I dannati delle carceri. Una pronuncia della Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti: una lezione da seguire

Journal title HISTORIA MAGISTRA
Author/s Elisabetta Grande
Publishing Year 2012 Issue 2012/9
Language Italian Pages 12 P. 72-83 File size 129 KB
DOI 10.3280/HM2012-009007
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Building new prisons is not a solution for prison overcrowding; to the contrary, it is part of the problem. This is the U.S. Supreme Court’s lesson in one of its most recent decisions, Brown v. Plata, confirming the previous order of a three-judge court to reduce California’s prison population by around 40.000 persons within two years. Finding cruel and unusual the punishment imposed to prisoners in California, because of the terrible conditions in serving their sentence, the Court shows the ultimate failure of a sentencing system based upon incapacitation and a zero tolerance policy. Public safety is better served without rather than with prisons: this seems to be the message that Brown v. Plata is sending to legislators, administrators and citizens. It is a message that Europeans and Italians should listen to very carefully.

Keywords: Comparative, criminal law, prison overcrowding, human rights, United States.

Elisabetta Grande, I dannati delle carceri. Una pronuncia della Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti: una lezione da seguire in "HISTORIA MAGISTRA" 9/2012, pp 72-83, DOI: 10.3280/HM2012-009007