LibGuides: Know Your Rights!: Prisoner's Rights

Defending Your Rights

Jailhouse Lawyer’s Manual
Your right to be free from assault by prison guards and other prisoners.
United States Courts: Chapter 2, § 220: Appointment of Counsel
As noted in § 210.40.10, a person financially eligible for representation should be provided with counsel as soon as feasible after being taken into custody, when first appearing before the court or U.S. magistrate judge, when formally charged, or when otherwise entitled to counsel under the CJA, whichever occurs earliest.

EBooks

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The Criminal Law Handbook by Paul Bergman; Sara J. Berman-Barrett
Call Number: EBook
ISBN: 9781413307047
Publication Date: 2007-10-01
The best plain-English book on criminal law available!. The criminal justice system is a complex maze, full of confusing rules and procedures. Fortunately, you can turn to this book for clear and complete explanations.
Human Rights and Prisons by United Nations (Created by)
Call Number: EBook
ISBN: 9789211541588
Publication Date: 2005-09-09
International human rights law is binding on all States and their agents, including prison officials. Human rights are a legitimate subject for international law and international scrutiny. Law enforcement officials are obliged to know, and to apply, international standards for human rights.
The Legal Rights of the Convicted by Barbara Belbot; Craig Hemmens
Call Number: EBook
ISBN: 9781593324247
Publication Date: 2010-06-01
The Legal Rights of the Convicted makes a unique scholarly contribution to an important and emerging field. It is a comprehensive examination of the legal rights of convicted offenders.
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Call Number: EBook
ISBN: 9781620975459
Publication Date: 2020-01-07
Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Relevant Articles

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Preserving dignity: rethinking voting rights for U.S. prisoners, lessons from South Africa
Researchers recognize that voting bans placed upon individuals with felony convictions prove troubling for any democratic society. In the United States, an estimated 5.85 million people are currently ineligible to vote under these statutes.
Fifty Years of American Sentencing Reform: Nine Lessons.
The article offers information on the history of the American sentencing reform. Topics discussed include information on the sentencing policy guidelines enable the unreviewable authority to set sentences and parole boards to release prisoners; discussions on the support for change as a part of the bipartisanship for the Civil liberties, civil rights and prisoners’ rights in U.S.; and focused on disparities, unfairness, and racial bias in the U.S.
We Are Not Slaves: Rethinking the Rise of Carceral States through the Lens of the Prisoners' Rights Movement.
An essay is presented which discusses the U.S. Southern States prisoners' civil rights movement from the 1960s through the 1990s, commenting on the historiography of mass incarceration in the U.S. (referred to as the carceral state) and the legal struggles of prisoners. An overview of prisoners' lawsuits over their prison conditions, including the Texas prisoner class-action civil rights lawsuit "Ruíz v. Estelle," is provided.

"When the prison gates slam behind an inmate, he does not lose his human quality; his mind does not become closed to ideas; his intellect does not cease to feed on a free and open interchange of opinions; his yearning for self-respect does not end; nor is his quest for self-realization concluded. If anything, the needs for identity and self-respect are more compelling in the dehumanizing prison environment. Whether an 0. Henry writing his short stories in a jail cell or a frightened young inmate writing his family, a prisoner needs a medium for self-expression. It is the role of the First Amendment and this Court to protect those precious personal rights by which we satisfy such basic yearnings of the human spirit."

- Thurgood Marshall

Supreme Court Justice

Procunier v Martinez, 416 U.S. 428 (1974)

Insights into US Prison Statistics

ACLU: [Infographic] Combating Mass Incarceration - The Facts
America’s criminal justice system should keep communities safe, treat people fairly, and use fiscal resources wisely. But more Americans are deprived of their liberty than ever before - unfairly and unnecessarily, with no benefit to public safety.
The Sentencing Project: Private Prisons in the United States
Private prisons in the United States incarcerated 121,718 people in 2017, representing 8.2% of the total state and federal prison population. Since 2000, the number of people housed in private prisons has increased 39%.
Amnesty International: USA: “Not part of my sentence”: Violations of the Human Rights of Women in custody
This report describes violations of the internationally guaranteed human rights of women incarcerated in prisons and jails(2) in the United States of America.

Policy & Resources

Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act
Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act - Authorizes the Attorney General to initiate a civil action in an appropriate district court against a State or local government or its employees or agents, and to intervene in an existing Federal action, with respect to institutionalized persons whose rights are being denied.
Constitution Center: The 6th Amendment, Right to Speedy Trial by Jury, Witnesses, Counsel
The Sixth Amendment guarantees a cluster of rights designed to make criminal prosecutions more accurate, fair, and legitimate. But the institutions of American criminal justice have changed markedly over the past several centuries, forcing courts to consider how old rights apply to new institutions and procedures.
Constitution Center: The 7th Amendment, Jury Trial in Civil Lawsuits
To many Americans, jury trials seem to be the normal way of deciding civil cases. Television programs and movies show exciting scenes of juries deciding important non-criminal disputes involving individuals, government officials, and companies. The reality is different.
Constitution Center: The 8th Amendment, Excessive Fines, Cruel and Unusual Punishment
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” This amendment prohibits the federal government from imposing unduly harsh penalties on criminal defendants, either as the price for obtaining pretrial release or as punishment for crime after conviction.
Cornell Legal Information Institute: Prisoner's Rights
Federal and state laws govern the establishment and administration of prisons as well as the rights of the inmates. Although prisoners do not have full constitutional rights, they are protected by the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Cornell Legal Information Institute: Right to Counsel
The right to counsel refers to the right of a criminal defendant to have a lawyer assist in his defense, even if he cannot afford to pay for an attorney.
Prison Legal News
Prison Legal News, a project of the Human Rights Defense Center, is an independent 72-page monthly magazine that provides cutting edge review and analysis of prisoners' rights, court rulings and news concerning criminal justice-related issues. PLN has a national (U.S.) focus on both state and federal prison issues, with some international coverage.
Video: What Rights Do Prisoners Have? - Part 1
Overview & Introduction to Prisoner Rights (Part 1 of 2).
Video: What Rights Do Prisoners Have? - Part 2
Overview & Introduction to Prisoner Rights (Part 2 of 2).

TED Talks: Prisoners & the Justice System

Alice Goffman | How we're Priming some kids for college - and others for prison
In the United States, two institutions guide teenagers on the journey to adulthood: college and prison. Sociologist Alice Goffman spent six years in a troubled Philadelphia neighborhood and saw first-hand how teenagers of African-American and Latino backgrounds are funneled down the path to prison — sometimes starting with relatively minor infractions.
Eve Abrams | The Human Stories Behind Mass Incarceration
The United States locks up more people than any other country in the world, says documentarian Eve Abrams, and somewhere between one and four percent of those in prison are likely innocent.
Ronald Sullivan | How I Help Free Innocent People from Prison
Harvard Law professor Ronald Sullivan fights to free wrongfully convicted people from jail -- in fact, he has freed some 6,000 innocent people over the course of his career. He shares heartbreaking stories of how (and why) people end up being put in jail for something they didn't do, and the consequences in their lives and the lives of others.
Salil Dudani | How Jails Extort the Poor
Why do we jail people for being poor? Today, half a million Americans are in jail only because they can't afford to post bail, and still more are locked up because they can't pay their debt to the court, sometimes for things as minor as unpaid parking tickets.
Will Potter | The secret US prisons you've never heard of before
Investigative journalist Will Potter is the only reporter who has been inside a Communications Management Unit, or CMU, within a US prison.

Organizations that Help

ACLU, Know Your Rights: Prisoners' Rights
The National Prison Project is dedicated to ensuring that our nation's prisons, jails, and detention centers comply with the Constitution, domestic law, and human rights principles.
Prison Activist Resource Center
PARC is a prison abolitionist group committed to exposing and challenging all forms of institutionalized racism, sexism, able-ism, heterosexism, and classism, specifically within the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC).
Prisoner Advocacy Network
The Prisoner Advocacy Network (PAN) is a volunteer network of activists, attorneys, legal workers, medical professionals, and law students. We are supervised by attorneys and thus operate under attorney-client privilege and can use legal mail. PAN is an advocacy network, not a litigation team.
The Sentencing Project
The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by producing groundbreaking research to promote reforms in sentencing policy, address unjust racial disparities and practices, and to advocate for alternatives to incarceration.

News Articles

Associated Press Topics: Prisoners Rights
Various articles on the topic of Prisoners rights, covered from both a national & international lens.
The Hill: Court won't review decision siding with ex-felons in Florida who challenged voting requirement
A federal appeals court says it will not review a February decision blocking a state law that requires ex-convicts to pay back all legal fees before they are allowed to vote.
Reuters: Prison contagion in Americas 'deeply worrying', U.N. says
Overcrowded, unhygienic prisons in Latin America and the spread of the new coronavirus both in regional prisons and in the United States are a source of “major concern”, the U.N. rights office (OHCHR) said on Tuesday.

Documentaries

PBS: College Behind Bars (Nov. 2019)
Explore the transformative power of education through the eyes of a dozen incarcerated men and women trying to earn college degrees – and a chance at new beginnings – from one of the country’s most rigorous prison education programs.
Netflix: When They See Us (2019)
Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park. Based on the true story.
Netflix: 13th (2016)
Combining archival footage with testimony from activists and scholars, director Ava DuVernay's examination of the U.S. prison system looks at how the country's history of racial inequality drives the high rate of incarceration in America.
PBS: The House I Live In (2013)
Filmed in more than twenty states, The House I Live In captures heart-wrenching stories of those on the front lines — from the dealer to the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge — and offers a penetrating look at the profound human rights implications of America’s longest war.