Prisoners’ RightsA Message from Your Atlanta Criminal Lawyer

If you are in prison or headed for prison, make sure you know your rights. Unfortunately, prison officials are sometimes abusive and may interfere with your rights as a human being and a citizen of the United States. If you feel that your rights have been violated, contact an Atlanta criminal lawyer or the Atlanta branch of the American Civil Liberties Union to help you get your rights addressed. Although many constitutional rights—such as freedom of assembly—do not apply to incarcerated individuals, many rights do. The most significant protection granted to prisoners is the protection against cruel and unusual punishment granted by the Eighth Amendment. Under the Eighth Amendment, prisoners are required to have a minimum standard of living including edible and nutritious food, health care and exercise. In addition, prisoners have due process rights with administrative appeals and a right of access to the parole process. Moreover, a prisoner must be allowed to consult with his or her Atlanta criminal lawyer and use the Georgia appeals process to attempt to overturn his or her conviction. Moreover, under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, prisoners are protected against unequal treatment based on race, sex, creed, national origin and religion. Finally, prisoners have rights to limited freedom of speech and religion. As an Atlanta criminal lawyer can tell you, state prisoners have no rights to particular confinement classifications under state law. In other words, you have no right to be placed in a minimum-security or maximum-security prison, or in solitary confinement. Classification is important because prisoners in certain classifications, such as minimum-security, have more rights than prisoners in other classifications. Congress has been reluctant to limit the rights of prison officials to decide what classification best suits the particular circumstances of each prisoner. Federal prison officials have full control over assigning prisoners to classifications since such classification affects the conditions of the inmate’s imprisonment. The Federal Bureau of Prisons controls much of the decision in assigning prisoners’ form of confinement. In general, Congress gives deference to prison officials with respect to prisoners’ rights. The due process clause, for instance, does not require judicial oversight as long as the degree and conditions of the prisoner’s confinement are within the terms of the prisoner’s sentence and do not otherwise violate the Constitution. If prisoners’ constitutional rights are infringed upon, courts apply the “rational relationship” test instead of the harsher “strict scrutiny” test: if the infringement has a rational relationship to a state interest, it is allowed. rnIf you are a prisoner or may be incarcerated and you believe your rights have been infringed upon, call an Atlanta criminal lawyer today. Whether you were convicted for petty theft, assault and battery or another crime, the Atlanta criminal lawyers at Margolis Legal Group can advise you of your rights.