The Results of the Landmark Case of Gates vs. Collier

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Table of Contents

A brief history of the topic’s subject matter
The constitutional amendment or amendments, which the topic applies to
An analysis of the United States supreme court’s opinion
An analysis of a dissenting justice’s opinion
An analysis of how the Court’s decision affects society
References

A brief history of the topic’s subject matter

The early settlement in the lower territory of Mississippi resulted in the establishment of the first prison in Natchez that housed Felon, around 1789. The completion of a centralized prison, which was later called “The Walls”, came fifty years later. The prison was built with inmate labor and had a capacity of housing approximately 200 inmates. Initially, during the opening of the new prison, twenty-eight prisoners were placed, but later in 1852, the prison started experiencing overcrowding. The population of inmates increased hitting a high of 220 inmates.

The inmate labor force was utilized in wood harvest, cotton bagging, to manufacture hemp and bale rope, and course-cotton fabrics. The prison was later converted into a munitions plant, but in May 1863, it was taken over by Sherman’s Federal Army. Architects in 1866, reported that the prison could comfortably house one hundred and thirty state inmates. During the same year, and in pursuant of a legislative act, the penitentiary was leased as a bond for fourteen years to J.W. Young and Company. This move was reported by Governor B. J. Humpries, and it was meant to accelerate the rehabilitation of the prison. In 1894, new sites were purchased through legislature appropriation of $ 125, 000. The state prisoners moved to the new sites immediately. In 1900, there was another legislature appropriation of $80, 000 for the Parchman Plantation purchase. The plantation was situated in Sunflower County, and it was 3,789 acres in size. In the year 1901, after building four stockades at Parchman, state prisoners were taken there to start land clearing and preparation for crop cultivation. As a result, the state penitentiary was dubbed “the prison without walls” due to its unique detached configuration of the camps.

There was an intervention by the Northern District of Mississippi United States District Court, on February 8, 1971, in the landmark case of Gates vs. Collier. The key issues of the suit were; racial segregation of inmates, use of corporal punishment, punishment of inmates, poor medical care for inmates, poor shakedown procedures, and many inmates had weapons, and drugs and alcohol were plentiful. In 1972, the state was ordered by Federal judge William Keady, to design a plan that will remedy the state of affairs at Parchman. As such, there were improvements at the penitentiary, that include; forbiddance of racial segregation, restriction of mail censorship, upgrade of living conditions and medical care, replacement of trusty guards with correctional officers, and abolishment of all forms of corporal punishment. In addition, there was the establishment of inmate rules and regulations, adoption of formal disciplinary procedures, closing, renovation, and building of new units, as well as undertaking contraband control measures.

The constitutional amendment or amendments, which the topic applies to

The corporal punishment administered on the prisoners constituted unusual and cruel punishment. Therefore, it violated the Eighth Amendment rights of the United States constitution. The Eighth Amendment forms part of the US bill of rights, thus it prohibits the imposition of excessive fines, excessive bails, or unusual and cruel punishment by the federal government. The amendment is applicable in all states. Some of the corporal punishments, such as forcing prisoners to maintain awkward and prolonged positions, to lie or sit on stumps, crates, or stand for long periods, and handcuffing prisoners to cells or the fence for a long period, violate the Eighth Amendment rights (Palmer, 2010).

Moreover, the First Amendment is also violated about mail censorship. This undermines the liberties of the inmate. The prison authority opened mail received by inmates, however, the inmates were not restricted on the number of emails they can send. Therefore, it was unconstitutional for the prison authority to censor all inmates’ incoming and outgoing correspondence.

The topic also applies to the violation of the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause. It provides that the state shall provide equal protection to all people that are within its jurisdiction. Therefore, the race discrimination between black and white inmates violated the clause on equal protection. Racial segregation was deeply rooted in the prisons, with the blacks suffering more, and being denied equal opportunities like that of the white inmates (Alpert, 2008).

An analysis of the United States supreme court’s opinion

In Gates vs. Collier, the opinion of the United States supreme court was important and the best. The Supreme Court maintained that some forms of corporal punishment violated the inmates’ rights as stipulated in Amendment VIII of the United States constitution. The federal Supreme Court Judge in the suit found in favor of the prisoners that Parchman farm violated the inmates’ modern standards of decency. The judge ordered an immediate end of all unconstitutional practices and conditions. As a result, racial segregation and the trusty system were abolished. The court’s opinion to have improvements such as; forbiddance of racial segregation, restriction of mail censorship, upgrade of living conditions and medical care, replacement of trusty guards with correctional officers, and abolishment of all forms of corporal punishment. In addition, there was the establishment of inmate rules and regulations, adoption of formal disciplinary procedures, closing, renovation, and building of new units, as well as undertaking contraband control measures were based on extensive findings and application of laws (Chase, 2006).

The condition of the prison was to maintain a system that segregated prisoners by race; this resulted in unfair treatment of the black inmates. The black prisoners were also housed in poor conditions, punished severely, as well as being denied the opportunity to attend vocational training, compared to their white counterparts. This violated the Fourteenth Amendment clause of equal protection. Moreover, the conditions in the housing units were a health hazard. Inmates were exposed to contaminated water, poor sewerage, exposed and frayed electric wiring, and lack of sufficient fire-fighting equipment. The medical care provided was also inadequate compared to the inmate population. Inhuman conditions and lack of adequate medical care both warrant judicial action. See, e.g., Schack v. Florida, 391 F.2d 593 (5th Cir. 1968); Roy v. Wainwright, 418 F.2d 231 (5th Cir. 1969); Thompson v. Blackwell, 374 F.2d 945 (5th Cir. 1967). Granville v. Hunt, 411 F.2d 9 (5th Cir. 1969); Burroughs v. Wainwright, 464 F.2d 1027 (5th Cir. 1972). Bowman v. Hale, 464 F.2d 1032 (5th Cir. 1972). The poor conditions that exist in prisons are a make-up of the prison authorities. The conditions are far from state standards compliance, as well as departing from state law. As such, they constitute unusual and cruel treatment.

The trusty system in use in the prison was constituted without prior consideration of state law requirements. The selection did not follow uniform standards or objective criteria, but it was based on extortion, favoritism, and payoffs. The responsibility of the trustees was to guard other inmates. The trustees were armed, yet some had not undergone psychology tests. This was coupled with minimal training on how to handle firearms, all of these lead to inmates’ injury, beating, and gunshot wounds. The elimination of the system was necessary and important for an effective prison. In addition, the prison lacked proper classification of inmates, this posed a threat to inmates since others possesses weapons and they have earlier committed the severe offense. The safety and life of inmates were at risk, as well as being jeopardized. The prison authority failed to provide inmates with adequate protection against abuses and physical assault by other inmates. Therefore, all these circumstances in totality amount to the violation of the Eighth Amendment of the United States constitution (Mississippi West Group, 2005).

In addition, disciplinary procedures for inmates were unsatisfactory. This is because the inmates were not allowed to give their witnesses, and again, they were not subjected to proper cross-examination, to establish their level of misconduct. This lead to improper administration of discipline, and as such, the opinion of the court was well informed and extensive. The opinion was important since evidence indicated that the conditions that were created by the discretion of prison authorities were inhumane, hence putting the life of inmates in Jeopardy, as well as infringing on their constitutional rights. Prison life should not be a punishment, but a period where one can change and be a better person in the future (Lassiter & Crespino, 2010).

An analysis of a dissenting justice’s opinion

The Gates vs. Collier case was the first case that opened the gate to prisoners acquiring rights. It also resulted at the end of the trusty system in several states after its establishment in Mississippi. Judge William, who ruled in the plaintiff’s favor, gave the plaintiffs to the case a verdict (Winter, & Hanlon, 2008). He ruled in their favor and established that the officials of the prison were responsible for their action and that they owed the plaintiffs a duty of negligence. Although the case spent an entire fortune, this was so especially on the side of the plaintiff. The plaintiff’s attorney had to prove negligence and infringement of prisoners’ rights in prison to win the case. This resulted in the lawyer undertaking, a depth investigation of the Parchman prison to present findings and evidence before the court.

The lawyers’ efforts though were not effortless as the judge ruled in their favor. Judge Keady in his ruling found that the prisoners had their constitutional rights denied and ordered an end to such practices in the prisons. The practices that the judge ordered were for instance in the trusty system fellow prisoners had the authority to inflict pain and even severe punishment on other prisoners. This also allowed for the infringement of the rights of the inmates where the prison’s officials made the prisoners do things that were human and unconstitutional. In some instances, prisoners could strip (Winter & Hanlon, 2008). Others experienced beating while others became thrown into a pit or hole. These horrific practices in prisons were so severe, that they even allowed for the discrimination of African Americans.

Initially, the federal government could not interfere with the running of prisons and how officials of the different state prisons punished their inmates. This became known as the hand-off policy. This became established in the Pearver v. Massachusetts case. In this case, the plaintiff tried to challenge the provision in the eighth amendment to no avail. The court was quick to rule that matters of the state were to remain in the state and not be included along with the federal government matters. It was until 1963 that the policy of the federal government non-interference with prisons and prisoners’ rights became challenged (Hall, 2000).

This occurred in the case of Jones v. Cunningham. This was the first case that allowed prisoners to complain and fight for their rights in the prisons. The law now allowed prisoners to file suit against the prison’s officials or the state if the officials denied them favorable conditions and if they treated them illegally. In 1964, a prisoner was able to use this rule to obtain a right to practice the religion of his choice in prison. Consequently, the gates v. collier case opened the gates for rights and abolishment of non-constitutional practices in prisons.

An analysis of how the Court’s decision affects society

The first successor reform that the case brought was that it enabled the abolishment of the trusty system in prisons. The trusty system was a practice in prisons that was both unfair and discriminating. Some argue that the methods used to select trustees were not legit. It often resulted in giving the trustee positions to those prisoners convicted of violent cases and even murder. Furthermore, it even resulted in giving persons that were not psychologically or mentally stable such positions. This then resulted in these trustees performing actions that were both unconstitutional and inhuman.

The case also resulted in putting an end to the segregation of blacks from the white’s inmates in prisons. Many of the black involved in the civil rights movement became imprisoned in the Parchman farm (Chad, Marquart, Hemmens & Carroll, 2008). The officials treated and denied certain rights found in the whites’ populated prisons. This resulted in the death and in piles of black bodies that had been sentenced to do time in the Mississippi prison. Roy Haber was the one who led and contributed to the changes and the success of the gates v. Collier case. He was able to collect ample evidence about the conditions of the prison and was to present them before the judge, who overwhelmed with the evidence ruled in favor of the plaintiff.

The case has also led to the immense reforms that have occurred in prisons. The living conditions of the prisoners have improved. The prisoners now have civil rights and can sue in any case such rights get infringed. The prisons have also radically reduced the level of punishment inflicted on the prisoners. The punishment that is inhuman and those found to infringe the prisoner’s right are no longer in American prisons. Discrimination in prisons has also been reduced.

The ruling did not only bring changes in the state of Mississippi but spread to other states that had to take up the recommendation of the case. This saw the end of the trusty system in many states even those reluctant as Texas. The aspect of racial segregation in prison is still prevalent in prison. For instance in California prisons, it is difficult to find cellmates belonging to different racial origins (Chad, Marquart, Hemmens, & Carroll, 2008). This was evident in the case of Johnson vs. California, in 2005. California is not the only state that still allows racial segregation in cells and prisons there are other states. It is only, in California prisons, it is more evident even in waiting or common areas in addition to the segregation in cells.

References

Alpert, G. P. (2008). Legal rights of prisoners: an analysis of legal aid. New York: Lexington Books.

Chad, T., Marquart W., J., Hemmens, C & Carroll, L. (2008) Racial desegregation in prisons. The prisons journal. Web.

Chase, H. W. (2006). Supplement to Edward S. Corwin’s The Constitution and what it means today. New York: Princeton University Press.

Hall, J. W. (2000). Search and seizure. New York: LEXIS Law Pub.

Lassiter, M. D., & Crespino, J. (2010). The myth of southern exceptionalism. London: Oxford University Press.

Mississippi West Group. (2005). West’s annotated Mississippi code. Mississippi: West Group.

Palmer, J. W. (2010). Constitutional Rights of Prisoners. London: Elsevier.

Winter, M., & Hanlon, S. (2008) Parchman farm blues: pushing for prison reforms at Mississippi state penitentiary. American bar association. Web.

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