ABSTRACT
In the 1960s, by contrast, the Civil Rights Movement and the Warren Court's "rights revolution", as well as decisions by lower court judges, expanded the reach of law and constitutional rights throughout American society, including behind the walls of correctional institutions. Prior to the 1960s, a few state judges issued rulings providing specific protections for convicted offenders within their own states' correctional systems. More typically, judges took what has been characterized as a "hands-off" approach by expressing deference to the decisions of corrections officials. The United States Supreme Court—the court whose decisions impact the entire nation—played a very limited role in the earliest stages of developing the law of corrections. In Ex parte Hull, the Supreme Court ruled that prison officials cannot block prisoners from mailing petitions to a courthouse. In the realm of constitutional rights, Americans often think of the US Supreme Court as leading the development and definition of legal protections under the US Constitution.
