NCJ Number
100476
Date Published
1986
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the extent, nature, and impact of judicial intervention on U.S. prison policy.
Abstract
During the 1960's, the view that prisoners had no rights began to be questioned, issuing in an explosion of inmate lawsuits and the courts' detailed examination of prison conditions and policies. By 1980, the majority of State prison systems were subject, in total or in part, to court orders regarding some aspect of their conditions or decisionmaking process. In a series of cases since 1976, however, the U.S. Supreme Court appears intent on halting the expansion of prisoners' rights law. Still, judicial intervention has already established inmate rights in the areas of freedom of expression, due process in disciplinary hearings, abolition of corporal punishment, length and conditions of solitary confinement, staff abuse, inmate health services, and physical conditions of confinement. Court decisions per se, however, cannot achieve significant change in prison conditions. A review of events in States under court orders to change prison conditions indicates that the legislatures' willingness to grant prison appropriations and the criminal courts' sentencing policies affect a prison system's ability to comply with court orders. A primary benefit of judicial intervention is the exposure of prison conditions and policy to public view.