would we?