ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a number of constitutional issues affecting prisoners that do not readily fit into the previous chapters. The topics discussed here highlight the fact that incarceration is much more than merely a change in location; it is a change in constitutional status. The chapter begins with a discussion of inmate classification and transfer, both within the facility and to other facilities. Next, overcrowding and conditions of confinement are presented. These two issues have been major areas of litigation over the past few decades, epitomized by the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling in Brown v. Plata. The chapter concludes with discussions of prison officials’ retaliation against inmates, smoking in prisons, ex post facto laws and policies, and charging inmates for what essentially amounts to “room and board.”
