Excerpted Sources & Supplemental Documents

PART I: CONDITIONS OF CONFINEMENT

Chapter 1. Prison, Jail, and Prisoners’ Rights: An Introduction

Andrea Armstrong, The Impact of 300 Years of Jail Conditions, The New Orleans Prosperity Index: Tricentennial Edition (Mar. 2018)
Dan Berger, Mariame Kaba & David Stein, What Abolitionists Do, Jacobin (Aug. 2017)
Sharon Dolovich, Teaching Prison Law, 62 J. Legal Educ. 218 (2012)
Kelly Lytle Hernández, City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771–1965 (2017)
Matthew L. Myers, The Alabama Case: 12 Years After James v. Wallace, 13 Nat’l Prison Project J. 8 (Fall 1987)
The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society (Oxford University Press, Norval Morris & David J. Rothman, eds., 1995)
- Norval Morris, from a diary by Simon “Sam” Gutierrez, One Day in the Life of #12345
- David J. Rothman, Perfecting the Prison: United States, 1789–1865
- Edgardo Rotman, The Failure of Reform: United States, 1865–1965

Chapter 2. Conditions of Confinement

Sharon Dolovich, Cruelty, Prison Conditions, and the Eighth Amendment, 84 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 881 (2009)
Margo Schlanger, The Constitutional Law of Incarceration, Reconfigured, 103 Cornell L. Rev. 357 (2018)
John Stinneford, The Original Meaning of Cruel, 105 Geo L.J. 441 (2017)

Chapter 3. Solitary Confinement

William Blake, Solitary Watch, A Sentence Worse Than Death, in Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement (2017)
California Hunger Strikers’ Demands, Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity (June 2011)
Riley Doyle Evans & Stefen R. Short, Administrative Nullification and the Precarity of Carceral Reform, 138 Harv. L. Rev. 182 (2025)
Amy Fettig & Margo Schlanger, Eight Principles for Reforming Solitary Confinement, American Prospect (Oct. 6, 2015)
Lucy Lang, Inspector General, State of New York Offices of the Inspector General, Review of the First Two Years of HALT at the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (Aug. 2024)
Juan Mendez, Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Interim report, A/66/268 (Aug. 5, 2011)
Margo Schlanger, Incrementalist vs. Maximalist Reform: Solitary Confinement Case Studies, 115 Nw. U. L. Rev. 273 (2020)
Hernandez D. Stroud, Reforming Solitary Confinement Without the High Court, Brennan Ctr. for Justice (Feb. 21, 2024)

Chapter 4. Programming, Work, Reentry

ABA Criminal Justice Standards (3d ed.), Treatment of Prisoners, Standard 23-8.9: Transition to the community (2011)
Gabriel J. Chin, The New Civil Death: Rethinking Punishment in the Era of Mass Conviction, 160 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1789 (2012)
Neveen Hammad, Shackled to Economic Appeal: How Prison Labor Facilitates Modern Slavery While Perpetuating Poverty in Black Communities, 26 Va. J. Soc. Pol’y & L. 65 (2019)
Michigan Department of Corrections: Prisoner Programming; Educational Programming (Jul. 2025)
Judith Resnik, Impermissible Punishments: How Prison Became a Problem for Democracy (2025)
Brandon V. Wyatt, Reflection on Prison Education (2025)
Noah Zatz, Working at the Boundaries of Markets: Prison Labor and the Economic Dimension of Employment Relationships, 61 Vand. L. Rev. 857 (2008)

Chapter 5. Sexual Abuse

Gabriel Arkles, Prison Rape Elimination Act Litigation and the Perpetuation of Sexual Harm 17 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y 801 (2014)
Brenda V. Smith, Promise Amid Peril: PREA’s Efforts to Regulate an End to Prison Rape 57 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 1599 (2020)
PREA investigation report
PREA audit reports
- Bolivar County (Jul. 21, 2019)
- Folsom State Prison (May 6, 2019)
National Prison Rape Elimination Commission Report (Jun. 2009)

PART II: CIVIL LIBERTIES

Chapter 6. Freedom of Expression & Religion

Reginald Dwayne Betts, House of Unending, Poetry (Apr. 2019)
Erwin Chemerinsky, The Constitution in Authoritarian Institutions, 32 Suffolk U. L. Rev. 441 (1999)
Justin Driver & Emma Kaufman, The Incoherence of Prison Law, 135 Harv. L. Rev. 515 (2021)
Sharon Dolovich, The Coherence of Prison Law, 135 Harv. L. Rev. Forum 302 (2022)
Seth Ferranti, Prison Legal News Is a Publication by Prisoners, for Prisoners, Vice (Nov. 29, 2015)
Anthony Ray Hinton, The Death Row Book Club, Longreads (Mar. 2018)
Arthur Longworth, Why It’s So Hard To Write in Prison, Crosscut (Apr. 23, 2019)
Liliana Segura, Observations on a Prison Visit, Twitter (Nov. 17, 2019)
David M. Shapiro, Lenient in Theory, Dumb in Fact: Prison, Speech, and Scrutiny, 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 972 (2016)
Malcolm X, “Learning to Read,” The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1964)

Chapter 7. Access to the Courts

Eric Blackmon, Litigating from the Inside (2019)
Calvin Duncan & Sophie Cull, The Jailhouse Lawyer (2025)
Protecting Religious Freedom after Boerne v. Flores, Hearing before the Subcomm. on the Constitution of the H. Judiciary Comm., 105th Cong., App. at 65-70 (Jul. 14, 1997)
- Includes: Office of the Florida Att’y General, Preliminary Results of the RFRA Survey of All States: The Impact of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act on State Correctional Systems (Jul. 19, 1996)

Chapter 8. Procedural Due Process

Illinois parole revocation documents
- Charging parole violation by purchasing Xanax pills (referenced casebook p. 512)
- Standard notice of parole violation hearing (referenced casebook p. 514)
- Notice of Rights from Morales v. Findley, 13-cv-7572 (N.D. Ill.) (class action settled by Illinois agreement to increase parolee procedural protections) (referenced casebook p. 514)
- Notice of Impending Psychiatric Transfer and related documents (referenced casebook p. 544)
St. Clair County adjustment committee report referenced casebook p. 531 (“If you want to retire in one piece, you’ll leave me alone” vs. “go retire in peace”)
Illinois Department of Corrections 2019 disciplinary report (referenced casebook p. 532) re. transgender prison who reported sexual abused by an officer
Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice, Inmate Discipline Program
- 2011 Version
- 2020 Version
Delaware Department of Corrections, Application and Forfeiture of Good Time Policy
- 2019 Version
- 2022 Version

Chapter 9. Searches

None

PART III: PARTICULAR PRISONER POPULATIONS

Chapter 10. Race and National Origin Discrimination

Andrea C. Armstrong, Race, Prison Discipline, and the Law, 5 U.C. Irvine L. Rev. 759 (2015)
James Forman, Jr., Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow, 87 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 21 (2012)
Emma Kaufman, Segregation by Citizenship, 132 Harv. L. Rev. 1379, 1381-83 (2019)
Prison Policy Initiative, Incarceration stats by race, ethnicity, and gender for all 50 states and D.C. (Sept. 2023)
Vera Institute of Justice, Reimagining Prison (Sept. 2018)

Chapter 11. Women Prisoners

Interview with Brenda V. Smith, Co-Lead Counsel for the Plaintiffs in Women Prisoners of D.C. (2019)
Elizabeth Chuck, Prison Nurseries Give Incarcerated Women a Chance to Raise Their Babies—Behind Bars, NBC News (Aug. 4, 2018)
Michele Deitch & Colleagues, Advisory Committee to the Travis County (TX) Sheriff’s Office, Designing and Planning a New Women’s Jail Facility for Travis County: A Roadmap for Reform (Dec. 2018)
Andrea James, Ending the Incarceration of Women and Girls, 128 Yale L.J. Forum 772 (2019)

Chapter 12. LGBTQ Prisoners

Joey L. Mogul, Andrea J. Ritchie, & Kay Whitlock, Queer (In)justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States (2011)
U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons Change Notice, Transgender Offender Manual (May 11, 2018)

Chapter 13. Disability

None

PART IV: LITIGATION AND REMEDIES

Chapter 14. Injunctive Litigation

Sen. Spencer Abraham, Introductory statement for the Prison Conditions Litigation Reform Act, 141 Cong. Rec. S14312–03, 1995 WL 566447 (Sept. 26, 1995)
John Boston, Modification of Judgments/Consent Judgments, 7 Nat’l Prison Project J. #2 (Spring 1992)
Ross Sandler & David Schoenbrod, Democracy by Decree: What Happens When Courts Run Government (2003)
Heather Schoenfeld, Building the Prison State: Race and the Politics of Mass Incarceration (Chapters 3 & 4: The Unintended Consequences of Prison Litigation, 1980–1991) (2019)
Margo Schlanger, Civil Rights Injunctions Over Time: A Case Study of Jail and Prison Court Orders, 81 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 550 (2006)

Chapter 15. Damages: Causes of Action and Defenses

None

Chapter 16. The Litigation Process

Senator Jon Kyl, Top 10 Frivolous Inmate Lawsuits Nationally, 141 Cong. Rec. S14611–01 (Sept. 29, 1995). See p. S14628-9.
Margo Schlanger & Betsy Ginsberg, Pandemic Rules: COVID-19 and the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s Exhaustion Requirement, 72 Case Western Res. L. Rev. (2022)

Chapter 17. Private Prisons and Prison Contractors

ABA Criminal Justice Standards (3d ed.), Treatment of Prisoners, Standard 23-10.5, Privately Operated Correctional Facilities (2011)
Jennifer M. Chacón, Privatized Immigration Enforcement, 52 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 1 (2017)
Sharon Dolovich, State Punishment and Private Prisons, 55 Duke L.J. 437 (2005)
The Sentencing Project, Kara Gotsch and Vinay Basti, Capitalizing on Mass Incarceration: U.S. Growth in Private Prisons (2018)
U.S. Dep’t of Justice
- Office of the Inspector General, Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Monitoring of Contract Prisons, Evaluation and Inspections Division 16–06 (Aug. 2016)
- Sally Q. Yates, Deputy Att’y Gen’l, Reducing our Use of Private Prisons, Memorandum for the Acting Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons (Aug. 18, 2016)
- Jefferson B. Sessions III, Att’y Gen’l, Memorandum for the Acting Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons (Feb. 21, 2017)
Alexander Volokh, Note, A Tale of Two Systems: Cost, Quality, And Accountability In Private Prisons, in Developments in the Law: The Law of Prisons, 115 Harv. L. Rev. 1868 (2002)

Chapter 18. Criminal Prosecution of Prison/Jail Staff

None

Chapter 19. State Constitutional Law

Kristen Bell, State Constitutional Prohibitions Against Unnecessary Rigor in Arrest and Confinement, 17 Tenn J. L. & Pol’y 124 (2025)
Erwin Chemerinsky, Two Cheers For State Constitutional Law, 62 Stan. L. Rev. 1695 (2010)
Robert F. Williams, State Constitutional Law After Dobbs and Bruen, State Court Report (Sept. 7, 2023)

Chapter 20. Accountability: Voting, Standards, and Oversight

ABA Criminal Justice Standards (3d ed.), Treatment of Prisoners (2011)
- Introduction: Commentary on the Purpose of Standards
- Part III: Conditions of Confinement
- Part XI: Accountability and Oversight
American Correctional Association, Performance-Based Expected Practices for Adult Correctional Institutions, 5th ed. (2020)
Joanna Carns, Director, [Washington State] Office of the Corrections Ombuds, Annual Report 2019 (Nov. 1, 2019)
Michele Deitch, Distinguishing the Various Functions of Effective Prison Oversight, 30 Pace L. Rev. 1438 (2010)
Aaron Littman, Free-World Law Behind Bars, 131 Yale L.J. 1385 (2022)
Nicole D. Porter, Voting in Jails, The Sentencing Project (May 7, 2022)
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Evaluation of Issues Surrounding Inmate Deaths in Federal Bureau of Prisons Institute Report No. 24-041 (Feb. 2024)

Excerpted Sources & Supplemental Documents

PART I: CONDITIONS OF CONFINEMENT

PART II: CIVIL LIBERTIES

PART III: PARTICULAR PRISONER POPULATIONS

PART IV: LITIGATION AND REMEDIES

Bonnie Tenneriello