Pubdate: Thu, 24 Sep 2009
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A40
Copyright: 2009 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

PRISONERS' RIGHTS

In 1996, Congress passed a law that made it much harder for inmates 
to challenge abusive treatment. It has contributed significantly to 
the bad conditions -- including the desperate overcrowding -- that 
prevail today. The law must be fixed.

In the name of clamping down on frivolous lawsuits, the Prison Reform 
Litigation Act barred prisoners from suing prisons and jails unless 
they could show that they had suffered a physical injury. Prison 
officials have used this requirement to block lawsuits challenging 
all sorts of horrific conditions, including sexual abuse.

The law also requires inmates to present their claims to prison 
officials before filing a suit. The prisons set the rules for those 
grievance procedures, notes Stephen Bright, the president of the 
Southern Center for Human Rights, and they have an incentive to make 
the rules as complicated as possible, so prisoners will not be able 
to sue. "That has become the main purpose of many grievance systems," 
Mr. Bright told Congress last year.

In the last Congress, Representative Robert Scott, Democrat of 
Virginia, sponsored the Prison Abuse Remedies Act. It would have 
eliminated the physical injury requirement and made it harder for 
prison officials to get suits dismissed for failure to exhaust 
grievance procedures. It would have exempted juveniles, who are 
especially vulnerable to abuse, from the law's restrictions.

The bill's supporters need to try again this year. Conditions in the 
nation's overcrowded prisons are becoming increasingly dangerous; 
recently, there have been major riots in California and Kentucky. 
Prisoner lawsuits are a way of reining in the worst abuses, which 
contribute to prison riots and other violence.

The main reason to pass the new law, though, is human decency. The 
only way to ensure that inmates are not mistreated is to guarantee 
them a fair opportunity to bring their legitimate complaints to court. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake