Correction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Correction - Essay Example oad majority of civil rights granted by the Bill of Rights and other fundamental determinants of United States law must be upheld in both the case of the general population and prisoners. One of the first and most important of these rights is with relation to the eighth amendment. In short, the eighth amendment prohibits the United States government from posting excessive bail or utilizing â€Å"cruel or unusual punishment† as a means of punishing/rehabilitating a particular criminal offense. This is perhaps the most important right and privilege of all as it was further defined by the Supreme Court in 1848 to preclude any form of inhumane treatment; of two and inclusive of those inhumane treatments that might not be capital in nature. This understanding has been upheld by subsequent courts such as the supreme court of Massachusetts which found that the state had violated the Eighth Amendment by keeping prisoners in an antiquated prison infested with rodents and insects (Owers, 2010). Although not specified within the Bill of Rights or elsewhere throughout the law, it is generally understood and upheld by the Supreme Court, and other courts for that matter, that prisoners should have the reasonable expectation of being free from abuse and/or exploitation; referenced in a 1996 Supreme Court case in which sexually abused female inmates were allowed a monetary payout as a result of a systemic program of abuse in one Missouri prison