NCJ Number
156862
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 57 Issue: 5 Dated: (August 1995) Pages: 112,114,116,150
Date Published
1995
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Judicial oversight of the operation of prisons and jails has produced more positive change in corrections than any other development during the past 30 years.
Abstract
The Federal courts have forced accountability on the persons and institutions who have the responsibility of holding offenders accountable. Both before and after judicial oversight, inmates have been confined in filthy conditions, worked unsupervised in a prison medical department, been segregated by race, and supervised by inmate trusties with firearms. Although some decry excessive judicial involvement in prison administration, it is clear that conditions would not have changed otherwise. Recent examples of public attitudes toward offenders reveal that the public cares little about what happens to offenders. Litigation has been the only means of raising awareness of past and current abuses. Removing judicial oversight, combined with the public's increasingly hostile attitudes toward offenders, could ensure that history repeats itself in ways that correctional professionals will find abhorrent. Photograph and 12 references