Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Blue Racing: The Racialization Of Police In Hate Crime Statutes, Christopher Williams

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Content warning: this Article discusses police brutality.

The relationship between race, law, and policing is one that has been analyzed by many scholars throughout U.S. history. The vast majority of research about police has highlighted policing in relation to groups they police, focusing on areas such as policing practices, policies, or involvement in the racialization of minority groups. This scholarship has far outpaced research on actions taken by law enforcement on behalf of law enforcement— specifically, how law enforcement engages in racialization out of self-interest. A better understanding of the ways in which law enforcement engages in racialization that is …

Federal Incarceration By Contract In A Post-Minneci World: Legislation To Equalize The Constitutional Rights Of Prisoners, Allison L. Waks

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In the 2012 case Minneci v. Pollard, the United States Supreme Court held that federal prisoners assigned to privately-run prisons may not bring actions for violations of their Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment and may instead bring actions sounding only in state tort law. A consequence of this decision is that the arbitrary assignment of some federal prisoners to privately-run prisons deprives them of an equal opportunity to vindicate this federal constitutional right and pursue a federal remedy. Yet all federal prisoners should be entitled to the same protection under the United States Constitution-regardless of the type …

"One Of The Dirty Secrets Of American Corrections": Retaliation, Surplus Power, And Whistleblowing Inmates, James E. Robertson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Retaliation is deeply engrained in the correctional office subculture; it may well be in the normative response when an inmate files a grievance, a statutory precondition for filing a civil rights action. This Article, the first to address comprehensively the sociological and constitutional aspects of retaliation, argues for protecting grievants through safeguards much like those accorded whistleblowers. Part I of the Article provides a socio-legal primer on correctional officer retaliation by addressing the frequency of retaliation, its causes, and its constitutional taxonomy. Part II describes the elements of a prima facie case of unconstitutional retaliation under § 1983. Part III …

Minimum Wages For Prisoners: Legal Obstacles And Suggested Reforms, James J. Maiwurm, Wendy S. Maiwurm

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The growing literature on prisoners' rights has not yet focused on inmates' demands for minimum wages and the justification for such demands. This article explains why statutory minimum wage coverage should be extended to inmates, discusses the judicial treatment of prison labor and the minimum wage question, advocates adoption of legislation now pending in Congress, and suggests further legislative reform necessary to implement the minimum wage proposal. Many conditions in our prison system are undoubtedly more harmful and degrading than lack of meaningful wages. This article focuses on only one feasible reform, not on the priorities of prison reform in …

Legal Rights In A Juvenile Correctional Institution, Matthew L. Myers

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article focuses on the effect on juvenile correctional institutions of the erosion of the "hands-off" doctrine and the introduction of procedural safeguards in the juvenile justice system. In so doing, the article examines the difficulties inherent in any attempt to reform institutional practices and procedures to accommodate the goals of the juvenile correctional model. In the juvenile context, the extent to which fundamental rights need or may be abrogated to allow the institution freedom to rehabilitate and treat its inmates is crucial. Therefore, this article examines three areas involving fundamental constitutional rights: imposition of punitive segregation, freedom of communication, …

Unconstitutional Uncertainty: A Study Of The Use Of Detainers, Donald E. Shelton

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The question is why a prosecutor would go through the motions of asking a warden to notify him of the availability of a prisoner that he never intends to take into custody. The first answer is that it is common practice for many prosecutors to automatically file a detainer upon learning that an accused is imprisoned elsewhere. This decision is made without any regard to their eventual decision to prosecute. But the more basic answer, and the reason why this practice of automatic filing of detainers has developed, lies in the effects a detainer has upon the prisoner.