Although prisoners do not have full Constitutional rights they are protected by the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. This protection requires that prisoners be afforded a minimum standard of living. Prisoners retain some other Constitutional rights including due process in their right to administrative appeals and a right of access to the parole process. The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment has been held to apply to prison inmates. Prisoners are therefore protected against unequal treatment on the basis of ra

In 1996, Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), which has been seen by many critics as unfairly limiting inmate access to the federal court system. The PRLA contains five major provisions: Prisoners must exhaust internal prison grievance procedures before they file suit in federal court. Prisoners must pay their own court filing fees, either in one payment or in a series of monthly installments. Courts have the right to dismiss any prisoner's lawsuit which they find to be either "frivolous," "malicious" or stating an improper claim. Each time a court makes this determination, the case can be thrown out of court and the prisoner can have a "strike" issued against them. Once the inmate receives three "strikes," they can no longer file another lawsuit unless they pay the entire court filing fee up front. (Prison Litigation Reform Act, Pub. L. No. 104-134, §§ 801-10, 110 Stat. 1321.1996.)

However, prisons have less discretion to limit inmates' religious practices than other First Amendment rights due to a new federal law. Because of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), prison officials' discretion in limiting access to extremist material may depend in part on whether such material is related to an inmate's religious exercise. Therefore, prison regulations that affect religious exercise, including access to religious literature, will be reviewed carefully if challenged in court.

Prisoners have a limited right to privacy. For example, they may not to be stripped, searched or bathed in the presence of another prisoner and female prisoners may only be searched by female officers. In addition, they have the right to be exposed to the public view as little as possible while being removed from or to prison. However, they may be photographed and may be required to wear a uniform. Their right to privacy may be limited for security reasons. For example, they do not have a right to toilet doors that can be locked from the inside. Inmates may be searched. However, the search must be done with due regard to their decency and self-respect and in as appropriate a manner as possible. A search can only be carried out for a genuine purpose, for example, to find forbidden items. A search cannot be carried out simply to harass them.

Inmates' First Amendment rights are less extensive than other citizens' and their rights can be limited due to security or other penological concerns. Because of the particular challenges administrators face running prisons, the Supreme Court has acknowledged there is a compelling government interest which warrants limiting prisoners' rights. Courts have been deferential to prison officials' assessments of security threats, and sensitive to their related regulatory decisions, even if such decisions impact inmates' First Amendment rights.

As you can see, inmates have many rights, even though some are limited. They get free meals, water, light, medical assistance, television, recreation time and the luxury of never worrying about being in the cold. They also can get the help they need to fight their case from ‘jailhouse lawyers.’ To me, it seems as though they have more rights than they realize. What do you think? Wouldn’t you just mind spending eight months locked up?

Some topics in this essay:
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