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American Bar Association Recommendations on the Legal Rights of Imprisoned People (Approved by the House of Delegates 2/13/07)

  • Organization: American Bar Association
  • Date Created: Monday, February 12, 2007
  • Submitted: Thursday, February 22, 2007
  • Attachment(s): DOC

The ABA House of Delegates unanimously approved the Recommendations, which call for the repeal or the following amendments to the Prison Litigation Reform Act:

1. Repeal the requirement that prisoners (including committed and detained juveniles and pretrial detainees, as well as sentenced prisoners) suffer a physical injury in order to recover for mental or emotional injuries caused by their subjection to cruel and unusual punishment or other illegal conduct;

2. Amend the requirement for exhaustion of administrative remedies to require that a prisoner who has not exhausted administrative remedies at the time a lawsuit is filed be permitted to pursue the claim through an administrative- remedy process, with the lawsuit stayed for up to 90 days pending the administrative processing of the claim;

3. Repeal the restrictions on the equitable authority of federal courts in conditions-of-confinement cases;

4. Amend the PLRA to allow prisoners who prevail on civil rights claims to recover attorney's fees on the same basis as the general public in civil rights cases;

5. Repeal the provisions extending the PLRA to juveniles confined in juvenile detention and correctional facilities; and

6. Repeal the filing fee provisions that apply only to prisoners.

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