Book Description

This is a non-technical handbook on the evolution and current state of prisoners' rights in the U.S. The opening chapters use examples from Supreme Court and lower court rulings to show how legal conditions have operated to defeat gains for prisoners' rights. Chapters 2 and 3 outline the changes that allow prisoners to access the courts as a basic right. The need for correctional institutions to create behavioural and disciplinary policies for the protection of the administration and the inmates is then discussed, followed by chapters examining the problem of allowing basic human rights - living environments, labor rights, medical care, religious freedom, etc - to persons who have been judicially deprived of their freedom.