NCJ Number
100568
Date Published
1985
Length
15 pages
Annotation
The tendency of Federal courts to mandate sweeping and detailed reforms of prison conditions under the eighth amendment (cruel and unusual punishment) is ebbing. Courts have recently focused on specific unconstitutional conditions and the minimum standard of remedy.
Abstract
In Rhodes v. Chapman (1981), the U.S. Supreme Court held that for prison conditions to violate the eighth amendment, they must inflict cruel and unusual pain on the offender. This is a lower standard for cruel and unusual punishment than had been applied in a number of lower courts, some of which had determined that overcrowding in itself, regardless of evidence of inflicted pain on inmates, constituted a violation of the eighth amendment. Since ''Chapman,' courts have tended to examine the effects of specific prison conditions regarding the pain they inflict rather than the totality of prison conditions. This marks a change from court orders intended to achieve sweeping changes in prison conditions that have required years of court jurisdiction and monitoring. 79 notes.