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Full-Text Articles in Law
Isolated Confinement In Michigan: Mapping The Circles Of Hell, Elizabeth Alexander, Patricia Streeter
Isolated Confinement In Michigan: Mapping The Circles Of Hell, Elizabeth Alexander, Patricia Streeter
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
For the past twelve months, there has been a burgeoning campaign to abolish, or greatly reduce, the use of segregated confinement in prisons. Advocates for the campaign call such classifications "solitary confinement" despite the fact that in some states, like New York, prisoners in these cells are often double-celled. The Michigan Department of Corrections, as well as other prison systems, uses labels such as "segregation," "special management," "special housing," and "observation" for these classifications. Prisoners ordinarily use traditional terms, such as "the hole." In this Essay we will refer to such restrictive classifications as "segregation" or "segregated confinement." Our perspective …
Litigating Against An Epidemic: Hiv/Aids And The Promise Of Socioeconomic Rights In South Africa, Nathaniel Bruhn
Litigating Against An Epidemic: Hiv/Aids And The Promise Of Socioeconomic Rights In South Africa, Nathaniel Bruhn
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
With one of the highest incidence rates in the world, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has taken a large toll on South Africa. Despite medical advances that have made the disease more manageable, many South Africans still do not have access to the medicines needed to control the disease. At the same time, the Constitution of South Africa grants individuals far-reaching socioeconomic rights, including the right to access health care. This Comment explores the intersection of the socioeconomic rights and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Although the Constitutional Court has developed a deferential approach to enforcing socioeconomic rights, substantial room remains to litigate on …
Finding A Cure In The Courts: A Private Right Of Action For Disparate Impact In Health Care, Sarah G. Steege
Finding A Cure In The Courts: A Private Right Of Action For Disparate Impact In Health Care, Sarah G. Steege
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
There is no comprehensive civil rights statute in health care comparable to the Fair Housing Act, Title VII, and similar laws that have made other aspects of society more equal. After Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VI served this purpose for suits based on race, color, and national origin for almost four decades. Since the Supreme Court's 2001 ruling in Alexander v. Sandoval, however, there has been no private right of action for disparate impact claims under Title VI, and civil rights enforcement in health care has suffered as a result. Congress has passed new legislation …
Racial Profiling In Health Care: An Institutional Analysis Of Medical Treatment Disparities, René Bowser
Racial Profiling In Health Care: An Institutional Analysis Of Medical Treatment Disparities, René Bowser
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Article links unscientific, race-based medical research to a broader, institutionalized pattern of racial profiling of Blacks in clinical decision-making. Far from providing a solution to the problem of racial health disparities, this Article shows that race-based health research fuels a collection of dubious background assumptions, creates a negative profile of Black patients, and reinforces taken-for-granted knowledge that leads to inferior medical treatment. This form of racial profiling is unjust, and also causes countless unnecessary deaths in the Black population.
The Charleston Policy: Substance Or Abuse?, Kimani Paul-Emile
The Charleston Policy: Substance Or Abuse?, Kimani Paul-Emile
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
In 1989, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) adopted a policy that, according to subjective criteria, singled out for drug testing, certain women who sought prenatal care and childbirth services would be tested for prohibited substances. Women who tested positive were arrested, incarcerated and prosecuted for crimes ranging from misdemeanor substance possession to felony substance distribution to a minor. In this Article, the Author argues that by intentionally targeting indigent Black women for prosecution, the MUSC Policy continued the United States legacy of their systematic oppression and resulted in the criminalizing of Black Motherhood.