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Cruel Punishment Is Not Unusual for Clarence Thomas

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Cruel Punishment Is Not Unusual for Clarence Thomas James Ridgeway and Jean Casella | March 12, 2010 Solitary Watch Veteran New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse has an opinion piece today on Clarence Thomas's "silent but sure" stance on prisons, and "specifically the meaning of the Eighth Amendment?s prohibition against 'cruel and unusual punishment.'? Thomas's position is highly relevant to the issue of solitary confinement, since critics of long-term lockdown argue that it violates the Eighth Amendment. But Thomas does not believe that any kind of prisoner abuse qualifies as "cruel and unusual." Greenhouse writes: In February 1992, the Supreme Court ruled in Hudson v. McMillian that a prisoner need not have suffered a ?significant injury? in order to pursue a lawsuit against prison officials for the use of excessive force...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on March 13, 2010 (boomark / email).