Inmate Rights

Paper Summary:

The paper relates that some countries offer few rights to those incarcerated, while others attempt to maintain a high standard of human rights even in their prisons. The paper shows how America seems to attempt to meet human rights organizations' definitions of inmate rights, but cases indicate that inmate rights are still being violated in prisons across the country. The paper examines the situation in Australia, Canada, England and Wales, Germany and South Africa and highlights how prisoners' rights are a very volatile issue around the world.

Outline:
The United States
Australia
Canada
England and Wales
Germany
South Africa

From the Paper:

"In the United States, inmate or prisoner rights are guaranteed according to several different Amendments of the Constitution. Inmates are guaranteed everything from a speedy trial to health care and personal safety. Even in America, that does not always occur, however. There are numerous references to violations of prisoner rights throughout the courts in the United States, as there are in many other countries. Prisoner rights continue to be a contentious, thorny problem for the criminal justice system, and denying prisoners' rights in the U.S. often leads to costly lawsuits that financially strap states and local governments. In many other countries, prisoner rights are essentially non-existent, indicating the wide range of criminal justice and incarceration standards around the world."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Beck, A. J., Harrison, P. M., & Hughes, T. A. (2004, July). Implementing the 2003 prison rape elimination act in juvenile residential facilities. Corrections Today, 66, 26+.
• Budzenski, S. (2006). Tug of war: The Supreme Court, Congress, and the circuits--the Fifth Circuit's input on the struggle to define a prisoner's right to religious freedom in Adkins v. Kaspar. St. John's Law Review; Vol. 80 Issue 4, 1335-1360.
• Carlton, B. (2006). Review of intractable: Hell has a name, life inside Australia's first super-max prison. Social Justice, 33(4), 191+.
• Chin, A. (2003). Increasing the accountability of state actors in prison systems - a necessary enterprise in guaranteeing the Eighth Amendment rights of prison inmates. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 93(4), 913+.
• Collins, W.C. (2007) Jails and the Constitution: An overview. Second Edition. Retrieved 18 Sept. 2008 from the U.S. Department of Justice: National Institute of Corrections Web site: http://nicic.org/Downloads/PDF/Library/022570.pdf. 1-104.

More papers on Inmate Rights:

• Essay # 5907 : "First Amendment Rights of Inmates"
• Essay # 65214 : "Privacy Rights and the Internet"
• Essay # 10863 : "Prison Abuse"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: