NCJ Number
75399
Journal
Library Trends Volume: 26 Issue: 1 Dated: (Summer 1977) Pages: 71-96
Date Published
1977
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This article examines recent court cases regarding the establishment and adequacy of law libraries and legal services available to prison inmates in the United States and reviews those standards directed to law libraries within correctional institutions.
Abstract
Until 1969, American courts were very reluctant to interfere in the administration of correctional facilities, even in cases where prison regulations obviously discouraged prisoners from exercising their rights by seeking court remedies. Two court cases began a trend away from that reluctance. In Johnson v. Avery in 1969 and in Gilmore v. Lynch, both Supreme Court and Federal court decisions established the rights of prison inmates to have reasonable and adequate access to law libraries or to other methods of legal assistance. Since these cases, many others have supported the provision of adequate law libraries and have made decisions regarding that adequacy. Some court cases have upheld the denial of access to legal materials for prisoners for specific reasons. Specific standards for correctional facility law libraries have been established by the American Bar Association, the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice, the National Sheriff's Association, and the American Correctional Association working with the American Library Association. These standards, if implemented, will improve the quality of law libraries in prisons, but what is really needed are legal services. A compromise worked out by the Connecticut Department of Corrections may offer a practical solution that satisfies both the inmate who wants to act as his own attorney and the inmate who is not equipped to do so, by providing both attorneys and a basic law library that relies heavily on microforms. A list of 61 references is appended.