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Full-Text Articles in Law
Obstacles To Proving 24-Hour Lighting Is Cruel And Unusual Under Eighth Amendment Jurisprudence, Lauren Jaech
Obstacles To Proving 24-Hour Lighting Is Cruel And Unusual Under Eighth Amendment Jurisprudence, Lauren Jaech
Washington Law Review
Twenty-four-hour lighting causes sleep deprivation, depression, and other serious disorders for incarcerated individuals, yet courts often do not consider it to be cruel and unusual. To decide if prison conditions violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, courts follow a two-part inquiry that requires examining the intent of prison officials (known as the subjective prong) as well as the degree of seriousness of the alleged cruel or unusual condition (the objective prong). Incarcerated individuals often file complaints challenging 24-hour lighting conditions. Whether they succeed on these claims may depend on the circuit in which they reside. Judges …
Expanding Judicial Discretion To Grant Compassionate Release During Covid-19, Deborah Wang
Expanding Judicial Discretion To Grant Compassionate Release During Covid-19, Deborah Wang
Washington Law Review
In the 1980s, Congress introduced compassionate release to counteract the increased rigidity of our federal sentencing system. This mechanism allowed courts, through a motion filed by the Bureau of Prison’s director, to reduce a prisoner’s sentence if “extraordinary and compelling” circumstances warrant such a reduction. However, because the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) seldom brought these motions, few people were released early via compassionate release. At the same time, public discourse and concerns regarding mass incarceration have continued to grow, causing lawmakers to revisit and revise compassionate release through the First Step Act of 2018 to ensure that this mechanism’s potential …
Rethinking Constitutionally Impermissible Punishment, Nadia Banteka, Erika Nyborg-Burch
Rethinking Constitutionally Impermissible Punishment, Nadia Banteka, Erika Nyborg-Burch
Notre Dame Law Review Reflection
In this Essay, we discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected our understanding of constitutionally permissible punishment. We argue, first, that the protracted failure to act by those who have had authority to do so during this public health emergency created a high risk that incarcerated people would suffer severe illness—and even death—in violation of due process protections and the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Second, we suggest that a changed understanding of public safety in the context of detention and release during public health emergencies has the potential to shift the framework even after the emergency …
Implementing A Presumption Against Imprisonment: How Scandinavian Sentencing Policies Could Be The Key To Ending Mass Incarceration In The United States, Cydney Carter
Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive
With the largest prison population in the world, the United States relies on incarceration more than most when it comes to sanctioning criminal offenders, but there must be another way. This paper will examine the sentencing policies and practices in the United States, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Norway. It will also compare these sentencing policies and their impact on incarceration rates suggest ways in which the Scandinavian sentencing practices could influence changes to the current Federal Sentencing Guidelines in order to combat mass incarceration in the United States.
“That’S The Hate They’Re Giving Us, Baby, A System Designed Against Us.” The Restorative Justice Solution To The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Amanda Iocono
University of Massachusetts Law Review
The school-to-prison pipeline is one of the nation’s biggest challenges as students of color, LGBTQIA+ students, and students with disabilities are being funneled into prisons. Thousands of articles have been written on the existence of the school-to prison pipeline and potential solutions. Federal and state policies have shifted to combat the pipeline, but there is still a large proportion of our nation’s students being criminalized on account of their looks and behaviors. This Note argues that the school-to-prison pipeline is a systemic practice of the American education system, and the education system is functioning exactly as designed. The continued use …
Can Covid-19 Teach Us How To End Mass Incarceration?, Amy Fettig
Can Covid-19 Teach Us How To End Mass Incarceration?, Amy Fettig
University of Miami Law Review
In this essay, the author argues that federal, state and local government response to the COVID-19 epidemic in prisons and jails was largely incompetent, inhumane, and contrary to sound public health policy, resulting in preventable death and suffering for both incarcerated people and corrections staff. However, the lessons learned from these failures provide a roadmap for policy priorities and legal reform in our ongoing need to decarcerate and end the era of mass incarceration, including: (1) rolling back extreme sentences, recalibrating sentences generally and providing for “second look” mechanisms to those currently serving sentences beyond 10 years; (2) ensuring that …
Barring Methadone Behind Bars: How Prisons Err When Denying Methadone Treatment To Inmates With Opioid Use Disorder, Julia Durst
Barring Methadone Behind Bars: How Prisons Err When Denying Methadone Treatment To Inmates With Opioid Use Disorder, Julia Durst
Mitchell Hamline Law Review
No abstract provided.
When Jail & Prison Sentences Become Death Sentences: How Willfully Exposing Incarcerated Persons To Covid-19 Amounts To Cruel & Unusual Punishment, Arielle Aboulafia
When Jail & Prison Sentences Become Death Sentences: How Willfully Exposing Incarcerated Persons To Covid-19 Amounts To Cruel & Unusual Punishment, Arielle Aboulafia
Human Rights Brief
Eric Warner called his older brother Hank from San Quentin State Prison almost every Sunday. Though the prison only allowed the brothers to speak for fifteen minutes each week, the two spoke about their lives. In June 2021, Eric stopped calling, and Hank became worried. Hank tried to get in touch with the prison. However, his calls were met with a dead-end voicemail each time. He recalls that he “knew, by not hearing anything, that something was not good.” The following month, prison personnel returned Hank’s calls and told him that his brother Eric had been hospitalized. Later that month, …