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Combating Prisoner Abuse- Editorial in the NY Times in support of reforming PLRA

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Editorial- NY Times Combating Prisoner Abuse December 20, 2009 When Mississippi inmates sued their prison, charging that they had been sodomized by a staff member, the claim was thrown out. Under a harsh federal law, inmates must show that they suffered a ?physical injury? to prevail in a suit challenging cruel prison conditions. A federal district court ruled in 2006 that the alleged sexual assault did not constitute physical injury. Congress included the physical injury requirement in the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which it passed in 1996 to deter inmates from bringing frivolous lawsuits. What the law has done instead is insulate prisons from a large number of very worthy lawsuits, and allow abusive and cruel mistreatment of inmates to go unpunished...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on December 21, 2009 (boomark / email).