NCJ Number
118517
Editor(s)
O Trager
Date Published
1988
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This introductory overview and compendium of newspaper articles, columns, cartoons, and editorials published between 1984 and 1987 examine issues related to capital punishment, the privatization of prisons, and prison disorders in response to an immigration pact between the United States and Cuba.
Abstract
The overview traces the history of inmate rights, with emphasis on United States Supreme Court decisions. Judicial decisions and public attitudes toward the death penalty are also summarized. The newspaper articles discuss a convicted killer's request to have his execution televised, the United States Supreme Court decision rejecting the claim that the Georgia system for capital punishment was racially biased, and the growing use of private contracting to operate prisons. The discussions of the Cuban immigration pact focused on the protests of Cuban inmates following an agreement by the United States and Cuba to return former mental patients and criminals to Cuba. In November 1987 Attorney General Edwin Meese declared a moratorium on the return of Cubans to Cuba pending a review of each case. The Cubans had engaged in an 8-day and 11-day siege at two Federal correctional facilities.