Law Commons^™

Habeas Corpus And State Sentencing Reform: A Story Of Unintended Consequences, Nancy J. King, Suzanna Sherry

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article tells the story of how fundamental shifts in state sentencing policy collided with fundamental shifts in federal habeas policy to produce a tangled and costly doctrinal wreck. The conventional assumption is that state prisoners seeking habeas relief allege constitutional errors in their state court convictions and sentences. But almost 20 percent of federal habeas petitions filed by noncapital state prisoners do not challenge state court judgments. They instead attack administrative actions by state prison officials or parole boards, actions taken long after the petitioner's conviction and sentencing. Challenges to these administrative decisions create serious problems for federal habeas …

Corrections To Laurel S. Terry, Gats' Applicability To Transnational Lawyering, Laurel S. Terry

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In October 2001, the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law published an article I wrote entitled GATS' Applicability to Transnational Lawyering and its Potential Impact on U.S. State Regulation of Lawyers, 34 Vand. J. Transnat'l L. 989 (2001). (This article was part of an April 2001 Symposium on Lawyer Ethics in the 21st Century: Global Legal Practice.) After my article was published, I came to discover several mistakes in it. The pages that follow are my corrections to that October 2001 article. I am very grateful to the editors of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law for the opportunity to publish …

Privatization Of Corrections: Is The State Out On A Limb When The Company Goes Bankrupt?, Cathy E. Holley

Vanderbilt Law Review

The incarceration of convicted criminals is an important matter to law enforcement officials and the public at large. Institutional correctional services consume significant governmental energy and resources. In 1983 corrections, including jails, prisons, probation, and parole, cost over 10.4 billion dollars. In 1985 approximately 503,000 people were imprisoned in federal and state correctional facilities.' The provision of prison services must occur on a continuous basis, and space must be available for every convicted criminal. As certain commentators have noted, "[o]ne cannot simply let offenders wait in line for an opening."'Historically, local, state, and federal government has overseen and operated our …

Privatization Of Corrections: Defining The Issues, Ira P. Robbins

Vanderbilt Law Review

Even as the public is demanding that more criminals be incarcerated and that their sentences be lengthened, the problems of America's prisons and jails continue to plague, if not overwhelm,us. More than two-thirds of the states are currently under court order to correct conditions that violate the United States Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. There are many important questions, but there are still no clear, satisfactory answers.

The last few years have thus witnessed diverse, controversial developments. Some, like the voluntary accreditation of correctional facilities by the Commission on Accreditation for Corrections, have begun to take root. Others, …