Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | Trial

A civil rights victory for prisoners.

Article Excerpt
Prisoners rarely win in the Rehnquist Court. (1) Time and again, when prisoners have claimed that a government action deprived them of a fundamental right, the Court has applied a rational-basis analysis, holding that the government should prevail as long as the action was "reasonably related to a legitimate penological interest." (2) The Court frequently has proclaimed the need to defer to prison officials in deciding what is necessary to maintain order and discipline within prisons. (3)

In this context, the Court's recent decision in Johnson v. California is remarkable. The Court held that the routine racial segregation of prisoners in California must meet strict scrutiny. (4) Although Johnson concerns a specific claim, racial segregation, it does offer hope to lawyers bringing other civil rights claims on behalf of prisoners.

In California, when a male prisoner enters an institution--whether at the start of a sentence or after being transferred from a different prison--the inmate is placed in a reception center for up to 60 days. During this time, prison officials evaluate the prisoner to determine his long-term placement.

At the reception centers, two inmates are often housed together in one cell. Prison officials consider several factors, including race, when assigning these temporary cell mates and conceded in Johnson that there is virtually...