ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how inmates’ access to the courts has changed and describes the range of issues related to inmate lawsuits. It also explains the legal dimensions of the death penalty and describes the potential for the future of inmate lawsuits. “Prisons have traditionally been closed organizations, and it has been difficult for citizens in the outside world to learn about conditions inside them”. Legislation, particularly at the federal level, has been an important instrument of social change for women and minority groups in the United States as they sought access to such issues as voting and equal pay for equal work. Corrections administrators maintained that court intervention would interfere with their authority and would reduce the ability of institutional personnel to operate safe prisons and the judiciary believed them. Inmates can also file tort claims, in which they allege negligence on the part of corrections personnel, but these claims typically are filed in state courts.
