Learn more here most your right to be protected against discrimination and abuse in prison and what to do if your rights are violated. The law is always evolving. If you have access to a prison house police library, it is a expert idea to research new developments.

I experienced assault or excessive force in prison

Your rights

  • Prison officials take a legal duty under the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from using excessive strength and to protect prisoners from assault by other prisoners.
  • Officers may not use force maliciously or sadistically with intent to crusade harm, but they may utilize force in practiced organized religion efforts to proceed society.
  •  Prison officials may be violating the Eighth Amendment if they knew virtually a take chances of assault by other prisoners but failed to respond, or if prison house conditions or practices create an unreasonable chance of assail (for example, not having enough officers on the unit, non having prison cell doors that lock properly, etc.).

What to practice if you believe that your rights have been violated

  • If yous take been assaulted past an officeholder or swain prisoner, you should file a grievance, and appeal it through all available levels of appeal.  Note that there are usually strict time limits for filing a grievance, so you should do and so as soon equally possible.
  • If you lot believe you are in firsthand danger of assault, you should tell a staff member y'all trust (mental wellness worker, instructor, etc.).

Additional resources

  • Prison Legal News:  https://world wide web.prisonlegalnews.org/
  • Jailhouse Lawyer'due south Transmission:  http://jlm.law.columbia.edu/files/2017/05/36.-Ch.-24.pdf

I'k facing religious discrimination in prison

Your rights

  • Federal police force provides special protections for prisoners' religious exercise. If a prison policy, rule, or practice significantly impedes your ability to practice your sincerely held religious beliefs, prison officials must bear witness that applying the dominion to you furthers an extremely important (in legal terms, "compelling") governmental interest (e.g., prisoners' condom or wellness) and that there is no other reasonable way to go about protecting that interest. If prison officials cannot show this, they must provide a religious adaptation to enable you lot to practice your religion.
  • Depending on your detail circumstances, prison house officials may be required to provide you with a religious diet (e.g., halal or kosher meals), worship services, and access to clergy. They as well may exist required to let you to have religious texts, wear certain religious habiliment, headwear, and jewelry, and maintain religious grooming practices (e.g., wearing a bristles or long pilus).
  • Prison officials cannot impose religious beliefs or practices on y'all. They cannot punish you for declining to take part in religious activities or events that include religious elements. Prison officials cannot give special preference to members of 1 faith, or treat prisoners of some religions less favorably than those of others.

What to exercise if your rights are violated

  • You can file a complaint with the U.South. Department of Justice's Special Litigation Segmentation.
  • Y'all tin contact the ACLU in your land for more data.

Boosted resources

  • ACLU – Religious Freedom in Prison
  • Department of Justice – Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Human action (RLUIPA)
  • Prison Legal News:  www.prisonlegalnews.org
  • Jailhouse Lawyer'south Manual:  http://jlm.law.columbia.edu/files/2017/05/39.-Ch.-27.pdf

I'm experiencing discrimination or abuse in prison because I'm transgender

Your rights

  • If you notify prison officials that you lot are transgender, and/or take been threatened, officials are legally required to act to protect you. When you enter prison, inform staff you are transgender or believe you are at hazard — both verbally and in writing.
  • The federal Prison house Rape Elimination Act (PREA) requires prisons and jails to make individualized housing placements for all transgender and intersex prisoners, including when assigning them to male or female facilities. A transgender or intersex prisoner's own views with respect to their own prophylactic must be given serious consideration when making these determinations.
  • Many correctional facilities business firm transgender prisoners in solitary solitude to protect them from violence. PREA says y'all cannot be segregated against your volition for more than 30 days and if you are in protective custody you must accept access to programs, privileges, pedagogy and piece of work opportunities to the extent possible.
  • Prison and jail staff must evaluate you for gender dysphoria inside a reasonable fourth dimension if y'all request it. Medical treatment for prisoners diagnosed with gender dysphoria should be delivered according to accepted medical standards.
  • Blanket bans on specific types of treatments, such every bit a ban on hormone therapy or gender confirmation surgery, are unconstitutional.
  • Staff should more often than not let you gender-appropriate clothing and grooming supplies, and let you to present yourself consistent with your gender identity, or they may exist in violation of the 8th Amendment.
  • Strip searches must be conducted professionally and respectfully. A strip search conducted in total view of other prisoners and staff may violate your privacy rights. If there is no emergency, male staff should not strip-search women (including transgender women) and vice versa. Some jails have policies allowing transgender prisoners to choose the gender of the staff to search them.
  • Staff cannot behave strip and pat-downward searches solely to appraise your genitals.  Staff must exist trained to conduct searches of transgender and intersex prisoners in a professional and respectful manner, and in the least intrusive manner possible, consistent with security needs.
  • If you request a individual shower, PREA requires that officials grant you access.

What to do if you believe your rights might exist violated

  • Report your concerns or whatsoever specific threats to your prophylactic to staff in writing, and also send a copy to the inspector general, the PREA coordinator for the agency with custody over you, and someone exterior whom you trust.
  • If you are assaulted, file a grievance as soon as possible, though cases of sexual assail may have more than flexible time limits on reporting or may have special reporting processes.
  • Prisoners who want to file a federal lawsuit about events in jail or prison must first consummate the internal appeals procedure. This ways that you need to know the rules of any appeals (or "grievance") process in your facility, including fourth dimension limits on filing an appeal after something happens. In most prisons or jails, y'all will have to file a written complaint on a form that is provided.
  • If staff reject to evaluate y'all for gender dysphoria or fail to provide y'all with care, file a grievance and appeal through all levels.
  • If you were receiving hormones from a doctor prior to incarceration, take your medical records sent to the medical or health director at your facility.
  • If you are placed in protective segregation and practise not want to exist there, file a grievance and all appeals about your placement. You lot should also appeal anything that seems unfair about your placement, such as non beingness able to participate in a hearing, not existence told why yous were moved to segregation, not being able to participate in programming or obtain a task, or not being told when yous can become out.
  • If your placement is based on so-called rubber concerns and you would feel safer in a women'due south facility (equally a transgender woman), request such a transfer and file appeals if y'all do non get 1.
  • If you lot are asked to strip downward in front of other prisoners and yous do not feel comfy, politely ask to be moved to a separate expanse.
  • If y'all cannot employ a individual shower, ask to shower at a different time from other prisoners or in a private area (equally the PREA standards require).
  • If y'all practise non want to exist searched past a staff member of a particular sex, politely ask for a unlike staff member to search yous. In some prisons or jails, y'all may also be able to get a general society that says you should only be searched by women (if you are a transgender woman).
  • Ask for your facility's official policies related to your circumstances. Sometimes yous can discover these policies in the prison library.

Additional resource

Blackness and Pink
614 Columbia Rd.
Dorchester, MA 02125
(617) 519-4387
www.blackandpink.org

Just Detention International
3325 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 340
Los Angeles, CA 90010
(213) 384-1400
1900 L St. NW, Suite 601
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 506-3333
world wide web.justdetention.org

National Centre for Lesbian Rights
870 Market place St., Suite 370
San Francisco, CA 94102
1-800-528-6257
www.nclrights.org

National Centre for Transgender Equality
1325 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 903-0112
www.transequality.org

I'grand meaning and in prison

Your rights

  • You take the right to an abortion if you want 1, and to turn down an abortion if you do non want 1.
  • You have the right to prenatal and other medical treat your pregnancy and postpartum care.
  • You cannot be forced to pay before you tin can get the medical care you demand.
  • Yous may have the right non to exist shackled: many states have laws or policies that prohibit or limit the use of shackles on prisoners who are pregnant, are in labor, or have recently given birth.  Some courts have also said that shackling is unconstitutional.  The ACLU'due south anti-shackling briefing paper provides more than detailed information.
  • You take the right to refuse sterilization or other unwanted nascency command subsequently your pregnancy.

What to practice if y'all think your rights have been violated

  • If y'all are not getting the medical care you need, ask other medical or other staff to help you lot.
  • Document everything that happens. Put your request for an abortion or other medical intendance in writing and keep a re-create. As well, continue a list of the people who you've spoken to or contacted and write down what they say and the dates and times you spoke to them.
  • In addition to your asking for medical care, you should as well file a grievance (an official complaint) if your medical needs are not met. If your grievance is denied or rejected, file an appeal and pay attending to all the rules and deadlines of the grievance organisation, which are unremarkably written in the inmate handbook.

Additional resource

  • If the prison isn't providing you lot the medical intendance yous demand, contact your own lawyer, a prisoner legal services arrangement (if i exists in your land), NARAL, Planned Parenthood, your local ACLU chapter, or the National Prison Projection of the ACLU.

I'thousand in prison and take a disability

Examples of discrimination against people in prison with disabilities

  • Exclusion from facilities, programs, and services that are accessible to other prisoners.
  • Not providing sign language interpreters for a deaf prisoner at disciplinary hearings, classification decisions, medical appointments,, and educational and vocational programs.
  • Failure to provide medical devices such every bit wheelchairs and canes to disabled prisoners.
  • Placement in segregation or alone confinement due to perceived vulnerability or the unavailability of accessible cells in general population.

Your rights

  • Prisoners with disabilities are protected under sections of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. In the prison and jail context, the Rehabilitation Deed applies to facilities run by federal agencies (such as the Agency of Prisons) and to whatsoever state or local bureau that receives federal funding. The ADA regulates facilities run by country and local agencies, regardless of whether they receive federal funding.
  • You are entitled to an equal opportunity to participate in programs and services for which you lot are qualified.
  • You lot are entitled to be housed at your right security level, and in a prison cell with the accessible elements necessary for safety, appropriate housing.
  • Yous are entitled to reasonable modifications to policies and procedures.
  • Yous are entitled to equally effective advice including any necessary auxiliary aids and services such as sign language interpreters, captioning, videophones, readers, Braille, and audio recordings.
  • Prison house officials are not required to provide accommodations that impose undue fiscal and administrative burdens or require a fundamental alteration in the nature of the program.
  • Prison house officials are besides immune to discriminate if the disabled prisoner's participation would pose pregnant condom risks or a direct threat to the health or safety of others that cannot be mitigated through reasonable modifications.

What to practice if you believe your rights have been violated

  • File a formal grievance through your facility'south grievance process and appeal all levels available. If your facility has an ADA Coordinator y'all may besides contact that person and inquire him/her to assistance you with an accommodation for your disability.
  • You or your attorney can file a lawsuit explaining how your rights have been violated under the ADA, the Rehabilitation Human activity, or both. You must complete whatsoever available grievance process and all appeals before filing a lawsuit in federal court.
  • To bring a lawsuit under these laws, disabled prisoners must show: (1) that they are disabled inside the pregnant of the statutes, (2) that they are "qualified" to participate in the plan, and (three) that they are excluded from, are not allowed to benefit from, or have been subjected to discrimination in the programme considering of their disability. Under the Rehabilitation Deed, prisoners must also show that the prison officials or the governmental agency named equally defendants receive federal funding.
  • Depending on the state of affairs, disabled prisoners may file claims for relief under the Eighth Subpoena, which prohibits cruel or unusual punishment, in addition to or instead of the ADA or Rehabilitation Act.
  • The laws of some states may provide different or greater legal rights than the federal laws. Disabled prisoners should investigate this possibility before bringing suit.

Additional resource

  • Every country and U.S. territory has a federally mandated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) organization that works to provide aid and legal services to individuals with disabilities.  Some of these organizations likewise work with incarcerated individuals.  For a consummate list of all these organizations past country click here: https://www.ndrn.org/ndrn-fellow member-agencies.html

I want to receive publications in the mail in prison

Your rights

  • Prisoners by and large have the right to receive books, magazines, and newspapers by mail, bailiwick to the restrictions described below.
  • Prison house authorities can generally decide to conscience a publication for reasonable goals related to prison safety or security, simply cannot reject publications considering they disagree with their political viewpoint or for other capricious reasons.
  • Prisons cannot discriminate confronting religious publications by arbitrarily subjecting them to rules that do not apply to non-religious publications.
  • Prisons and jails may ban cloth that describes how to build weapons, instructs how to escape, or instructs how to interruption the law. They tin ban magazines that contain nudity and pornography.
  • Often prisoners have the right only to receive softcover books and bound periodicals sent directly from a publisher, bookstore, or other commercial source, but sometimes courts have allowed prisoners to receive clippings and copies of articles from friends, family unit, or other noncommercial sources.
  • Prison officials cannot forestall your friends and relatives from ownership you books and magazine subscriptions.
  • Both you and the sender take the right to be notified if your incoming publication is being censored or rejected.  Prison officials must give enough of a reason for their censorship conclusion to allow you to challenge that decision.

What to do if you remember your rights have been violated

  • When y'all acquire that a publication has been rejected, you should always attempt to check your institution's publication policy. If you believe the policy has been violated, y'all should file a grievance, and appeal it through all available levels of appeal. Annotation that there are ordinarily strict time limits for filing a grievance, and then you should do then equally soon as possible.

Additional resources

  • Prison house Legal News
  • Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual

I want to send and receive mail in prison

Your rights

  • The First Amendment of the Constitution entitles prisoners to transport and receive mail, but the prison or jail may audit and sometimes censor it to protect security, using advisable procedures.
  • Prison officials' power to audit and censor post depends on whether the mail service is privileged or not. Officials may open non-privileged post, which includes messages from relatives, friends, and businesses, outside your presence. They can read this mail for security or other reasons without probable crusade or a warrant.
  • Incoming or outgoing non-privileged mail may exist censored for legitimate security reasons.  However, mail may not exist censored merely because it is critical of prison officials or considering prison officials disagree with its content.
  • Prisons may not ban mail simply because it contains fabric downloaded from the Internet. You lot may non be punished for posting material on the Internet with the help of others exterior of prison.
  • Clearly marked privileged mail, which includes communications to and from attorneys and legal organizations like the ACLU, gets more protection. Officials may open incoming privileged mail service to cheque it for contraband, only must do so in your presence.  They are not immune to open outgoing privileged post.  Privileged mail ordinarily cannot exist read unless prison officials obtain a warrant allowing them to do so.
  • If your incoming mail is censored, both you and the sender are entitled to notice.  The notice must explain the reasons for the censorship in enough detail to permit yous to challenge it.

What to do if you lot think your rights have been violated

  • If you believe your rights with respect to mail have been violated, you should file a grievance, and appeal it through all available levels of appeal.  Annotation that there are usually strict time limits for filing a grievance, and so you should exercise so every bit shortly every bit possible.  You should file a new grievance for each incident; you take a better chance of succeeding in a lawsuit  if you can establish that the prison's violations of your rights are the result of an ongoing policy or do, rather than isolated incidents.

Boosted resources

  • Prison Legal News
  • Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual