NCJ Number
86188
Journal
Criminal Justice Ethics Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter/Spring 1982) Pages: 26-41
Date Published
1982
Length
16 pages
Annotation
The advocacy of prisoners' rights is and can be expected to remain a difficult, controversial, and uphill struggle, based on an analysis of common arguments against prisoners' rights.
Abstract
An investigation of the views of Locke, Hobbes, and other natural rights philosophers finds that the natural rights tradition cannot be used to derive a doctrine of prisoners' rights. Justifications of punishment are examined, including the slave/prisoner analogy (i.e., the practices of slavery and imprisonment are incompatible with human rights, being based essentially on dominance and submission, inferiority and authority, moral rectitude and moral degradation). It is concluded that imprisonment comes perilously close to being an institution that constantly jeopardizes human rights. A hypothetical example of a prisoner's claim to the right to write a letter is used to illustrate the arguments employed to deny that right. The few arguments having merit are based on institutional security, institutional function, and considerations of equal rights. However, these few important and valid arguments can only be rebutted in particular cases by appealing to empirical considerations that are often difficult to establish and then alter. A total of 40 notes are provided.