Prisoners' Rights

A culture of punishment has led the United States to rely on incarceration more heavily than any other country in the world.

Large fence with barb wire at the top, often seen surrounding prisons.

A culture of punishment, combined with race- and class-based animus, has led the United States to rely on incarceration more heavily than any other country in the world does. The politicization of our criminal legal system and a lack of evidence-based assessment result in a one-way ratchet in which law and policy grow ever more punitive. The human and financial costs of mass incarceration are staggering, and the burden falls disproportionately on the poor and people of color. However, the recent fiscal crisis and years of falling crime rates have combined to create the best opportunity in decades to challenge our nation’s addiction to incarceration.

Far too many prisoners are held in conditions that threaten their health, safety, and human dignity on a daily basis. Tens of thousands of prisoners across the United States are held in long-term isolated confinement in “supermax” prisons and similar facilities. The devastating effects of such treatment, particularly on people with mental illness, are well known.

Prisoners are a population with significant medical and mental health needs, but prisoner health care services are often abysmal, in many cases leading to needless suffering, disability, and death, as well as a serious threat to public health when contagious disease goes undiagnosed or untreated.

Prisoners’ rights to read, write, speak, practice their religion, and communicate with the outside world are often curtailed far beyond what is necessary for institutional security. Not only are these activities central to the ability of prisoners to retain their humanity, but they also contribute to the flow of information between prisons and the outside world and thus provide a vital form of oversight of these closed institutions.

The Latest

Know Your Rights
Silhouette of a hand holding handcuffs against a sunset.

Your Rights as a Prisoner

Learn more about your rights as a prisoner, including your right to be protected against discrimination and abuse in prison, and what to do if your rights are violated.
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Home

From the statehouse to the courts to the streets, we are building an Idaho where everyone can live with the freedoms granted by the Constitution.
Know Your Rights
A person holding a megaphone with a raised fist at a protest rally.

Your Rights Under the First Amendment

This amendment gives us freedoms that are the bedrock of democracy.
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A worn American flag is covered by barb wire outside a prison

2025 Legislative Session: Criminal Justice

Court Case
Mar 11, 2009

Davis v. Canyon County

Halting inhumane conditions at the Canyon County Jail.
Court Case
Jul 18, 2014

Samuel v. Wolfinger

Keeping children out of solitary confinement.
Court Case
Apr 10, 2019

Edmo v. Idaho Department of Correction and Corizon, Inc.

Reminding the courts corrections officials have constitutional obligation to provide medically necessary care to all prisoners.
Court Case
Nov 23, 2011

Young v. Smith

Preventing retaliation by guards at the Canyon County Jail.