Litigating Death-Row Conditions - The Case for Reform (From Prisoners and the Law, P 8-3 to 8-33, 1985, by Ira P Robbins, ed. - See NCJ-100564)

• NCJ Number: 100569
• Author(s): R Johnson; J L Carroll
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 31 pages
• Sale Source: Clark Boardman Company, Ltd
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Lengthy appeals of death sentences foster the prolonged exposure of inmates to dehumanizing death row conditions; litigation can remedy these conditions.

Abstract

The totality-of-conditions approach used by the courts in assessing the constitutionality of prison conditions can be effective in litigating death row cases under the eighth amendment. It requires that evidence be presented on every facet of death row life: food, recreation, sanitation, cell size, visitation rights, and out-of-cell time. It requires the use of both expert and demonstrative evidence. Death row litigation can also be initiated under the due process clause, which protects inmates from arbitrary and capricious treatment by corrections officials. Plaintiff arguments should show that confinement under death row conditions serves no justifiable penological purpose. Core issues in humanizing death row are increasing out-of-cell time and permission of contact visits. The 1984 Texas prison conditions litigation in Ruiz v. Estelle demonstrates that death row inmates can be treated like regular maximum-security inmates, at least when their executions are not imminent. Relevant stipulations of the Texas court order are appended. 95 notes.