Kistler Week 2 Assignment

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Ashford University *

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303

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Sociology

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Feb 20, 2024

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1 Constitutional Rights and Administrative Goals Melissa Kistler University Of Arizona Global Campus CRJ 303: Corrections Instructor Ellis 11/24/2023

2 Constitutional Rights and Administrative Goals The United States has the highest incarceration rate of every country in the world. This often leads to overcrowding in the prison system. When a person is arrested, most believe they lose their constitutional rights, but do they? The answer is that they are still entitled to some of these rights, but which ones? This paper will discuss these rights, the United States Supreme Court case of Brown v. Plata (2011), the issues prisons face when overcrowding occurs, and the constitutional rights violated. It will also examine cultural and diversity issues in corrections. Prisoners are granted some constitutional rights, but not all of them. The ones that pertain to prisoners include the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Fifth Amendment, Sixth Amendment, Eighth Amendment, and Fourteenth Amendment. The First Amendment grants freedom of speech, and while prisoners are granted this right, their mail may be searched, specific reading materials are prohibited, and the prison newspaper can be edited. The Fourteenth Amendment grants the right to be free from restraint. Yet, a prisoner's ankles and wrists can be shackled, according to Ross, D.L. (2019), “when being transported, during medical interventions, to control combative prisoners, to protect other prisoners and staff, and to prevent escape” (para. 1) . The Eighth Amendment is the one that protects prisoners more than the others. This amendment grants the right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and to adequate space, but a prisoner can be confined to solitary confinement for long periods. It also protects against overcrowding in the prisons. Brown v. Plata (2011) was a class action lawsuit that was filed in 2001 that alleges that California prisons violated the Eighth Amendment due to overcrowding (Oyez, n.d.). In 2011, the United States Supreme Court ruled that overcrowding in prisons is unconstitutional due not

3 only to issues with space for the prisoners but also to budgets and health care for all prisoners. Overcrowding is the biggest issue in American prisons and leads to one-quarter of inmates suffering from one or more chronic illnesses. The court ruled that the conditions that led to the overcrowding of the prisons and the overcrowding itself had to be remedied by setting capacity levels for prisons and a timetable to comply with the order of the court (Stojkovic, et al., 2013). California was required to condense populations of all 33 prisons to the number of people that was ordered by the judges. It was also determined that offenders are entitled to adequate mental health care and health care while in prison. Overcrowding in the prison system violates the Eighth Amendment right of the prisoner to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. This means that there are to be humane livening conditions, adequate medical care as well as mental health care and protection of violence from other inmates (Gillen, 1989). Following Brown v. Plata (2011), Washington Legislature signed House Bill 1281 (HB1281) that allowed prisoners to earn time for certain offenses that would help earn time off of their sentence. They could use good behavior as a way to gain early release in prison. This is not an easy task to earn as they cannot have any infractions against them, or they lose the good behavior time they had built up. In order to not have any infractions the inmates must overlook many different things that happen in the prison. This earned time falls under the rehabilitation of prisoners because they must learn to change how they act or behave. This requires that the offender hold themselves at a higher level of responsibility. Cultural sensitivity and diversity within corrections is what occurs when inmates are placed in overcrowded prisons and jails that are more diverse. There are many different inmates who have different restrictions that are often based off of traditions, religion beliefs and different races. There is usually more racism in the jail or prison setting which leads to more violence.

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4 Each inmate is entitled to their own beliefs, and the respect that they deserve and need to be treated like a human being. This is why it is vital that cultural sensitivity and diversity objectives are held up in the prison systems. This helps develop the environment and will have a more positive outcome of rehabilitation. According to Darvan (2011) “treating prisoners with dignity is the moral duty of any government” (p. 428). Another issue that happens is that there are mixed races in the prison system as well as mixed races of the staff. This often leads to bias in the prisons, which often leads to fights between inmates or between inmates and staff. This is when diversity training would help to benefit everyone in the system. It would help reduce concerns when there are different races of corrections officers. When a person goes to prison for a crime they have committed, it is the prison system's responsibility to ensure that their Eight Amendment rights are not violated. The United States Supreme Court ruled that when overcrowding occurs in prisons, it violates the Eighth Amendment. Cultural sensitivity and diversity have been an issue in prisons for many years, so diversity would be a great training resource for the officers. This paper has discussed the rights of prisoners, overcrowding, and the Eighth Amendment and given an idea of how to deal with cultural sensitivity and diversity.

5 References Brown V. Plata (n.d.) Oyez https://www.oyez.org/cases/2018/09-1283 Dervan, L.E. (2011) American prison culture in an international context: An examination of prisons in America, The Netherlands and Israel Stanford Law and Policy Review 22 (2) 413-428 https://www.law.stafford.edu/ep-content/uploads/2011/08/dervan.pdf House Committee (2021) House bill report (HB1232) 1-6 h ttps//:www.lawfileext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2021-22/pdf/bill Nikosi, N. & Maweni, V. (2020) The effects of overcrowding on the rehabilitation of offenders: A case study of a correctional center Durban (Westville) Kwazala Natal The Oriental Anthropology 20 (2) 332-346 https://doi.org/10.1177/0972558X20952971 Salms, L. & Simpson, S. (2013) Efforts to fix a broken system: Brown v. Plata and the prison overcrowding Epidemic Loyla University Chicago Law Journal 44(4) 1153-1208 https://www.lawecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1491&context=luclj Stojkovic, S. & Lovell, R. (2019) Corrections: An Introduction [2 nd Edition] https://content.uagc.edu

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7 References Type your references here. Remember that they need to have a hanging indent.

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