Prison Litigation Reform Act 1996

Number of Inmate Lawsuits

In 1993, inmate lawsuits accounted for about 15% of all civil suits filed in the federal district courts. By 1995, they grew to about 25% of all federal district court civil lawsuit filings, accounting for about 65,000 cases. Prior to the PLRA, more than 95% of these filings resulted in either a dismissal or in no orders for relief, because they were proven to lack merit.

Between 1980 and 1996, while the actual number and percentage of inmate filings increased, their rate decreased 17%. The contradictory variation between the increased number and percentage of filings and the decrease in the rate of filings is due to changes in the prison population. Over the past 20 years, the prison and jail population has grown dramatically, with almost 2 million persons in custody. In 2001, the total incarceration rate was about 700 per 100,000 persons. Two years after the act's passage, in 1998, the percentage of inmate lawsuits decreased more than 60%, from about 41,000 to about 26,000 petitions filed. The dramatic decrease in inmate filings can be directly attributed to the PLRA, since courts used the act to reduce their dockets.

Frivolous Claims

One congressional purpose underlying the statute is to reduce inmate litigation that is frequently presumed to be frivolous and wasteful of judicial time and resources. Some reported cases of frivolity involved prisons being sued for failure to have a [Page 737]salad bar, utilizing white as opposed to beige towels, and charging an inmate for creamy peanut butter when he wanted to purchase the chunky kind. Although some claims by inmates are indeed trivial, many prisoners sue over health care, violence and overcrowding, religious exercise, and other fundamental rights concerns. Under the PLRA, valid claims cannot be readily distinguished from those that are trivial and may be summarily dismissed if the inmate does not pay filing fees or fails to properly explain how a legal right was violated.

Judicial Oversight

Another congressional purpose for the PLRA is to limit judicial oversight of the nation's prison system. In the first half of the 20th century, courts had a “hands-off” policy and refused to entertain any inmate complaints. During the 1970s, the U.S. Supreme Court began to hold that inmates retained those constitutional rights and protections that are not inconsistent with being incarcerated. Women and men sued institutions using the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments by alleging that a variety of conditions of their confinement violated their rights. By the end of the 20th century, nearly every state had a prison system operating under a judicial consent decree. These decrees enabled courts to enforce their decisions by providing them with judicial oversight through the appointment of special masters who would evaluate how the prison system was operating. In this manner, courts were able to directly intervene and oversee correctional operations on a day-to-day basis.

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