Review Test

Deliberate indifference to an inmates medical needs constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and is a violation of the ________ Amendment.

8th Amendment

Estelle v. Gamble held that deliberate indifference to an inmate's medical needs constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the _________ Amendment.

8th Amendment

Bivens v. Six Unknown Federal Agents

A civil suit brought against federal government officials for denying the constitutional rights of others

A civil liability is:

A legal obligation to another person to do, pay, or make good something

Which of the following is properly sued in a habeas corpus action?

A prison warden, The superintendent of a mental Institution, A jail superintendent

In order to have an effective inmate discipline system, who must be advised of the contents of the system - the specific kinds of misconduct there are, and the procedures for dealing with them?

All corrections staff, all inmates when they arrive

What is the test for determining whether staff actions injuring inmates violate the Eighth Amendment, according to the decision in Whitley v. Albers?

Barbarous punishment or Unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain

In this case, the Court held that even when prison policies allow jailhouse lawyers to provide assistance to other inmates, prison systems must still provide inmates with either adequate law libraries or adequate legal assistance from individuals trained in the law.

Bounds V. Smith

Which of the following would properly be raised under the establishment clause?

Building a chapel on a military base, having Buddhist services in prison

According to the courts, order refers to

Calm and discipline within the institution

Trop v. Dulles (1958)

Court ruled that stripping away a natural-born citizen's citizenship is considered cruel and unusual punishment.

Williams v. New York (1949)

Defendants do not have a right to cross examine individuals who provide information for the report

According to the Supreme Court, the test for measuring health care, to see if it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, is

Deliberate Indifference

To test the constitutionality of conditions in a county jail, the Supreme Court uses what provision?

Due process clause

In _____________, the Supreme Court held that states must provide inmates with adequate medical care.

Estelle V. Gamble

A claim that a government doctor has been negligent in treating an inmate's ailments does not state a constitutional claim.

False

A federal court held county officials not liable for injuries resulting from an attempted hanging by a juvenile, because the county lacked funds to hire enough staff to provide constant supervision.

False

As a general rule, all outgoing mail sent by inmates is read by staff word-for-word before it is delivered to the postal service.

False

In a tort suit, an inmate usually sues to obtain both money damages and injunctive relief.

False

The Supreme Court specifically noted that the Fifth Amendment is based on a "shifting standard," tied to the changing attitudes of the American public.

False

Which Supreme Court case established that an inmate must demonstrate that the prison official(s) were deliberately indifferent to "substantial risk of serious harm" to the inmate in order to establish liability under the Eighth Amendment?

Farmer V. Brennan

The Supreme Court said, "The Fourth Amendment has no applicability to a prison cell."

Hudson V. Palmer... T/F... T

"Jailhouse lawyering" is the central issue in the Supreme Court case of

Johnson V. Avery

__ means the power of the court, specifically judges, to examine a law and determine whether it is constitutional or unconstitutional.

Judicial Review

Corrections facilities are often classified for security purposes into these categories:

Minimum, Medium, Maximum

__________ is defined as the early release of an offender from a secure facility upon completion of a certain portion of his or her sentence.

Parole

Which of the following are sanctions which may be used in prison discipline proceedings?

Placement in segregation, ranking away good time

Hudson v. Palmer held that:

Prisoners had no reasonable expectation of privacy in their cell.

Most prisons in the United States today have law libraries for prisoners to use.

Prisons and jails have little discretion in the cases they process, because they must accept into custody all persons who are committed by the courts.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the censorship of inmate mail must be based on a substantial government interest unrelated to the suppression of expression.

Procunier V. Martinez... T/F.. T

The name of the case in which the Supreme Court ruled that testimony from an officer and a copy of his written report about an incident was sufficient evidence to "convict" an inmate in a disciplinary hearing was

Superintendent V. Hill

Torts are private wrongs, for which a court will provide remedies in the form of money damages or injunctive relief.

T/F .... T

If a probationer violates the terms of his probation, he is taken before the sentencing judge for revocation of his probation.

T/F.. T

A serious problem with the use of consent decrees in prison cases was that they often required large amounts of money to be spent, which would have had to be appropriated by the legislature.

T/F... T

A sheriff may be held liable for failure to train deputies about constitutional requirements for performing their jobs.

T/F... T

According to the Supreme Court, "cruel and unusual punishment" means exactly what it did when it was written: torturous and barbarous punishments.

T/F... T

Courts are generally loathe to become embroiled in the question of whether a particular group is a "true religion," entitled to First Amendment protections.

T/F... T

Inmate grievance systems are used to review every kind of inmate complaint about prison conditions, policy, and actions.

T/F... T

It is unconstitutional, because it is an invasion of a visitor's privacy rights, to have surveillance cameras in a visiting room.

T/F... T

Misconduct to be punished inside a prison is limited to those things such as escape and rioting, which are peculiar to prison; matters which are offenses in the outside world, such as assaults and theft, are to be prosecuted in the criminal courts.

T/F... T

Pat searches of inmates may be conducted ordinarily only by officers of the same sex as the inmates who are being searched.

T/F... T

The PLRA limits the use by judges of consent decrees and special masters.

T/F... T

The PLRA requires a court to dismiss an inmate complaint if it is frivolous or malicious.

T/F... T

The Supreme Court ruled that it would be unconstitutional for prisons to ban visiting altogether.

T/F... T

The Supreme Court ruled that risk of serious damage to future health could amount to cruel and unusual punishment

T/F... T

The Supreme Court said that a pretrial detainee has a right to be free from any punishment.

T/F... T

The second question asked when a court examines a claim of due process violation is whether any person has been adversely affected by the government.

T/F... T

All of these persons enjoy absolute immunity - they cannot be sued for the performance of their duties: judges; prosecutors; members of juries.

T/F...T

One of the main issues of First Amendment protection for inmate mail has been sexually explicit (pornographic) material.

T/F...T

The Supreme Court has said that what is cruel and unusual punishment is determined by public opinion, which changes over time.

T/F...T

Citizens may sue the United States for torts committed by its employees, as a result of permission given for such suits in

The Federal Tort Claims Act

Given the strict confines of the prison setting, this amendment is the legal basis behind most forms of inmate redress.

The First Amendment

A federal court of appeals held that an inmate's claims of racial discrimination when he was held longer than white inmates in lockdown was not proved, because he did not show a discriminatory purpose in officials' actions.

True

As to room searches, inmates in Bell v. Wolfish objected that they could not be present to observe the searches. Lower courts held that they had to be present.

True

Habeas corpus is usually treated as an emergency matter; habeas corpus actions usually go to the top of the docket, ahead of other matters.

True

In most prisons, an inmate may have an attorney represent him at discipline hearings involving serious charges.

True

In order for correspondence to be treated as special attorney mail, the Court said in Wolff, that prison officials may require special markings on the envelope, showing it came from an attorney.

True

It is a basic rule of classification that an inmate will be placed in an institution as close to his home as possible, taking into account other classification factors as well.

True

It may be correctly said that, for every right which an inmate has in prison, there is a corresponding responsibility.

True

Nude photos of inmates' girlfriends are protected by the First Amendment and must be allowed to be sent into prisons.

True

The Supreme Court ruled that a right of privacy is fundamentally incompatible with steps needed to be taken for prison security.

True

The essence of habeas corpus is an attack by a person who is in custody upon the legality of that custody.

True

The writ of habeas corpus is guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.

True

Whenever a claim of due process violation is made, the first inquiry a court makes is whether there has been any deprivation of life, liberty, or property.

True

While the Supreme Court did not rule on it specifically, the Court noted with approval a ruling that would require outdoor exercise if prisoners were confined in their cells for almost 24 hours a day.

True

The Supreme Court said that shooting and injuring an inmate through an error in judgment, even if made in good faith, amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

Whitley V. Albers

A ___________ asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case and in the _______ common form of petition to the Court.

Writ of Certiorari, most

The essence of a Section 1983 action is that the inmate alleges there has been

a violation of their civil rights

Lewis v. Casey (1996)

constitutional right to court access is violated only if an inmate's attempt to pursue a legal claim is actually hindered by prison officials; inadequacies in prison legal services aren't enough

Griffin v. Illinois (1956)

economic equality in the criminal process. Rights of the accused (equality before the law)

Failure to provide inmates with adequate _______ could be a violation of the Eighth Amendment.

medical care, shelter, and sanitation

Johnson v. Avery

one of the first prison-related court decisions that involved an alleged violation of a constitutional right; here, the right of:

At a minimum, a law that touches on any constitutionally protected interest must be "rationally related to furthering a legitimate government interest." This is referred to as the ____.

rational basis test