Prisoners Rights

[Shortie]

an overview from Legal Information Institute.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/prisoners_rights.html
Federal and state laws govern the establishment and administration of prisons as well as the rights of the inmates. Although prisoners do not have full Constitutional rights they are protected by the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment (see Amendment VIII). This protection requires that prisoners be afforded a minimum standard of living. Prisoners retain some other Constitutional rights including due process in their right to administrative appeals and a right of access to the parole process. The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment has been held to apply to prison inmates. Prisoners are therefore protected against unequal treatment on the basis of race, sex, and creed. Additionally, the Model Sentencing and Corrections Act provides that a confined person has a protected interest in freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, or sex. Prisoners also have limited rights to speech and religion.

State prisoners have no rights to particular classifications under state law. Courts are extremely reluctant to limit the discretion of state prison officials to classify prisoners. (Classification, as it is used here is meant to describe the custodial classification of a prisoner once he or she is convicted -- i.e.: maximum vs. minimum security, solitary confinement, etc.)

Congress has given federal prison officials full discretion to control prisoner classification as affecting conditions of confinement. Generally, such matters are left to the control of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Courts tend to give deference to prison officials regarding prisoners' rights. So long as the conditions or degree of a prisoner's confinement are within the sentence and not otherwise violative of the Constitution the due process clause does not require judicial oversight. For prison regulations that do impinge on inmates' constitutional rights, the strict scrutiny test does not apply. Rather, the rational relationship test is used (the lowest level of judicial scrutiny -- the test is whether there is a rational relation to a legitimate state interest).

[jdswifey02]

excellent link!! Thanks Shortie!!

[soraya]

thanks shortie!! very useful information and great link!

[Shortie]

no problem it seems that we keep running into problems with prisoners rights and i think this one may just help JD so i wanted to post it and see if they can help him out.. let me know if i can help in any way

[danielle]

Great resource!

[Shortie]

let me know if you have any questions regarding this link cuz i found several others and wanted to know if they would be worth posting.. let me know..

[jdswifey02]

definitely post them Shortie!! I need all the help I can get!! It looks like we are going to have to take this to the next level, so I am going to start checking attorney's out more thoroughly in the next few weeks and want to be well prepared when I take them the argument they are going to make on my behalf!! That one has some EXCELLENT stuff!!

[sherri13]

THANKS SHORTIE!

[love muffin]

Thanks Shortie,

Please post as many as possible. The more knowledge we have the better off we are.

[soraya]

I agree, we can never have too much knowledge and it sounds like this will be helping out a lot of people, including darrell and me

[DJohnson]

Yep keep posting them for us girl!! We need to know as much as possible. You know they aren't going to offer that info. to us so we have to find it for ourselves!

[CREAMYALMONDZ]

Thanks Shortie!!!

[Shortie]

OK I WILL POST SOME OF THE OTHER LINKS TONIGHT. HOPE IT WILL HELP SOME OF THE MEN AND WOMEN IN OUR LIVES...

[Shortie]

an overview from Legal Information Institute.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/prisoners_rights.html

[Shortie]

includes history of the human rights movement, information on prisoners of conscience, and more.
http://www.hrweb.org/