Criminal_Justice

Inmates Rights Inmate’s rights are the general rights that these inmates have and cannot be taken away from them by prisons or jails. “Even the most chronic or hardened inmates have basic rights that are protected by the U.S. Constitution. Inmates have the right to be free, under the Eighth Amendment, from inhuman conditions because those conditions constitute "cruel and unusual" punishment.” (Inmates rights, 2013) Inmates have plenty of rights and they vary from health issues to religion views. The prisoners have the right to be free from sexual crimes like sexual harassment. They also have the right to complain about the prison conditions and the treatment they receive. The inmates can receive medical treatment at any time if needed. The right that I will be talking about is the right to your religion. The case Cruz vs. Beto was about an inmate Fred Arispe Cruz and his right to religion being taken away from him. “He was the most famous writ-writer in the Texas prison system, filed a pro se class action lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 against the State of Texas in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.” (Sagar, 2009) Cruz had to write his compliant on a piece of toilet paper because they wouldn’t even provide him with paper because they knew what he was trying to do. His compliant said that since he was a Buddhist that the prison wouldn’t allow him to use the prison chapel, that he was prohibited from writing to his religious advisor, and that he was placed in solitary confinement because he tried sharing religious views with other prisoners. “On March 20, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court per curiam vacated the holding of the lower courts, finding that Texas had discriminated against petitioner by denying him a reasonable opportunity to purse his Buddhist faith comparable to that offered to other prisoners. The Court remanded the case. Cruz v. Beto.” (Sagar, 2009) This case Cruz v Beto shaped today’s prison system by letting every inmate have the right to practice his religion and share it to other inmates if he wants to. Today prisons have a variety of different religions that are practiced by inmates and they do so because of this case. They can pray anytime they want and go do research of any religion they want to. I just got done working at a prison doing some plumbing work outside and I saw this first hand. One of the inmates that was working with us to help with digging and he would walk off on certain parts of the day and take his stuff and pray to Allah. The officer that was with us didn’t say anything about it or any of the other officers. This shows the rights they have to their religion and without Cruz and the case he made; this guy might not have been able to do what he was doing that day. References Clear, T. R., Cole, G. E., & Reisig, M. D. (2013). American Corrections Tenth Edition. Belmont: Linda Schreiber-Ganster Inmates rights. In (2013). Findlaw. Retrieved from http://civilrights.findlaw.com/other-constitutional-rights/rights-of-inmates.html Sagar, K. S. (2009). The civil rights litigation clearinghouse. In Cruz v Beto. Retrieved from http://www.clearinghouse.net/detail.php'id=11202