NCJ Number
73225
Journal
Columbia Human Rights Law Review Volume: 9 Issue: 2 and V 10, N 1, double issue Dated: (Fall-Winter 1977-78, Spring-Summer 1978) Pages: 285-311
Date Published
1978
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This article for New York prisoners discusses constitutional guarantees of freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, prison discipline issues, suing prisons for assaults by other prisoners or guards, and the relief courts can offer.
Abstract
The eighth and fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution guarantee prisoners freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, as well as unreasonable searches and seizures, interpreted by the courts to include torture, flogging, violent prisons, and assault by prison guards and fellow inmates. The 1871 Federal Civil Rights Law allows prisoners to sue in Federal courts State-empowered or employed prison officials who violate their constitutional rights. Similarly, many State statutes protect prisoners from assault. A discussion of protection from assault from prison guards points out that the assault must be extraneous to prison discipline and covers cases providing the legal basis for suing for unprovoked attack, excessive or unnecessary assaults, the use of force, and corporal punishment suits. Judges in eighth or fourteenth amendment suits may award the complainant damages or press an injunction against the offensive condition. A brief discussion of unreasonable searches forbidden by the fourth amendment covers anal and strip searches. Although courts are reluctant to hold prisons responsible for sexual assaults by prisoners on other prisoners, recent cases give prisoners injunctive relief by forbidding certain conditions, such as overcrowding, that lead to sexual assaults and have awarded monetary damages. A discussion of self-defense covers how and when a prisoner may defend himself against prison guards and other inmates and cases involving escape as a form of self-defense. Footnotes are included.