Law curbing Inmates lawsuits questioned

Law curbing Inmates lawsuits questioned

news.yahoo.com

Along with such advocacy groups as the ACLU, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Institute, Keene is urging revision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act that Congress enacted in 1996 to curtail frivolous lawsuits by state and federal prisoners.

"The act accomplished part of its purpose, but I don't think the authors foresaw the unintended consequences," the elder Keene said in a telephone interview from his Washington, D.C., office. "It's Congress' job to go back and fix it."

Backers of the act, known as the PLRA, often cited a case in which an inmate sued because he received a jar of crunchy peanut butter instead of the creamy variety he preferred.

The act's impact is dramatic; prisoner lawsuits in federal courts have dropped from roughly 41,000 in 1995 to less than 25,000 annually even while the inmate population surged from 1.5 million to more than 2 million. But critics say many legitimate cases have been blocked — including numerous grievances involving rape and violations of religious freedom.

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Man, seems like the ACLU is busy as of late. This act is a tough call. On the one hand, if amended, you will have tons of problematic prisoners creating havoc with frivolous suits just to stir the pot, but on the other hand, it makes it harder for those that have been treated injust to be able to defend themselves.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 13-2-2008 by DimensionalDetective]

I'm sure that 99% of the lawsuits are nothing but bull, but there has been a lawsuit filed near me that is valid.

LINK

I know it is valid because I know one of the guards that is involved because he is my brothers brother-in-law. He was being investigated for molesting 2 or 3 little girls. At the same time pictures were found of inmates that he had beaten, I guess he wanted to keep a souvenir. His name is not listed in the article, but he has to be John Doe 1 or 2. Today was to be my brother's final hearing for his divorce, but she fired her lawyer(she had to go through 27 before she found one that would take her the first time). After 23 years, he finally got tired of being beaten every day. Must run in the family, their daddy did the same thing.