FEELEY & RUBIN

Question 1

WHY CAN JUDGES MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE?

Answer 1

Courts are so deeply embedded in the system! This makes them political actors

Question 2

HOW DO F&R CONTRADICT CHEMERINSKY?

Answer 2

But more importantly Feeley and Rubin stress that Judges historically have advanced major
policy reforms in prisons, and contra Chemerinsky, often in a way that is intended to
humanize them

Question 3

ARKANSAS

Answer 3

Justice Henley of the United States District Court became heavily involved, arguing that the prison violated the rights of the inmates

This was fiercely resisted by prison and state officials, who were not used to any level of judicial involvement in the running of the prison

He demanded reforms be made, including better health care, housing, and end to abuse etc.

This was then backed up by Henley being proactive in electing for cases involving Little Cummins be brought to him and threatening sanctions for non-compliance

At points his involvement was so deep he was all but running the prison from the courthouse, issuing regular orders for reform and expecting updates on their progress

Question 4

CUMMINS FARM

Answer 4

Cummins Farm was an especially brutal prison where inmates worked in the fields six days per week, ten hours a day regardless of weather.

They were given no warm clothing or bad weather gear, and were sent in without shoes on some occasions

Prisoners were often shot on site and tortured. This often took place at the hands of other prisoners, or “trusties,” who were given special privileges by the state to guard the other inmates to keep costs down

Question 5

TEXAS

Answer 5

DIFFERENT FROM ARK: state officials made little effort to hide their neglect and even justified it in punitive terms
In Texas, many state officials took enormous pride at the level of sophistication and care

demonstrated in their prison systems. Indeed it had become a political point of pride for state
politicians

A system where prison officials had a lot of latitude for decision making was replaced with
one which was very rule oriented, which in some cases made prisoners lives worse where
the rules were harsh

Took 20 years!

Question 6

LEGAL HERMENEUTICS

Answer 6

Hermeneutics in its most basic sense is just an approach to interpreting a given text, though
the specificities matter a lot

It has it origin as a theoretical approach in scriptural interpretation where-much like with law-there were enormous debates about how to interpret the words of the Bible and indeed the
text as a whole

Question 7

JUDICIAL POLICY MAKING

Answer 7

• Defining the problem (look at social changes, set a goal)
• Creating a Doctrine (have to provide a legal justification for why they are establishing a new standard)
• Implementing a solution (Judges will often set a new standard, ala improve housing, or end discretionary control, and then expect administrators to sort out how to implement it over a reasonable timescale
  Where they fail to do so Judges who are committed to policy reform will impose sanctions they way a manager will, hoping to create a culture of compliance with their decisions)

in domains like prisons, Judges have and will likely continue to make
policy changes
Whether those are good or bad likely cannot be evaluated legally, but instead assessed by
the beneficent or negative consequences they bring about