Legal Rights of Prisoners - History Of Prisoners' Rights, The Hands-off Period, The Beginnings Of Prisoners' Rights Law—the Civil Rights Era
prisons population punishment americans
Americans live in a time of the greatest prison expansion in the modern history. By the close of 2000, almost two million adults were imprisoned at an operational cost that exceeds over $38 billion dollars a year. Minorities are represented in the prison population in percentages that far exceed their representation in the general population. African Americans comprise less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, yet 48 percent of the prison population is African American. With so many people in prison and with so much spent to keep them there, the rights of prisoners takes added significance. An additional factor is that every year more than a half million men and women prisoners are released. The treatment these people received in prison—whether it conforms to constitutional norms or not—will have consequences. It could very well mean the difference between having prisoners return to their communities embittered or having them return ready to begin law-abiding lives.
This entry will trace the history of prisoners' rights, and will provide a general description of the current state of the law. This review provides a context for considering the likely direction of future developments.
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During most of the history of the United States, prisoners had no legal right to humane conditions of confinement that could be judicially enforced. This view was so strong that one much-cited case even described a suing prisoner as a "slave of the state" (Ruffin v. Commonwealth, 62 Va. (21 Gratt) 790, 796 (1871)). The hands-off doctrine precluded judges from determining what rights …
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the growth of the civil rights movement rendered the "handsoff" doctrine increasingly vulnerable to attack. It was difficult to maintain the validity of the handsoff doctrine at a time of rising expectations for fair and equal treatment by government. Several forces combined during the 1960s to increase the number of prison cases and shake the noninterve…
The key question for the Court once the hands-off doctrine fell became what standard to apply in determining prisoners' rights. A high standard will mean that more rights will be recognized in practice. A lax standard, placing a burden on prisoners that is difficult to meet, might mean that the rights are more theoretical than real. In a series of cases, the Supreme Court has marked out at …
Congress added to the barriers created by the Supreme Court when it passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), which was signed into law by President Clinton on 26 April 1996. A very long and complex act, it has been described by one leading commentator as a "comprehensive charter of obstructions and disabilities designed to discourage prisoners from seeking legal redress" (Bost…
Despite the cutbacks just described, we no longer live in a "hands off" era, nor are we likely to return to one in the future. Courts, even the Burger and Rehnquist Courts, have indicated time and again that the judiciary has an important watchdog role to play in ensuring that fundamental rights are not denied even to a group as politically powerless as prisoners. Yet, it is reasonab…
American Bar Association. "Legal Status of Prisoner Standards." Standards for Criminal Justice. Washington, D.C.: ABA, 1981. American Correctional Association, Commission on Accreditation for Corrections. Standards for Adult Correctional Institutions. Rockville, Md.: The Commission, 1977. Note. "Beyond the Ken of the Courts: A Critique of Judicial Refusal to Hear the Complaint…
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