Many prison lawsuits a joke

New York (UPI): A convicted burglar who wants a special prison housing unit named after himself plus "$989 billion trillion" in damages is among the inmates being singled out for scorn by a New York State prosecutor.

Attorney General Dennis Vacco has put the lawsuit filed by Anthony Malloy on his list of the five most frivolous prison suits, which accompanies a call for reform.

The other plaintiffs on Vacco's list are burglar Jose Reyes, who claims a disciplinary diet caused him to lose an entire pound; and child killer Thomas Higgins, who is demanding multicultural dance concerts and gospel music in his cell block.

Killer Anthony Gill is the man behind a $4.3 million federal suit that charges secondhand smoke from fellow inmates is causing serious health problems. Vacco says his legal documents don't explain why Gill buys cigarettes from the prison commissary if he's so sickened by them.

Finally, there's Francis High Smith, a serial burglar who filed suit against the state after he got in trouble for going on the lam while on a work-release job.

Vacco says Smith claims he forgot to return to the Queensboro Correctional Facility because he has amnesia. And he's asking for $10 million in damages because, he alleges, faulty medical care caused the condition.

Inmate lawsuits were up 32 percent in New York last year to a total of 7,700, and they account for one-third of Vacco's defense caseload. He says some suits are "barely legible, scrawled on toilet paper, or sprinkled with human blood."

Vacco wants legislation requiring a filing fee and imposing sanctions for prisoners who file frivolous lawsuits.