NCJ Number
167402
Journal
Law Enforcement Quarterly Dated: (August-October 1996) Pages: 27-28,36
Date Published
1996
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article examines frivolous inmate lawsuits and legislation and court decisions designed to counter such lawsuits.
Abstract
Most inmates file their suits under the Federal Civil Rights statute, Section 1983. This statute states that "any person" who, "under color of" State law, subjects another "to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws," is liable for a civil rights violation. What this means is that government employees can be sued personally for allegedly violating the constitutional rights of a prisoner while the employee was on the job. This law has occasioned lawsuits by inmates who have experienced even minor inconveniences while in prison. There is some hope that these costly frivolous suits will be curtailed. New decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court have helped narrow the definitions of some prisoners' constitutional rights. Now, a prisoner has due process protection only if faced with an "atypical and significant hardship in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life." The Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which was signed into law last April 26, has a number of significant provisions. Under this law inmates must pay filing fees for Federal civil rights suits, even if it means receiving partial payments until the fee is paid. Inmates must also exhaust administrative remedies before filing a suit in court, and courts must find that a suit is not frivolous before government defendants have to respond. Further, any money an inmate wins in a civil rights suit must be applied toward restitution for the victims of the offender's crime.