LAWS3353 · Law

Incarceration Law

Boston College Law School

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. In 1980, approximately 500,000 people were behind bars in this country. In 2019, this figure topped 2.1 million (nearly two-thirds of whom are people of color), incarcerated in jails, state prisons, and federal prisons. Incarceration law will examine the constitutional law, and some statutory law, relevant to incarceration and prisoners rights. Topics will include free speech and religious rights in prison, the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments, the prison disciplinary process, solitary and supermax confinement, felon disenfranchisement, prisoner access to the courts, and race, gender, & LGBTQ discrimination in prison. We'll also look at Congress's efforts to regulate both prison and litigation brought by prisoners, examining the Prison Litigation Reform Act and the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act within prisons and jails. Finally, we'll examine constitutional remedies, studying the law of injunctive relief in constitutional cases brought by incarcerated individuals, and also some of the issues raised by damages actions. (The course will not cover criminal procedure, habeas corpus, or sentencing.)