''Holt v. Sarver'' was a court decision that was the first in a series of American
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...
cases that have found entire state prison systems in violation of prisoners' constitutional rights by inflicting cruel and unusual punishment.
The
ruled that the
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
prison system, which at the time had no written standards, violated the
US Constitution. The cases significantly altered the American
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...
system, specifically with regard to prisoners' rights under the
Eighth Amendment.
Arkansas cases
In 1969 in ''Holt v. Sarver I'', 300 F. Supp. 825 (E.D. Ark.), Judge
J. Smith Henley ruled several aspects of Arkansas' existing prison system
unconstitutional
Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...
. He issued guidelines to follow for correcting the problems, and ordered administrators to report on the progress of the implementation of these guidelines.
In 1970 in ''Holt v. Sarver II'', 309 F. Supp. 362 (E.D. Ark.), Judge Henley ruled the entire Arkansas prison system unconstitutional and ordered the State Correction Board to devise a plan of action. In that same case in 1971, Judge Henley enjoined the Arkansas prison from preventing the inmates' access to court and from inflicting
cruel and unusual punishment upon them.
Prior history
The Supreme Court ruled in ''
Jones v. Cunningham'' in 1963 that inmates in state institutions could file a
writ of habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
challenging the conditions of their imprisonment as well as its legality. This ruling reversed the Supreme Court's "hands off" policy regarding federal interference in state penal issues first clearly stated in 1866 in ''
Pervear v. Massachusetts''.
Subsequently, in a series of cases starting with ''
Gates v. Collier
''Gates v. Collier'', 501 F.2d 1291 (5th Cir. 1974), was a landmark decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that brought an end to the trusty system as well as flagrant inmate abuse at Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchm ...
'' the federal government began whole scale intervention in the constitutionality of the operation of state prison systems.
See also
*
Trusty system
*''
Gates v. Collier
''Gates v. Collier'', 501 F.2d 1291 (5th Cir. 1974), was a landmark decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that brought an end to the trusty system as well as flagrant inmate abuse at Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchm ...
''
*''
Pervear v. Massachusetts''
Footnotes
{{reflist, 30em
External links
Policy Making and the Modern State: How the Courts Reformed America
History of Arkansas
Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause case law
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas cases
Prisoners' and ex-prisoners' rights
Imprisonment and detention in the United States
United States District Court case articles without infoboxes