NCJ Number
94719
Date Published
1983
Length
105 pages
Annotation
This manual for masters appointed under Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures, to oversee implementation of institutional cases, focuses exclusively on mastering in prisons and jails.
Abstract
The master acts as fact-finding agent, consultant in the development of an acceptable and effective remedial order, and overseer of the implementation of a remedial order to ensure that relief granted by the court in the face of constitutional violations is actually carried out by the defendants. In the fact-finding role, the master's tasks include collecting of data, holding hearings, and preparing and submitting reports to the court. The master's postremedial responsibilities include interpretation of the decree, planning compliance, resource development, and institutionalization of results. The basic sources of the master's power are Rule 53, the reference order appointing the master, and the inherent power of the court to enforce its decisions. The major ethical challenge facing the master is the maintenance of judicial impartiality and integrity while performing the postremedial functions. Administration of the master's office can vary significantly with regard to staff, location, and budgeting. The master's relationship to the judge, counsel, the defendants and inmates, and others (e.g., the media, staff unions) is examined. Skills needed by the master in fulfilling his roles include interviewing skills of planning, question-framing, listening, and recordkeeping; and mediation skills of structuring the dispute and persuading the parties to agree to a solution, appendixes include orders of reference in three prison cases, a list of prison and jail masters, a list of publications on the subject of masters, and materials from previous cases in which masters were used.