MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is asking a judge to dismiss a Justice Department lawsuit over state prison conditions, arguing the incidents of violence cited in the case do not rise to the level of a constitutional violation.
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(1) comment
The article says, "“Plaintiff’s isolated examples of inmate-on-inmate violence fail to suggest an egregious or flagrant constitutional violation,” a lawyer for the state wrote in the court filing." By this "reasoning," then, only egregious or flagrant CONSTITUTIONAL violations are subject to corrective measures. Lesser CONSTITUTIONAL violations get a pass. And about those violations that resulted in the DEATHS of prisoners--how many such deaths would be required to reach the status of CONSTITUTIONAL violations? How many guard-on-prisoners deaths or excessive force incidents (of which there are many) does it take to reach an UNCONSTITUTIONAL level?
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