Holt v. Sarver

Holt v. Sarver was a court decision that was the first in a series of American common law cases that have found entire state prison systems in violation of prisoners' constitutional rights by inflicting cruel and unusual punishment.[1]

The Arkansas prison system, which had no written standards, was found to violate the US Constitution.[2] The cases significantly altered the American prison system, specifically with regard to prisoners' rights under the Eighth Amendment.

Arkansas cases

In 1969 in Holt v. Sarver I, 300 F. Supp. 825, Judge J. Smith Henley ruled several aspects of Arkansas' existing prison system unconstitutional. He issued guidelines to follow for correcting the problems, and ordered administrators to report on the progress of the implementation of these guidelines.[3]

In 1970 in Holt v. Sarver II, 309 F. Supp. 362, Judge Henley ruled the entire Arkansas prison system unconstitutional and ordered the State Correction Board to devise a plan of action. In that same case in 1971, Judge Henley enjoined the Arkansas prison from preventing the inmates' access to court and from inflicting cruel and unusual punishment upon them.[4][5]

Prior history

The Supreme Court ruled in Jones v. Cunningham in 1963 that inmates in state institutions could file a writ of habeas corpus challenging the conditions of their imprisonment as well as its legality. This ruling reversed the Supreme Court's "hands off" policy regarding federal interference in state penal issues first clearly stated in 1866 in Pervear v. Massachusetts.[6] Subsequently, in a series of cases starting with Gates v. Collier the federal government began whole scale intervention in the constitutionality of the operation of state prison systems.[7]

See also

Footnotes
  1. "U.S. Constitution: Eighth Amendment". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  2. "Prisoners Rights, Litigation and Constitutional Law". Archived from the original on 2007-12-16. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  3. "The Shame of the Prisons (Arkansas)". Time Magazine. 18 January 1971. Archived from the original on February 17, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  4. "The Supreme Court Addresses the Dark & Evil World". Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  5. "Prison History and Gallery". Arkansas Department of Corrections. Archived from the original on 2006-06-16. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  6. "Constitutional Topic: The Bill of Rights". U.S. Constitution Online. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  7. "ACLU Parchman Prison". Archived from the original on 2008-03-07. Retrieved 2006-08-29.
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