NCJ Number
144671
Date Published
1993
Length
144 pages
Annotation
This handbook for correctional officers discusses many of the legal issues they may face.
Abstract
Inmates may file lawsuits against the general policies or condition of the institution, which may affect individual officers, or against individual officers, often charging failure to follow the policies of the institution and thus violation of their rights. A chapter runs through a condensed history of criminal justice, divided into three eras according to degree of court involvement in corrections issues: the "hands-off" period, which lasted from the beginning of American corrections until the mid- to late 1960's; the "hands-on" period, which covered most of the 1970's; and the "one-hand-on, one-hand-off" period, which began in the 1980's and continues to date. Other topics of discussion are access to the courts; inmate rights vs. institutional interests; the fourteenth, first, fourth, and eighth amendments to the U.S. Constitution; suicide; use of force; how a lawsuit works; officers' rights; and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Chapter notes, case citations