Learn more hither almost your right to exist protected confronting discrimination and abuse in prison and what to practise if your rights are violated. The constabulary is always evolving. If y'all have access to a prison law library, it is a good idea to inquiry new developments.

I experienced set on or excessive force in prison

Your rights

  • Prison officials have a legal duty under the 8th Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from using excessive force and to protect prisoners from set on by other prisoners.
  • Officers may not use strength maliciously or sadistically with intent to cause damage, simply they may use strength in skilful faith efforts to go on order.
  •  Prison officials may be violating the 8th Amendment if they knew about a risk of assault by other prisoners but failed to respond, or if prison conditions or practices create an unreasonable adventure of assault (for example, not having enough officers on the unit, not having prison cell doors that lock properly, etc.).

What to practice if y'all believe that your rights take been violated

  • If you have been assaulted by an officer or fellow prisoner, you should file a grievance, and appeal it through all available levels of entreatment.  Note that at that place are usually strict fourth dimension limits for filing a grievance, then you should practice so as soon as possible.
  • If you believe you are in immediate danger of assault, you should tell a staff member you trust (mental wellness worker, teacher, etc.).

Additional resources

  • Prison house Legal News:  https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/
  • Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual:  http://jlm.constabulary.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 practise. If a prison policy, dominion, or practice significantly impedes your ability to practice your sincerely held religious behavior, prison officials must show that applying the rule to you furthers an extremely important (in legal terms, "compelling") governmental interest (e.g., prisoners' safety or wellness) and that there is no other reasonable way to go about protecting that interest. If prison house officials cannot show this, they must provide a religious accommodation to enable you to practise your faith.
  • Depending on your particular circumstances, prison officials may be required to provide you with a religious nutrition (e.1000., halal or kosher meals), worship services, and access to clergy. They also may be required to permit y'all to take religious texts, wear certain religious wearable, headwear, and jewelry, and maintain religious grooming practices (e.g., wearing a beard or long hair).
  • Prison officials cannot impose religious beliefs or practices on yous. They cannot punish yous for declining to take part in religious activities or events that include religious elements. Prison officials cannot give special preference to members of one organized religion, or care for prisoners of some religions less favorably than those of others.

What to practise if your rights are violated

  • You can file a complaint with the U.Southward. Department of Justice'south Special Litigation Division.
  • You lot tin can contact the ACLU in your state for more information.

Additional resources

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

I'm experiencing discrimination or abuse in prison because I'm transgender

Your rights

  • If you notify prison officials that you are transgender, and/or take been threatened, officials are legally required to act to protect you. When you lot enter prison, inform staff y'all are transgender or believe you are at risk — both verbally and in writing.
  • The federal Prison house Rape Elimination Act (PREA) requires prisons and jails to make 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 own safety must be given serious consideration when making these determinations.
  • Many correctional facilities house transgender prisoners in solitary confinement to protect them from violence. PREA says you cannot be segregated against your will for more than 30 days and if you are in protective custody you must take access to programs, privileges, teaching and work opportunities to the extent possible.
  • Prison and jail staff must evaluate you for gender dysphoria within a reasonable time if you request it. Medical treatment for prisoners diagnosed with gender dysphoria should exist delivered co-ordinate to accepted medical standards.
  • Coating bans on specific types of treatments, such every bit a ban on hormone therapy or gender confirmation surgery, are unconstitutional.
  • Staff should more often than not allow you gender-appropriate article of clothing and preparation supplies, and permit you to present yourself consistent with your gender identity, or they may be in violation of the 8th Subpoena.
  • Strip searches must be conducted professionally and respectfully. A strip search conducted in total 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 allowing transgender prisoners to choose the gender of the staff to search them.
  • Staff cannot conduct strip and pat-down searches solely to assess your genitals.  Staff must exist trained to conduct searches of transgender and intersex prisoners in a professional person and respectful manner, and in the least intrusive manner possible, consistent with security needs.
  • If you lot request a private shower, PREA requires that officials grant you access.

What to do if you believe your rights might be violated

  • Report your concerns or whatever specific threats to your prophylactic to staff in writing, and also send a copy to the inspector general, the PREA coordinator for the agency with custody over you, and someone exterior whom you trust.
  • If you are assaulted, file a grievance as before long equally possible, though cases of sexual assault may have more flexible time limits on reporting or may have special reporting processes.
  • Prisoners who want to file a federal lawsuit about events in jail or prison house must first complete the internal appeals process. This ways that you need to know the rules of any appeals (or "grievance") procedure in your facility, including time limits on filing an entreatment after something happens. In most prisons or jails, you volition have to file a written complaint on a form that is provided.
  • If staff refuse to evaluate yous for gender dysphoria or fail to provide you lot with care, file a grievance and entreatment through all levels.
  • If you were receiving hormones from a dr. prior to incarceration, accept your medical records sent to the medical or wellness director at your facility.
  • If you lot are placed in protective segregation and exercise not want to be there, file a grievance and all appeals about your placement. You lot should also appeal anything that seems unfair about your placement, such equally not beingness able to participate in a hearing, non beingness told why you were moved to segregation, not being able to participate in programming or obtain a chore, or not being told when you can become out.
  • If your placement is based on and so-called rubber concerns and you would feel safer in a women's facility (every bit a transgender woman), request such a transfer and file appeals if you exercise non get one.
  • If you are asked to strip down in forepart of other prisoners and you lot do not experience comfortable, politely ask to exist moved to a separate area.
  • If you cannot use a private shower, ask to shower at a unlike time from other prisoners or in a private area (as the PREA standards require).
  • If you do not want to be searched by a staff member of a particular sex activity, politely ask for a different staff member to search yous. In some prisons or jails, you lot may likewise be able to get a full general order that says yous should merely exist searched by women (if you are a transgender adult female).
  • Ask for your facility's official policies related to your circumstances. Sometimes you can notice these policies in the prison library.

Additional resources

Black and Pink
614 Columbia Rd.
Dorchester, MA 02125
(617) 519-4387
world wide web.blackandpink.org

Just 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 Centre for Lesbian Rights
870 Market St., Suite 370
San Francisco, CA 94102
ane-800-528-6257
www.nclrights.org

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

I'yard pregnant and in prison

Your rights

  • You have the correct to an abortion if you desire one, and to pass up an abortion if yous practice not want i.
  • You have the right to prenatal and other medical care for your pregnancy and postpartum care.
  • Yous cannot exist forced to pay before you can get the medical care yous demand.
  • Yous may accept 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 accept recently given birth.  Some courts take besides said that shackling is unconstitutional.  The ACLU'southward anti-shackling conference paper provides more detailed information.
  • You have the right to refuse sterilization or other unwanted nativity command later your pregnancy.

What to practice if you lot remember your rights have been violated

  • If y'all are not getting the medical care yous need, ask other medical or other staff to aid you.
  • Document everything that happens. Put your request for an ballgame or other medical care in writing and keep a copy. Also, keep a list of the people who y'all've spoken to or contacted and write downward what they say and the dates and times y'all spoke to them.
  • In addition to your asking for medical care, you 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 attention to all the rules and deadlines of the grievance system, which are usually written in the inmate handbook.

Additional resource

  • If the prison isn't providing yous the medical intendance you need, contact your ain lawyer, a prisoner legal services organization (if one exists in your state), NARAL, Planned Parenthood, your local ACLU affiliate, or the National Prison house Projection of the ACLU.

I'k 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 every bit wheelchairs and canes to disabled prisoners.
  • Placement in segregation or solitary confinement due to perceived vulnerability or the unavailability of attainable cells in general population.

Your rights

  • Prisoners with disabilities are protected under sections of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Human action of 1973. In the prison and jail context, the Rehabilitation Deed applies to facilities run past federal agencies (such equally the Bureau of Prisons) and to any state or local agency that receives federal funding. The ADA regulates facilities run by land and local agencies, regardless of whether they receive federal funding.
  • Yous 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 right security level, and in a cell with the accessible elements necessary for safe, appropriate housing.
  • Y'all are entitled to reasonable modifications to policies and procedures.
  • You are entitled to equally effective communication including any necessary auxiliary aids and services such equally sign linguistic communication interpreters, captioning, videophones, readers, Braille, and audio recordings.
  • Prison officials are not required to provide accommodations that impose undue financial and administrative burdens or require a fundamental amending in the nature of the program.
  • Prison house officials are as well immune to discriminate if the disabled prisoner'south participation would pose pregnant safety risks or a direct threat to the health or safety of others that cannot be mitigated through reasonable modifications.

What to do if yous believe your rights have been violated

  • File a formal grievance through your facility's grievance process and appeal all levels available. If your facility has an ADA Coordinator you may as well contact that person and inquire him/her to help you with an adaptation for your disability.
  • You or your chaser can file a lawsuit explaining how your rights have been violated under the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, or both. You must consummate any available grievance procedure and all appeals before filing a lawsuit in federal courtroom.
  • To bring a lawsuit under these laws, disabled prisoners must prove: (1) that they are disabled within the meaning of the statutes, (2) 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 Deed, prisoners must also evidence that the prison house officials or the governmental bureau named equally defendants receive federal funding.
  • Depending on the state of affairs, disabled prisoners may file claims for relief under the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel or unusual penalisation, in addition to or instead of the ADA or Rehabilitation Act.
  • The laws of some states may provide different or greater legal rights than the federal laws. Disabled prisoners should investigate this possibility before bringing adapt.

Additional resource

  • Every land and U.Southward. 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 besides work with incarcerated individuals.  For a complete listing of all these organizations past state click here: https://www.ndrn.org/ndrn-fellow member-agencies.html

I want to receive publications in the mail in prison house

Your rights

  • Prisoners generally have the correct to receive books, magazines, and newspapers by post, subject to the restrictions described below.
  • Prison authorities tin mostly make up one's mind to censor a publication for reasonable goals related to prison safety or security, but cannot reject publications because they disagree with their political viewpoint or for other arbitrary reasons.
  • Prisons cannot discriminate against religious publications by arbitrarily subjecting them to rules that do 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 can ban magazines that contain nudity and pornography.
  • Oft prisoners have the right only to receive softcover books and bound periodicals sent directly from a publisher, bookstore, or other commercial source, just sometimes courts have 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 you books and magazine subscriptions.
  • Both you and the sender take the right to be notified if your incoming publication is being censored or rejected.  Prison officials must requite enough of a reason for their censorship conclusion to allow you to challenge that decision.

What to do if yous think your rights take been violated

  • When y'all learn that a publication has been rejected, you should always try to check your institution's publication policy. If y'all believe the policy has been violated, yous should file a grievance, and appeal it through all available levels of entreatment. Note that there are usually strict time limits for filing a grievance, and so y'all should do so as before long as possible.

Additional resource

  • Prison Legal News
  • Jailhouse Lawyer's Transmission

I want to ship and receive mail in prison

Your rights

  • The Offset Amendment of the Constitution entitles prisoners to send and receive mail, but the prison house or jail may inspect and sometimes censor it to protect security, using advisable procedures.
  • Prison officials' power to inspect and censor mail depends on whether the mail is privileged or not. Officials may open not-privileged mail, which includes letters from relatives, friends, and businesses, exterior your presence. They can read this mail for security or other reasons without probable crusade or a warrant.
  • Incoming or outgoing non-privileged mail may be censored for legitimate security reasons.  Yet, postal service may not be censored just considering information technology is critical of prison officials or because prison officials disagree with its content.
  • Prisons may non ban mail simply because it contains material downloaded from the Internet. You may non be punished for posting cloth on the Net with the assist of others outside of prison house.
  • Clearly marked privileged mail service, which includes communications to and from attorneys and legal organizations like the ACLU, gets more than protection. Officials may open incoming privileged mail to check it for contraband, but must practise and then in your presence.  They are non allowed to open outgoing privileged mail.  Privileged mail unremarkably cannot be read unless prison house officials obtain a warrant allowing them to do so.
  • If your incoming mail is censored, both you and the sender are entitled to observe.  The detect must explain the reasons for the censorship in enough detail to let y'all to claiming it.

What to do if yous think your rights take been violated

  • If you believe your rights with respect to mail have been violated, you should file a grievance, and appeal information technology through all bachelor levels of entreatment.  Note that there are usually strict time limits for filing a grievance, so y'all should practice so every bit soon as possible.  Yous should file a new grievance for each incident; you have a better take a chance of succeeding in a lawsuit  if you can establish that the prison's violations of your rights are the outcome of an ongoing policy or practice, rather than isolated incidents.

Additional resources

  • Prison house Legal News
  • Jailhouse Lawyer's Transmission