Subject: | [Juvdefend] Support for exempting incarcerated kids from the PLRA |
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Date: | Tue, 3 Mar 2009 16:03:05 -0500 |
From: | NJDC Lists <[log in to unmask]> |
To: | <[log in to unmask]> |
Our colleagues at the ACLU are
requesting your
signature on the petition described below. The final sign-on letter is
attached. If you have any questions please contact Amy Fettig, Staff Counsel and
SAVE
Coordinator, at:
ACLU National Prison
Project
7th Floor
(202) 548-6608 (tel)
(202) 393-4931 (fax)
The
SAVE
Coalition is reaching out to the juvenile justice community requesting
your
support for reform of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA),
especially as it
applies to incarcerated youth. We are a coalition of organizations and
individuals dedicated to protecting the
Applying
the PLRA to juveniles serves neither the goals of the Act nor the
welfare of
our country’s
children.
The PLRA was designed to reduce the number of frivolous prisoner
lawsuits
reaching the courts. But juveniles do not generally file lawsuits,
frivolous or otherwise. They generally lack the literacy skills,
knowledge of the court system and access to legal materials that would
be
needed to engage in litigation. The SAVE Coalition therefore
recommends
that incarcerated youth be exempted entirely from the PLRA.
The
PLRA
has negatively impacted incarcerated youth generally, but a few
provisions in
particular have proven especially troublesome for juveniles. Most
prominent among them is the exhaustion requirement, which holds that a
prisoner
must exhaust all administrative remedies at his or her facility before
filing a
lawsuit in federal court. In order to satisfy this requirement, youth
must navigate convoluted grievance systems and comply with often
challenging
rules regarding deadlines, the necessary content of complaints, and
appeals
processes. Many youth either do not know of, or do not understand the
grievance
systems in their facilities, and many more fear retaliation for filing
grievances. As a result, this provision effectively undermines the
rights
of incarcerated youth by denying them any access to the federal courts
and the
oversight and accountability that the courts provide.
As
youth
advocates, your support of this initiative is incredibly important. By
signing on to the letter, you will be sending a strong message to
Congress that
the PLRA needs to be reformed before any other youths are victimized by
its
stringent and inappropriate provisions. In showing strong support for
our
efforts amongst juvenile justice experts and advocates, we will
demonstrate the
urgent need to ensure that incarcerated youth are excluded from the
harmful impacts
of the PLRA.
This
issue has already generated significant interest on Capitol Hill. In
the
110th Congress, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), chair of the House
Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, held
two
hearings on his proposed remedy to the PLRA, the “Prison Abuse Remedies
Act,” H.R. 4109. We are now working to ensure that PLRA
reform legislation is reintroduced in this new Congress. With your
support for this initiative we hope to stop the PLRA’s ability to
undermine the rights and protections of incarcerated youth.
If
you
have any questions, please contact SAVE Coordinator Amy Fettig at [log in to unmask] or
202/548-6608 or visit our website www.savecoalition.org.
We would appreciate your
affirmation of support for the letter by March 13.