Research And Describe Prison Constitutional Rights

Prison Constitutional Rights
Name
Institution
Prison Constitutional Rights
Initially, the law stablished that a prisoner “has, as a consequence of his crime, not only forfeited his liberty, but all his personal rights except those which the law is its humanity accords him. He is for the time being the slave of the state.” Prisoners, therefore, did not have any rights and the prisons and jails were seen as a way to curtail, prevent or deter people in the society from committing crime. However, after several amendments the law was refined and recognized that prisoners do indeed have certain rights. Currently, the court always ascribes to the following three principles when determining a judgment especially one involving prisoners and their rights:
* All inmates relinquish a majority of the rights enjoyed by the society.
* However, prisoners do not relinquish all of their constitutional rights.
* Finally, a balance must exist between the prisoners’ constitutional rights and the security concerns or issues of a particular prison.
There is a difference between a jail and a prison but no differences exist in the underlying functions of either. As per the constitution, a jail or a prison serves the purposes of deterrence, incapacitation, retribution, and rehabilitation. After committing a crime, the constitution stipulates that an individual must be punished, be removed or separated from the society, be dissuaded from committing crime in the future, and also be influenced to change their behavior. While every prison or jail is expected to adequately serve these purposes, it is also expected that a balance will be maintained with the constitutional rights of the prisoners.
As per the law, prisoners have certain mandatory rights which are protected by the constitution. Prison administrators are, therefore, expected to fully adhere to the constitution and fully provide prisoners with these rights. Some of the mandatory rights prisoners have include (Zick, 1991):
* Freedom of speech and religion.
* Freedom from arbitrary and discriminative punishment. This details that prisoners m...