Overview of prisoner rights for introduction to corrections class.

1. Corrections
Prisoner Rights

2. Unit Topics
Outline the development and sources of
prisoners’ rights
Describe types of inmate lawsuits using access
to courts and issues of religion as examples.
Describe how inmate litigation is limited.
Summarize the issues associated with the loss of
civil right.
Explain procedures by which civil rights can be
restored.

3. Philosophies on Prisoner Rights
• Rights-Are-Related: Argues that prisoners keep
all the rights of an ordinary citizen, except those
that are expressly or by necessity taken away
from them by law (Comes from 1944 appeals
court decision Coffin v. Reichard)
• Rights-Are-Lost: Argues that prisoners are
wholly without rights except those expressly
conferred by law or necessity

4. Habeas Corpus and Ex Post Facto
• Writ of Habeas Corpus: Judicial mandate to a
prison official ordering that an inmate be brought
to the court in order to determine the legality of
the prisoner’s detention
ex parte Hull (1941): prison authorities cannot
restrict an inmate’s right to apply to a federal
court for a writ of habeas corpus
• Ex Post Facto law: A law imposing a greater
punishment for a crime than was allowed when
the crime was committed

5. Due Process and Equal Protection
• Incorporation: Legal theory arguing that all
provisions of the Bill of Rights are made
applicable to the states through the due process
clause
• Due Process Clause: That section of the
Fourteenth Amendment requiring all states to
abide by the Bill of Rights when depriving a
person of life, liberty, or property

6. Due Process and Equal Protection
• Equal Protection Clause: That section of the
Fourteenth Amendments prohibiting any state
from denying equal protection of the law to
person within its jurisdiction
• Section 1983 Claim: A claim brought under the
authority of U.S. Code Title 42, Section 1983 that
civil rights have been violated

7. What Legal Rights do Inmates Have?
Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and
unusual punishment
Thirteenth Amendment: banning of slavery
and involuntary servitude
Fourteenth Amendment on the concept of
individual rights

8. The Civil Rights Act
U.S. Code Title 42, Section 1983
• Prisoner claims are typically called Section
1983 claims.
• Prisoners use for claims ranging from religion,
inadequate health care, staff brutality, inmate-on-
inmate assaults.

9. Important Prisoner’s Rights Cases
Ruffin v. Commonwealth (1871)
Holt v. Sarver (1970)
Cruz v. Beto (1972)
Wolff v. McDonnell (1974)
Turner v. Safley (1987)
Porter v. Nussle (2002)
Wilkinson v. Austin (2005)
Beard v. Banks (2006)
Brown v. Plata (2011)

10. Important Prisoner’s Rights Cases
Bounds v Smith (1977): prisons must provide
adequate law libraries or adequate legal
assistance from persons trained in law
Lewis v. Casey (1996): Bounds did not create a
freestanding right to a law library or even legal
assistance; for a violation of Bounds to occur,
prisoners must show the provided prison library
or legal assistance program is hindering their
efforts to pursue a legal claim

11. Inmate lawsuits and Access to Courts
Legitimate Penological Interest: Standard used
by courts to determine whether a prison policy
was developed in an arbitrary manner or out of
concern for prison order and security
Access to Courts is Possibly the most basic right
Access involves two components:
Procedures by which inmates get their claims
before the court
Having the necessary legal knowledge to make
their access effective

12. Religion Rights
Free exercise presents greater problems in
prison environment
Freedom to believe and freedom to act
Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940): first is absolute,
but nature of things the second cannot be,
conduct becomes subject to regulation for
protection of society

13. Religion Rights
Court understands First Amendment gives all
people absolute right to whatever religious
beliefs they wish but not necessarily to every
action they want to carry out
Legitimate penological interests overrule any
actions for practicing of religion

14. Turner v Safely Standards
Factors to be considered when deciding if a prison
regulation that interferes with a prisoner’s
constitutional rights is a valid policy:
Does the regulation have a valid, rational
connection to a legitimate government
interest?
Do inmates have available alternate means to
exercise the asserted right?
How would accommodation of the right affect
correctional officers, inmates, and prison
resources?
Are there ready alternatives to the regulation?

15. Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA)
• Prison Litigation Reform Act (PRLA):
Intended to reduce the volume of prisoner
litigation and to improve the merit of filed claims
including limiting nongovernmental organizations
to legally challenge prison conditions and
automatically terminates court orders after two
years regardless of compliance

16. Incarceration and loss of civil rights
• Civil Death: Convicted offenders forfeit all
rights and privileges of citizenship, including
things such as the right to enter in a contract or
the right to sue
• Civil Disabilities: Convicted offenders suffer a
partial, rather than an absolute, loss of civil
rights because of a criminal conviction
• Invisible Punishments: Sanctions operating
mostly beyond public view, yet having very
serious, adverse consequences for the
individuals affected

17. Civil Rights Issues
• Collateral consequences: Secondary
consequences beyond the actual sentence that
was imposed
• Sex offender registration laws: Requires
persons convicted of sex offenses to register in a
community, even after they have completed
their sentence for that conviction

18. Civil Rights Issues
• Public notification laws: Requires the public
be notified of the name and location of certain
sex offenders in the community
• Residence restriction laws: Require sex
offenders to live in certain areas or restrict them
from living in other areas
• Civil disenfranchisement: The loss of the right
to vote due, for example, to a felony conviction

19. Civil Sanctions
• In many jurisdictions persons convicted of
felonies lose some of their civil rights.
• Not legally full citizens even after finishing
their sentence
• State hinders full reintegration and
contributes to recidivism

20. Certificate of Rehabilitation
• Certificate of Rehabilitation: Generic term for
an official recognition that a criminal offender
has shown reliability and good character over
time and deserves to regain lost civil rights