No. 19-2096 IN THE United States Court Of Appeals FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE CENTER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BAXTER COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Defendant-Appellee. On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, Civil Action No. 3:17-CV-3070 (Judge Timothy L. Brooks) BRIEF OF THE RODERICK & SOLANGE MACARTHUR JUSTICE CENTER, CENTER FOR APPELLATE LITIGATION, FREE MINDS BOOK CLUB & WRITING WORKSHOP, JUST DETENTION INTERNATIONAL, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW’S CIVIL RIGHTS CLINIC, AND UPTOWN PEOPLE’S LAW CENTER AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF APPELLANT David M. Shapiro Devi M. Rao RODERICK AND SOLANGE Counsel of Record MACARTHUR JUSTICE CENTER Emily M. Savner NORTHWESTERN PRITZKER JENNER & BLOCK LLP SCHOOL OF LAW 1099 New York Ave., NW 375 E. Chicago Ave. Washington, DC 20001 Chicago, IL 60611 (202) 639-6869 [email protected] CORPORATE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT Amici curiae certify that they have no outstanding shares or debt securities in the hands of the public, and they do not have parent companies. No publicly held company has a 10% or greater ownership interest in amici curiae. /s/ Devi M. Rao i TABLE OF CONTENTS CORPORATE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT .......................................................... i TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ................................................................................... iii IDENTITY AND INTEREST OF AMICI ................................................................ 1 SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ................................................................................. 5 ARGUMENT ............................................................................................................. 6 I. The Baxter County Jail and Detention Center’s Postcard-Only Policy Significantly Limits Prisoners’ Main Means Of Communicating With The Outside World. ......................................................................................... 6 II. The BCDC Policy Inhibits Rehabilitation By Effectively Banning Letter Correspondence And The Receipt Of Literature. ................................. 9 A. The BCDC Policy Undermines Rehabilitation By Restricting Meaningful Correspondence And Access To Literature, Which Reduces Alienation And Improves Behavior Upon Release. ............. 10 B. The BCDC Policy Inhibits Contact With Family, Which Is Essential To Rehabilitation And Reducing Recidivism. ..................... 18 C. The BCDC Policy Undermines Rehabilitation By Restricting Access To Religious Material. ............................................................ 22 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 27 ii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES CASES Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396 (1974), overruled in part on other grounds by Thornburgh v. Abbott, 490 U.S. 401 (1989) .................................... 10 Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78 (1987) ......................................................................... 5 OTHER AUTHORITIES American Bar Ass’n Criminal Justice, Standards on Treatment of Prisoners § 23-8.6 (2018), https://www.americanbar.org/groups/ criminal_justice/publications/criminal_justice_section_archive/cri mjust_standards_treatmentprisoners/#23-8.6 ..................................................... 15 Joyce A. Arditti et al., Saturday Mornings at the Jail: Implications of Incarceration for Families and Children, 52 Fam. Rel. 195 (2003) .................. 20 Arkansas Department of Correction, 2017 Inmate Handbook (Nov. 2017), https://adc.arkansas.gov/images/uploads/Inmate_Hand book_2017.pdf .................................................................................................... 24 Laura J. Bakker et al., Hidden Victims of Crime, 23 Soc. Work 143 (1978) .................................................................................................................. 18 Baxter County Sheriff, Jail, https://www.baxtercountysheriff.com/jail (last visited Aug. 23, 2019) ............................................................................... 6, 8 Mary Bosworth et al., Doing Prison Research: Views from Inside, 11 Qualitative Inquiry 249 (2005) ........................................................................... 11 Bonnie E. Carlson & Neil Cervera, Inmates and their Families: Conjugal Visits, Family Contact, and Family Functioning, 18 Crim. Just. & Behav. 318 (1991) .................................................................................. 20 Johnna Christian, Riding the Bus: Barriers to Prison Visitation and Family Management Strategies, 21 J. Contemp. Crim. Just. 31 (2005) .................................................................................................................. 21 Todd R. Clear & Melvina T. Sumter, Prisoners, Prison, and Religion, 35 J. Offender Rehab. 125 (2002) ...................................................................... 23 iii Dharma Friends, Compassion Works for All, https://www.compassion worksforall.org/dharmafriends (last visited Aug. 23, 2019) .............................. 25 EBP Society, Family Relationships and the Incarcerated Individual (2016), https://www.ebpsociety.org/blog/education/221-family-rela tionships-incarcerated-individual ....................................................................... 19 Creasie Finney Hairston, Family Ties During Imprisonment: Important to Whom and For What?, 18 J. Soc. & Soc. Welfare 87 (1991) ........................ 13 From Former Inmates Listed on WriteAPrisoner.com, Why WriteAPrisoner?, WriteAPrisoner.com, https://writeaprisoner.com/ why-writeaprisoner (last visited Aug. 23, 2019) ................................................ 11 Olga Grinstead et al., The Financial Cost of Maintaining Relationships with Incarcerated African American Men: A Survey of Women Prison Visitors, 6 J. African Am. Men 59 (2001) ........................................ 18, 21 Craig Haney, The Psychological Impact of Incarceration: Implications for Post-Prison Adjustment (2001), Presented at U.S. Health and Human Services & The Urban Institute National Policy Conference, From Prison to Home (2002), http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/prison2home 02/haney.pdf .................................................................................................. 13-14 Kathy Hieatt, Incarcerated Women Use Internet to Seek Pen Pals, Virginian-Pilot (Apr. 20, 2013), https://pilotonline.com/news/local/ crime/article_9fa15e3b-d8f7-5abb-99c5-f73c2945218d.html ........................... 15 How it Works, Crossroads Prison Ministries, https://cpministries.org/ mentorship-program/how-it-works (last visited Aug. 23, 2019) .................. 24-25 Inmate Visitation Date and Times to Change for Female Jail Inmates, Baxter County Sheriff (Apr. 27, 2015), https://www.baxtercounty sheriff.com/press_view.php?id=1431 ............................................................... 6-7 Byron R. Johnson, Religious Participation and Criminal Behavior, in Effective Interventions in the Lives of Criminal Offenders (J.A. Humphrey & P. Cordella eds., 2014) ................................................................. 23 Terry A. Kupers, Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It (1999) ...................................................... 18 iv Nancy G. La Vigne et al., Examining the Effect of Incarceration and In-Prison Family Contact on Prisoners’ Family Relationships, 21 J. Contemp. Crim. Just. 314 (2005) .................................................................. 18, 19 Thomas P. O’Connor & Michael Perreyclear, Prison Religion in Action and its Influence on Offender Rehabilitation, 35 J. Offender Rehab. 11 (2002) ............................................................................................................. 23 Plaintiff’s Post-Trial Brief, Human Rights Defense Center v. Baxter County, No. 3:17-CV-03070 (W.D. Ark. Feb. 15, 2019), ECF No. 101 ......................................................................................................................... 8 Prison, Jail Ministries Seek More Volunteers, Catholic Voice (Aug. 11, 2016), http://catholicvoiceomaha.com/mercy-series/prison-jail- ministries-seek-more-volunteers (last visited Aug. 23, 2019) ............................ 24 Christopher P. Salas-Wright et al., Buffering Effects of Religiosity on Crime: Testing the Invariance Hypothesis Across Gender and Developmental Period, 41 Crim. Just. & Behav. 673 (2014) ............................. 23 Spark of Light Prison Programs, The Aleph Institute, http://www. aleph-institute.org/programs/correspondence-courses.html (last visited Aug. 23, 2019) ......................................................................................... 25 Stay in Touch, Federal Bureau of Prisons, https://www.bop.gov/ inmates/communications.jsp (last visited Aug. 23, 2019) .................................. 20 Jim Thomas & Barbara H. Zaitzow, Conning or Conversion?: The Role of Religion in Prison Coping, 86 Prison J. 242 (2006) ................................ 13, 25 Trial Transcript, Human Rights Defense Center v. Baxter County, No. 3:17-CV-03070 (W.D. Ark. Jan. 30, 2019) .......................................................... 8 Trial Transcript, Human Rights Defense Center v. Baxter County, No. 3:17-CV-03070 (W.D. Ark. Feb. 1, 2019) ......................................................... 26 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Handbook on Prisoner with Special Needs (2009), https://www.unodc.org/pdf/criminal_ justice/Handbook_on_Prisoners_with_Special_Needs.pdf