NCJ Number
137739
Date Published
1992
Length
514 pages
Annotation
This discussion of the legal rights, duties, and liabilities of criminal justice personnel is placed in a multidimensional framework that takes into account the social, historical, and economic aspects of how the law affects criminal justice officials.
Abstract
The four chapters of part I explore various remedies and defenses used by and against criminal justice personnel in their assertion or defense of claims. One chapter describes procedural remedies fashioned by legislatures and courts to implement constitutional rights, including civil rights statutes. This discussion is continued in another chapter, with emphasis on affirmative action suits of particular interest to criminal justice personnel. Other chapters in part I detail defenses to the actions outlined in the first two chapters, especially the defense of sovereign immunity, and address the special remedy of injunctive relief. Part II of the book uses the rights and remedies found in part I to explain the kinds of legal problems that confront criminal justice personnel. The first chapter in part II addresses the rights of criminal justice personnel within their own organization. It describes the legal and political environment of the criminal justice system, the rise of police and correctional unions, and the police and prison guards as a political force. Chapter 6, the most expanded chapter in this edition, discusses the procedural rights of criminal justice employees in disciplinary and dismissal hearings. The final chapter discusses the first amendment rights of criminal justice personnel inside and outside their organization. Table of cases and a subject index