Learn more than here almost your right to be protected confronting discrimination and abuse in prison house and what to do if your rights are violated. The police force is always evolving. If you have admission to a prison house law library, it is a good thought to inquiry new developments.

I experienced assault or excessive force in prison

Your rights

  • Prison officials have a legal duty under the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from using excessive force and to protect prisoners from assault by other prisoners.
  • Officers may not use force maliciously or sadistically with intent to crusade damage, but they may utilize force in practiced faith efforts to keep social club.
  •  Prison officials may be violating the Eighth Subpoena if they knew about a risk of assault past other prisoners merely failed to reply, or if prison conditions or practices create an unreasonable risk of assault (for instance, non having enough officers on the unit, not having cell doors that lock properly, etc.).

What to do if you believe that your rights take been violated

  • If you have been assaulted by an officeholder or boyfriend prisoner, you should file a grievance, and appeal information technology through all bachelor levels of appeal.  Note that there are usually strict time limits for filing a grievance, so you should do so as shortly as possible.
  • If you believe y'all are in firsthand danger of assault, you should tell a staff member yous trust (mental wellness worker, teacher, etc.).

Additional resources

  • Prison Legal News:  https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/
  • Jailhouse Lawyer'southward Manual:  http://jlm.law.columbia.edu/files/2017/05/36.-Ch.-24.pdf

I'm facing religious discrimination in prison

Your rights

  • Federal law provides special protections for prisoners' religious do. If a prison policy, dominion, or practice significantly impedes your ability to practice your sincerely held religious beliefs, prison officials must evidence that applying the rule to you furthers an extremely important (in legal terms, "compelling") governmental interest (e.chiliad., prisoners' safety or health) and that in that location is no other reasonable way to go about protecting that involvement. If prison officials cannot show this, they must provide a religious accommodation to enable you to practice your religion.
  • Depending on your particular circumstances, prison officials may exist required to provide you with a religious nutrition (eastward.g., halal or kosher meals), worship services, and access to clergy. They as well may exist required to let y'all to have religious texts, wear certain religious clothing, headwear, and jewelry, and maintain religious grooming practices (eastward.chiliad., wearing a beard or long hair).
  • Prison officials cannot impose religious beliefs or practices on yous. They cannot punish you for declining to have office in religious activities or events that include religious elements. Prison house officials cannot give special preference to members of one faith, or care for prisoners of some religions less favorably than those of others.

What to exercise if your rights are violated

  • You can file a complaint with the U.Due south. Department of Justice's Special Litigation Partition.
  • You can contact the ACLU in your country for more information.

Additional resources

  • ACLU – Religious Freedom in Prison
  • Department of Justice – Religious State Apply and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA)
  • Prison Legal News:  www.prisonlegalnews.org
  • Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual:  http://jlm.law.columbia.edu/files/2017/05/39.-Ch.-27.pdf

I'one thousand experiencing discrimination or corruption in prison because I'm transgender

Your rights

  • If you notify prison officials that you are transgender, and/or have been threatened, officials are legally required to human action to protect you. When you enter prison, inform staff you are transgender or believe you are at risk — both verbally and in writing.
  • The federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) requires prisons and jails to brand individualized housing placements for all transgender and intersex prisoners, including when assigning them to male person or female facilities. A transgender or intersex prisoner's own views with respect to their ain safety must be given serious consideration when making these determinations.
  • Many correctional facilities house transgender prisoners in alone confinement to protect them from violence. PREA says you cannot be segregated against your will for more than than xxx days and if you are in protective custody yous must accept admission to programs, privileges, education and work opportunities to the extent possible.
  • Prison and jail staff must evaluate you for gender dysphoria inside a reasonable fourth dimension if you lot request it. Medical handling for prisoners diagnosed with gender dysphoria should be delivered co-ordinate to accustomed medical standards.
  • Blanket bans on specific types of treatments, such equally a ban on hormone therapy or gender confirmation surgery, are unconstitutional.
  • Staff should generally allow you gender-appropriate vesture and grooming supplies, and allow you to nowadays yourself consistent with your gender identity, or they may be in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
  • Strip searches must exist conducted professionally and respectfully. A strip search conducted in full view of other prisoners and staff may violate your privacy rights. If there is no emergency, male staff should not strip-search women (including transgender women) and vice versa. Some jails have policies assuasive transgender prisoners to cull the gender of the staff to search them.
  • Staff cannot carry strip and pat-downwards searches solely to assess your genitals.  Staff must be trained to conduct searches of transgender and intersex prisoners in a professional person and respectful manner, and in the least intrusive mode possible, consistent with security needs.
  • If you asking a private shower, PREA requires that officials grant you access.

What to practise if you believe your rights might be violated

  • Study your concerns or any specific threats to your safety to staff in writing, and besides send a copy to the inspector full general, the PREA coordinator for the agency with custody over you lot, and someone exterior whom y'all trust.
  • If yous are assaulted, file a grievance as presently as possible, though cases of sexual assault may have more flexible time limits on reporting or may have special reporting processes.
  • Prisoners who desire to file a federal lawsuit nearly events in jail or prison must beginning complete the internal appeals process. This means that you demand to know the rules of any appeals (or "grievance") process in your facility, including time limits on filing an appeal afterward something happens. In near prisons or jails, you lot volition accept to file a written complaint on a form that is provided.
  • If staff refuse to evaluate you for gender dysphoria or fail to provide you with care, file a grievance and entreatment through all levels.
  • If you were receiving hormones from a doctor prior to incarceration, take your medical records sent to the medical or health manager at your facility.
  • If you are placed in protective segregation and do not want to be there, file a grievance and all appeals nearly your placement. You lot should also appeal annihilation that seems unfair about your placement, such as not being able to participate in a hearing, not beingness told why you were moved to segregation, not being able to participate in programming or obtain a job, or not being told when you lot can go out.
  • If your placement is based on so-chosen safety concerns and you would feel safer in a women'due south facility (every bit a transgender adult female), request such a transfer and file appeals if you do not get one.
  • If you are asked to strip downward in front of other prisoners and you do not feel comfortable, politely enquire to be moved to a split surface area.
  • If you cannot apply a private shower, ask to shower at a dissimilar time from other prisoners or in a private area (equally the PREA standards crave).
  • If you exercise non desire to be searched by a staff fellow member of a particular sexual activity, politely inquire for a different staff member to search you. In some prisons or jails, y'all may also be able to get a full general order that says you should only be searched by women (if you are a transgender woman).
  • Enquire for your facility's official policies related to your circumstances. Sometimes you can detect these policies in the prison library.

Additional resources

Blackness and Pink
614 Columbia Rd.
Dorchester, MA 02125
(617) 519-4387
www.blackandpink.org

But Detention International
3325 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 340
Los Angeles, CA 90010
(213) 384-1400
1900 L St. NW, Suite 601
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 506-3333
www.justdetention.org

National Center for Lesbian Rights
870 Market St., Suite 370
San Francisco, CA 94102
i-800-528-6257
world wide web.nclrights.org

National Center for Transgender Equality
1325 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 903-0112
www.transequality.org

I'k pregnant and in prison

Your rights

  • You take the correct to an ballgame if you want i, and to refuse an ballgame if you do non want one.
  • You take the right to prenatal and other medical intendance for your pregnancy and postpartum care.
  • You cannot exist forced to pay earlier you can get the medical care you need.
  • You lot may have the right not to exist shackled: many states have laws or policies that prohibit or limit the use of shackles on prisoners who are significant, are in labor, or have recently given birth.  Some courts take also said that shackling is unconstitutional.  The ACLU'south anti-shackling briefing paper provides more detailed data.
  • You have the right to turn down sterilization or other unwanted nascency control later on your pregnancy.

What to do if y'all think your rights have been violated

  • If you are not getting the medical care you need, ask other medical or other staff to help you lot.
  • Document everything that happens. Put your request for an abortion or other medical care in writing and proceed a copy. As well, continue a listing of the people who you lot've spoken to or contacted and write down what they say and the dates and times yous spoke to them.
  • In addition to your asking for medical care, you lot should also file a grievance (an official complaint) if your medical needs are not met. If your grievance is denied or rejected, file an appeal and pay attending to all the rules and deadlines of the grievance organization, which are unremarkably written in the inmate handbook.

Boosted resources

  • If the prison isn't providing you the medical care you need, contact your own lawyer, a prisoner legal services organization (if one exists in your state), NARAL, Planned Parenthood, your local ACLU chapter, or the National Prison Project of the ACLU.

I'g in prison and have a disability

Examples of discrimination against people in prison with disabilities

  • Exclusion from facilities, programs, and services that are accessible to other prisoners.
  • Not providing sign language interpreters for a deaf prisoner at disciplinary hearings, classification decisions, medical appointments,, and educational and vocational programs.
  • Failure to provide medical devices such as wheelchairs and canes to disabled prisoners.
  • Placement in segregation or solitary confinement due to perceived vulnerability or the unavailability of accessible cells in full general population.

Your rights

  • Prisoners with disabilities are protected nether sections of the Americans with Disabilities Human action and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. In the prison and jail context, the Rehabilitation Act applies to facilities run past federal agencies (such every bit the Agency of Prisons) and to any state or local bureau that receives federal funding. The ADA regulates facilities run by land and local agencies, regardless of whether they receive federal funding.
  • You are entitled to an equal opportunity to participate in programs and services for which you are qualified.
  • You are entitled to be housed at your correct security level, and in a prison cell with the accessible elements necessary for safe, advisable housing.
  • You are entitled to reasonable modifications to policies and procedures.
  • You are entitled to as effective communication including whatever necessary auxiliary aids and services such as sign linguistic communication interpreters, captioning, videophones, readers, Braille, and audio recordings.
  • Prison house officials are not required to provide accommodations that impose undue financial and administrative burdens or require a fundamental alteration in the nature of the program.
  • Prison officials are likewise allowed to discriminate if the disabled prisoner's participation would pose significant safety risks or a straight threat to the wellness or safety of others that cannot exist mitigated through reasonable modifications.

What to practise if yous believe your rights take been violated

  • File a formal grievance through your facility's grievance process and entreatment all levels available. If your facility has an ADA Coordinator you may also contact that person and inquire him/her to help yous with an accommodation for your disability.
  • Y'all or your chaser can file a lawsuit explaining how your rights have been violated under the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, or both. You lot must complete any bachelor grievance process and all appeals earlier filing a lawsuit in federal court.
  • To bring a lawsuit under these laws, disabled prisoners must show: (ane) that they are disabled within the meaning of the statutes, (two) that they are "qualified" to participate in the program, and (3) that they are excluded from, are not allowed to benefit from, or have been subjected to discrimination in the program because of their disability. Under the Rehabilitation Human action, prisoners must also show that the prison officials or the governmental agency named as defendants receive federal funding.
  • Depending on the state of affairs, disabled prisoners may file claims for relief nether the 8th Amendment, which prohibits cruel or unusual penalisation, in add-on to or instead of the ADA or Rehabilitation Human activity.
  • The laws of some states may provide different or greater legal rights than the federal laws. Disabled prisoners should investigate this possibility earlier bringing suit.

Boosted resources

  • Every state and U.Due south. territory has a federally mandated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) organization that works to provide aid and legal services to individuals with disabilities.  Some of these organizations also work with incarcerated individuals.  For a complete list of all these organizations past state click here: https://world wide web.ndrn.org/ndrn-member-agencies.html

I want to receive publications in the postal service in prison

Your rights

  • Prisoners generally take the right to receive books, magazines, and newspapers by mail, discipline to the restrictions described beneath.
  • Prison authorities can generally decide to censor a publication for reasonable goals related to prison rubber or security, but cannot reject publications because they disagree with their political viewpoint or for other capricious reasons.
  • Prisons cannot discriminate against religious publications by arbitrarily subjecting them to rules that exercise not apply to non-religious publications.
  • Prisons and jails may ban material that describes how to build weapons, instructs how to escape, or instructs how to break the law. They tin can ban magazines that contain nudity and pornography.
  • Often prisoners accept the correct only to receive softcover books and leap periodicals sent directly from a publisher, bookstore, or other commercial source, but sometimes courts take allowed prisoners to receive clippings and copies of articles from friends, family, or other noncommercial sources.
  • Prison officials cannot prevent your friends and relatives from buying yous books and magazine subscriptions.
  • Both you and the sender have the correct to be notified if your incoming publication is being censored or rejected.  Prison officials must give enough of a reason for their censorship decision to allow you to challenge that decision.

What to do if you recall your rights take been violated

  • When yous learn that a publication has been rejected, you should always try to check your institution's publication policy. If you believe the policy has been violated, you lot should file a grievance, and appeal information technology through all bachelor levels of entreatment. Note that there are unremarkably strict time limits for filing a grievance, so yous should exercise and so as soon every bit possible.

Additional resources

  • Prison house Legal News
  • Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual

I want to transport and receive mail in prison

Your rights

  • The First Amendment of the Constitution entitles prisoners to ship and receive mail, but the prison or jail may inspect and sometimes censor it to protect security, using appropriate procedures.
  • Prison officials' power to inspect and censor mail depends on whether the mail service is privileged or non. Officials may open non-privileged mail, which includes messages from relatives, friends, and businesses, outside your presence. They can read this mail for security or other reasons without probable cause or a warrant.
  • Incoming or approachable non-privileged mail may be censored for legitimate security reasons.  However, mail may not exist censored simply because it is critical of prison officials or because prison officials disagree with its content.
  • Prisons may not ban mail just because it contains material downloaded from the Net. You lot may not be punished for posting material on the Net with the help of others outside of prison house.
  • Clearly marked privileged post, which includes communications to and from attorneys and legal organizations similar the ACLU, gets more than protection. Officials may open up incoming privileged mail to check information technology for contraband, but must exercise then in your presence.  They are not allowed to open approachable privileged post.  Privileged post normally cannot be read unless prison officials obtain a warrant allowing them to do so.
  • If your incoming mail service is censored, both yous and the sender are entitled to notice.  The find must explain the reasons for the censorship in enough detail to allow you to challenge information technology.

What to practise if y'all think your rights have been violated

  • If y'all believe your rights with respect to post have been violated, you should file a grievance, and entreatment it through all available levels of appeal.  Notation that there are unremarkably strict fourth dimension limits for filing a grievance, so you lot should do so every bit soon as possible.  You should file a new grievance for each incident; y'all have a meliorate chance of succeeding in a lawsuit  if you tin establish that the prison house'southward violations of your rights are the result of an ongoing policy or practice, rather than isolated incidents.

Additional resources

  • Prison Legal News
  • Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual