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NEWS & LETTERS, June 2004Voices from the inside outIn search of justiceby Robert Taliaferro During the administration of Republicrat (Republican-Democrat) Bill Clinton, a number of sweeping reforms were passed by Congress and signed into law which did much to pave the way for the "Patriot Act." The first was the Anti-terrorist Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) which, in effect, limited appeals in certain cases and expanded the death penalty to cover new offenses. One of the most damning indictments of that law was the way that it de-clawed the ancient writ of Habeas Corpus. AEDPA allowed for the fundamental precepts that made the Patriot Act, and its provisions, an easy sale to Congress. Following AEDPA, and in the wake of tons of critical arguments against prisoner litigation, Congress and every state passed the Prisoners Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). PLRA is perhaps the most damaging law passed by Congress in the history of the country as it limits prison litigation in such a way that has allowed more abusive conditions to exist than ever before, almost with impunity. PLRA, especially, is about capital. It is a binding example that you get the justice that you can afford to buy in the U.S. The Federal version of the law is bad enough. It requires prisoners to exhaust administrative remedies in the prison system that are often system-nepotistic in scope, and which can subject complaining prisoners to excessive discipline or other retaliatory actions by authorities. In essence, prisoners are required to complain to the state or federal prison authorities, and expect them to investigate themselves. But then prisoners are further hobbled by state versions of the law. Most state legislatures have rewritten their laws so that the exhaustion doctrine is so expansive, convoluted, and lengthy, that it acts as a deterrent to prisoners seeking remedies to unlawful state or Federal actions about treatment while incarcerated. With the passage of PLRA, prison administrations have been given carte blanche to systematically ignore most civil rights provisions that were once at least minimal staples of due process and equal protection in prisons, as well as protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Ironically, shortly following the passage of PLRA statutes, supermax prisons sprung up around the country like bad weeds, and private prison use by states exploded. In essence, for prisoners, PLRA was the 21st century version of the Fugitive Slave Act of 19th century America. Equally ironic is that PLRA succeeded so well in achieving one of its goals that now the courts themselves are the causes of inordinate delays, finding that prisoners have adapted where the system hasn't. Prisoners are often more professional in their filings, more succinct in their arguments, and more consistent in their following a court's rules or statutes than the courts. This growing expertise has taken the courts by storm. The delays are now, more often than not, of the courts' own doing, or the results of the complex, convoluted, poorly written statutes pertaining to PLRA, which actually costs more money to manage than the few frivolous suits that made it to court pre-PLRA. Additionally, such laws as PLRA and AEDPA are test platforms for such laws as the Patriot Act, both per wording of its provisions, and the human and technological resources used to prosecute the law. The technology, the resources (as in DNA identifications) are direct results of prison technology and standards finding their way to the civilian world. Patriot Act provisions have been used for years in prisons per profiles of alleged threats and preemptive, unrepresented, confinement of individuals. It's another example of how prisons have become a proving ground for actions taken against the community by government entities who feel they can act above the law when it suits them, because they make the laws and create the technology that can enslave as well as enlighten. Karl Marx noted, "At the same pace that mankind masters nature, man seems to become enslaved to other men or to his own infamy. Even the pure light of science seems unable to shine but on the dark background of ignorance" (PEOPLE'S PAPER, April 19, 1856). This ignorance is complacency in hoping that legislatures will do their best to protect the common person, and turning a blind eye to the machinations of those who place political aspirations over justice. |
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