Describe how litigation has been used to address abuses in the corrections system and describe the results of its use.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A sample answer follows: A great deal of effort on behalf of prisoners, parolees, and state agencies has played out in state and federal courtrooms across the nation. Although some of these efforts have led to significant and meaningful changes, the judicial arena has proven to be largely a limited and uncertain route to corrections reform. Starting with the rise of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, prisoners began using the courts more frequently to find relief from their grievances. After decades of appeals, many of which reached the U.S. Supreme Court, and many of which failed in the eyes of prisoners and their advocates, other means of seeking justice for prisoners became more prominent. Parties on both sides of these arguments have used federal legislation to bring their version of balance to the situation. Prisoner advocates seek to expand civil rights for persons under supervision and their opponents push federal law to limit those rights.