1. Overcrowding & Prisoner Rights

2. Prison Crowding
Crowding is usually defined as the ratio of the number of inmates in a prison to its rated capacity.
Increases in the number of prisoners confined leads to decreases in the amount of space per person.

3. Prison Crowding What are some consequences of prison crowding:
When a lawsuit leads to court-ordered changes such as the
rebuilding or remodeling of correctional facilities
Staff and inmates are adversely affected by prison crowding. Staff must work in a more volatile environment, and inmates must live in facilities in which they are jammed and crammed with other inmates.

4. Prison Crowding Consequences
The problems posed by crowded prisons include the difficulty of controlling large
inmate populations, feelings of anxiety and stress among inmates, and increased levels
of stress among all who work within the walls. When the prison population increases,
correctional officers are required to keep track of too many inmates, have inadequate
space to separate troublemakers, and deal with unending daily problems. A crowded
prison tends to be a violent prison, which means that both inmates and staff are more
likely to be injured or killed.

5. Crowding Issues
Crowding causes stress that elevates the "arousal level" of the inmate and makes any behavior more likely to occur or, secondly, unwanted interactions due to increased density stress the individual over time.
Crowding creates uncertainty in the control environment through transiency, a weakening in staff inmate attachments, and reduction in the certainty of punishment.
Crowding causes violence.

6. Prison Crowding HOW CAN INCREASES IN PRISON CROWDING BE EXPLAINED?
Prison crowding can be explained in a number of ways. There is the perspective of crime rates. High rates of violence and sex crimes and the spread of drug-trafficking gangs are evidence that more, rather than fewer, offenders require long-term incarceration.
There is the perspective of sentencing practices and laws:
mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws, truth-in-sentencing laws, antidrug laws, and sentencing guidelines.
There is the perspective of criminal justice practices: Tough parole policies are probably the most influential, but the increasing numbers of sex offenders and people with mental illness sent to prison also contribute to crowding. There is the perspective of law-and-order politics.
And, last, there is the multidimensional perspective: No one explanation suffices to explain prison crowding.

7. Law and Sentencing Practices
Prison Crowding
Law and Sentencing Practices
Mandatory sentencing laws require imprisonment for certain offenses, and most specify a minimum number of years an offender must spend in prison.
The enormous appeal of mandatory sentencing laws as a cause of overcrowding is that all fifty states have these laws for violent and gun-related crimes, drug offenses, and drunk driving. Moreover, thirty-four states have habitual offender laws that require enhanced prison terms for repeat felony offenders, in some cases regardless of the seriousness of the offense.

8. Crowding leads to
Increases in drug trafficking, homosexual relationships, predatory behavior, gang confrontations, arguments over thefts and valued possessions, and racially prejudicial behavior.
These are the typical proximal
causes of violence.

9. Law and Sentencing Practices
Prison Crowding
Law and Sentencing Practices
Three-strikes laws had been adopted by fourteen states and the federal government by the end of Georgia went further and passed a two-strikes law. California’s three strikes law doubles the sentence on a second felony conviction.
California is expecting huge increases in its prison rates because its three-strikes law requires a sentence of twenty-five years to life for a person convicted of a third felony.

10. Truth in Sentencing
Truth-in-sentencing practices have been enacted in response to the public s concern that offenders are being released before serving their full sentences.
These practices generally require that the actual sentence served by the inmate be a substantial percentage, often 85 percent, of the maximum time imposed by the sentencing judge. This percentage of sentence served is a considerable increase from the average 48 percent of a sentence served by violent offenders in 1992.

11. Ways to Reduce
The increased use of intermediate sanctions and private prisons.
Capping legislation, which establishes a population limit and provides for emergency release measures to maintain a desired population level.
Extended parole, which directs the parole board to use risk assessments when establishing durations of parole supervision
Community corrections acts, which keep in the community certain offenders who otherwise would be sent to prison
Emergency powers acts, which permit governors to release state inmates up to ninety days early when prison populations exceed operating capacity.

12. Other Issues
Density may affect an institution's ability to control behavior and maintain health. At the individual level, density could have very different effects on stress, and consequently on behavior and health.

13. Prison Crowding
Prison crowding is one of the most serious problems facing corrections today.
It undermines the ability of correctional systems to provide adequately for the care, protection, and security of inmates, and it forces correctional
officers and other prison staff to work in an environment in which they must keep track of too many inmates, have inadequate space to separate troublemakers, and deal with unending daily problems.

14. Review The causes of prison crowding are not easily explained.
There are several schools of thought. Some observers attribute prison crowding to crime rates. There is more support for the idea that current laws and sentencing practice are a major contributor to prison crowding.

15. Prisoner Rights: Legal Basis of Prisoners’ Rights
Pell v. Procunier (1974)
U.S. Supreme Court established “balancing test”
balancing test - attempts to weigh rights of individual against the authority of the states to make laws or otherwise restrict a person’s freedom in order to protect its interests and its citizens

16. Prisoner Rights Religious Freedom Cruz v. Beto (1972)
This case established that prisoners must be given a “reasonable opportunity” to pursue their faith, even if it differs from traditional forms of worship.
Meeting facilities must be provided for religious purposes when those same facilities are made available to other groups of prisoners for other purposes.

17. Prisoner Rights Smith v. Coughlin (1984)
Court held that prisoners in segregation do not have to be permitted the opportunity to attend religious services.

18. Prisoner Rights Dettmer v. Landon (1985)
Federal court held that a prisoner who claimed to practice witchcraft must be provided with the artifacts necessary for his worship.

19. Prisoner Rights Hill v. Blackwell (1985)
Prison regulations prohibiting the wearing of beards, even those grown for religious purposes, were held acceptable for security considerations.

20. Prisoner Rights Prisoners also have the right to:
attend services of other religious groups
receive visits from ministers
correspond with religious leaders
observe religious dietary laws
wear religious insignia

21. Freedom of Speech – contact with the media
Prisoner Rights
Freedom of Speech – contact with the media
Pell v. Procunier (1974)
Supreme Court held that media interviews could be conducted through regular visitation arrangements or through correspondence, but denied prisoners opportunity to hold special meetings with members of the press.

22. Prisoner Rights Houchins v. KQED, Inc. (1978)
News personnel cannot be denied correspondence with prisoners, but they have no constitutional right to interview prisoners or to inspect correctional facilities beyond the visitation opportunities available to others.

23. Prisoner Rights Mallery v. Lewis (1983)
Magazines which depict deviant sexual behavior can be banned, however, prisons cannot ban nude pictures of inmates’ wives and girlfriends.

24. Freedom of Speech – right to communicate with non-prisoners
Prisoner Rights
Freedom of Speech – right to communicate with non-prisoners
Procunier v. Martinez (1974)
Prisoner’s mail may be censored if it is necessary to do so for security purposes.

25. Freedom of Speech – right to communicate with non-prisoners
Prisoner Rights
Freedom of Speech – right to communicate with non-prisoners
McNamara v. Moody (1979)
Court upheld right of prisoner to write vulgar letters to his girlfriend, in which he made disparaging remarks about prison staff.

26. Legal Assistance – right to access the courts
Prisoner Rights
Legal Assistance – right to access the courts
Bounds v. Smith (1977)
Right of prisoners to petition the court was recognized. It is the duty of the state to assist prisoners in preparation and filing of legal papers.

27. Legal Assistance – right to access the courts
Prisoner Rights
Legal Assistance – right to access the courts
Lewis v. Casey (1996)
Court overturned part of Bounds v. Smith (1977).
Prisoners are not guaranteed the “wherewithal to file any and every type of legal claim.”
States are required to provide tools to prisoners so they can attack their sentences and conditions of confinement.

28. Prisoner Rights Legal Assistance Prisoners also have the right to:
visits from attorneys
mail communications with attorneys
communicate with legal assistance organizations
consult with “jail-house lawyers”

29. Medical Treatment – sanitary and healthy conditions
Prisoner Rights
Medical Treatment – sanitary and healthy conditions
Ruiz v. Estelle (1982)
Court found Dept. of Corrections lacking in its medical treatment programs.
Court monitored Dept. of Corrections while it improved:
record keeping
physical facilities
general medical care

30. Medical Treatment – sanitary and healthy conditions
Prisoner Rights
Medical Treatment – sanitary and healthy conditions
Newman v. Alabama (1972)
prison medical services inadequate
not enough medical personnel
poor physical facilities
poor medical records
lack of medical supplies
medically untrained personnel who determined need for treatment

31. Medical Treatment – right to medical attention for serious problems
Prisoner Rights
Medical Treatment – right to medical attention for serious problems
Estelle v. Gamble (1976)
Court concerned itself with “deliberate indifference” on part of staff toward prisoner’s need for serious medical attention.
Court specified prison officials’ duty to provide for inmates’ medical care.

32. Prisoner Rights Prisoners have the right to: food, water, and shelter
Right to Protection
Prisoners have the right to:
food, water, and shelter
protection from foreseeable attack
protection from predictable sexual attack
protection against suicide

33. Prisoner Rights Right to Privacy Katz v. U.S. (1967)
Most of the major Supreme Court cases have held that prisoners cannot have a reasonable expectation to privacy when incarcerated.
Examples:
Katz v. U.S. (1967)
U.S. v. Ready (1978)
Hudson v. Palmer (1984)
Block v. Rutherford (1984)

34. Prisoner Rights Hudson v. Palmer (1984)
Palmer was a prisoner, Hudson was a correctional officer.
Palmer claimed Hudson had destroyed some of his property following a cell search.
Palmer’s complaint centered on lack of due process which accompanied the destruction.
Court ruled that prison officials need to be able to conduct thorough, unannounced searches, and that these searches preclude prisoner privacy in personal possessions.

35. Prisoner Rights partial return to “hands off doctrine”
established grievance procedure
Prison Litigation Reform Act (1996)