Essay Example on Inmates' Rights and Challenges in Correctional Facilities

All inmates have specific rights and treated in a special way when they are held under custody. In a correctional facility, an inmate can explore a legal mechanism in which he or she can challenge his or her confinement. Challenges cost that can be experienced can either be liable to federal or state government. There exist four management concerns that may be incurred based on inmates with special needs where a single recommendation can practically neutralize every issue. The Eighth US Constitution Amendment guarantees the death penalty does violate an offender's freedom against unusual and cruel punishment.

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All inmates have five ways in which they can challenge their confinement legality based on correctional officials' practices and prison conditions. In essence, every inmate have the rights to challenge their confinement legality by filing a habeas corpus action' state. In this context, inmates can pursue a habeas corpus state on the convectional facility since they wish to make lawsuits in state courts that can be applied to review and challenge prison condition, prisoner’s confinement conditions, and prison legality. The other approach is by filing a habeas corpus' federal action after exhausting every states remedy. Inmates filing a federal habeas corpus action need to argue and express that they are held in custody illegal as a result of wrongful conviction by violating the Constitution as well as their federal rights. Every inmate at this state will express that the violation of their rights has led to harms and caused a substantial impact on their trial' outcomes. If inmates successfully convince the court that the violation substantially harmed the trial and violation of their rights, they will then express the desire to be given a habeas relief.

The other approach is making and filing a state civil tort lawsuit in which inmates who are plaintiffs displays that the defendants violated the caused injury and violated the duty. Most federal and state correctional facilities are susceptible to state tort law exposure. Such that, federal public prisons experience Federal Tort Claim Act without liability while state public prisons have several tort-law immunity doctrines. Inmates challenge their confinement legality by making and filing federal civil rights lawsuits (Cole et al., 2018). In this context, inmates file their federal civil rights lawsuits based on plaintiff prisoner having inadequate medical care. Thus, inmates showcases a doctor' negligence to argue that they failed to provide care in the best possible way and explore the most appropriate diagnosis avenue. Also, when the doctor did not offer the best medicine based on the inmate's symptoms. In this context, the doctor and other correctional officials require and display that there was intentional indifference based on the problem knowledge that inmates are experiencing.

Inmates can also file and make injunctive relief' petition. Inmates can pursue this approach when they want to avoid specific act as it may contribute to unsafe, harmful, and damaging influence on individual arising from prisons and cannot ignore it unless an individual explores injunctive relief. The effects may be as a result of sanitation, safety, and health procedure, making inmates to contract unknown diseases (Clear et al., 2015). The federal or the state can argue and engage in conflict that insufficient funds are rendering the inmates to comply with what they are told. Most correctional facilities are known to provide a lack of funds as an excuse since it is obtained from the higher party such as federal or state government. Every correctional facility receive funds via state taxes that the people within the society pay to the government.

Typically, inmates with special needs are violent, which leads to disruptions. In essence, inmates in correctional facilities experience anxiety, which contributes to their disruptive and violent behaviors. For that reason, they may cause war or pain to other inmates. One of the recommendations to explore in terms of violent misconduct is to remove the inmates and put them in a completely different apartment where they cannot cause any destruction (Cole et al., 2018). The other aspect is that inmates with special needs experience suicidal thoughts. In most instances, inmates with special needs may commit suicide in a correctional facility based on mental illness. Thus, it is recommended that in that case, to monitor the inmates with special needs in the first week of arrest to prevent further suicide.

The other aspect is that special needs inmates experience tax scarce medical resources. In this context, the court recognizes that inmates' rights are predominated by the essential needs of special needs inmates. In other words, special needs inmates do lack the tax scarce medical resources since their needs are not being honored and subjected to indifferent medical needs. In such instances, it is recommended that training and re-education of the staff members are needed to realize special needs inmates' wants (Clear et al., 2015). Nevertheless, inmates will target and abuse others, especially with special needs, since they are easier and susceptible to manipulation to garner what they need from them. In most instances, special needs inmates are more vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse in jail as a result of essential requirements. Thus, it is recommended to reprimand abusive inmates and give the tougher repercussions to refrain special needs inmates. Those who are older it is recommended that they should be given special treatment as compared to others.

The use of the death penalty does not violate offenders' rights against "cruel and unusual punishments" as stipulated in the Eighth US Constitution Amendment (De Leon & Fowler Jr, 2013). However, the Eighth Amendment shape specific procedural conditions in which a jury may pursue death penalty by specifying how it needs to be conducted. The Eighth US Constitution Amendment can be applied to both federal and states government. Thus, it requires the court to consider the decency of the evolving standards to examine if a specific punishment leads to "unusual or cruel" punishment. In this context, the court shall identify the objective factors to display community standards changes to allow them to make independent evaluations to determine if the statute is reasonable. The jury needs to be guided by specific criminal circumstances to allow them to pursue an individualized sentencing process.

Conclusion

In conclusion, every inmate has a specific right to be given special treatment when other factors arise in every correctional facility. All inmates have five ways in which they can challenge their confinement legality based on correctional officials' practices and prison conditions. Challenges cost that can be experienced can either be liable to federal or state government. Inmates in correctional facilities experience anxiety, which contributes to their disruptive and violent behaviors. The use of the death penalty does not violate offenders' rights against "cruel and unusual punishments" as stipulated in the Eighth US Constitution Amendment.

References

Clear, T. R., Reisig, M. D., & Cole, G. F. (2015). American corrections. Cengage Learning.

Cole, G. F., Smith, C. E., & DeJong, C. (2018). The American system of criminal justice. Cengage Learning.

De Leon, J., & Fowler Jr, J. E. (2013). Cruel and unusual punishment and the Eighth Amendment. The Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118517383.wbeccj073