Written Testimony of
Marian Wright Edelman
President, Children's Defense Fund
Hearing on H.R. 4109, the “Prison Abuse Remedies Act of 2007”

House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism
and Homeland Security

April 22, 2008

25 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Tel: (202) 628-8787
Fax: (202) 662-3510

Chairman Scott and members of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland
Security:

I am Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). I
appreciate the opportunity to submit a written statement on children and youth and the Prison
Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). I respectfully request that the Subcommittee take the necessary
action to exclude children and youth from the requirements of the PLRA in order to eliminate the
barriers it creates to their accessing a federal court when they allege their constitutional or
statutory rights have been violated.

The mission of CDF, a nonprofit organization, is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a
Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to
adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. We pursue our mission through
policy research, analysis and advocacy that promotes reforms on behalf of and increased
investments in children that hold the promise of achieving these goals. In furtherance of our
mission, CDF recently embarked on a comprehensive analysis of the many problems, policies
and systems that funnel tens of thousands of children and youth down life paths that can and
often do lead to arrest, conviction, incarceration and, in some cases, death. That research
culminated in the publication of our report, “America’s Cradle to Prison PipelineSM.” That
report, coupled with the conduct of a National Summit, marked the formal launch of our Cradle
to Prison Pipeline® Campaign, a multi-pronged strategy that utilizes community education, social
mobilization and policy advocacy to promote greater equity of opportunities for all children.
Concurrently, we continue to fight for policies that ensure access to timely, quality health care,

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early childhood development, and education programs, and improvements to the child welfare
system.

A critical component of our Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign is to accelerate reforms
of juvenile justice policy at the federal, state and local levels to ensure that children and youth
get the integrated services necessary to put them on a sustained path to a successful adulthood.
We work closely with the National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Coalition to
advocate for the federal policy and investment needed to support improvements to state and local
juvenile justice systems and promote evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies as a
means to address juvenile crime. We also work with advocacy groups in states that are
advancing systemic reform to state juvenile justice systems with special attention to improving
the conditions, education and rehabilitation of youth offenders. Excluding children and youth
from the PLRA is a critical step in such collective efforts to improve the conditions of their
confinement.

In 1996, Congress enacted the PLRA in order to “bring relief to a civil justice system
overburdened by frivolous prisoner lawsuits. . . .[and] help restore balance to prison conditions
litigation and [] ensure that Federal Court Orders are limited to remedying actual violations of
prisoners' rights.” 1

In order to accomplish this, the PLRA sets a number of limitations to

prisoners filing suit in federal court. Relevant provisions include: a prohibition against prisoners
filing lawsuits for mental or emotional injury without demonstrating a “physical injury;” 2
requiring prisoners to exhaust all administrative remedies prior to filing suit in federal court; 3

1

141 CONG. REC. S14,418 (daily ed. Sept. 27, 1995)(statement of Sen. Hatch).
42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e).
3
42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a).
2

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and restrictions on attorneys’ fees in prisoner cases. 4 These provisions currently apply to both
incarcerated adults and youth. 5

While certain provisions of the PLRA have successfully limited frivolous suits, many
advocates argue that some of the PLRA’s requirements pose a significant barrier for incarcerated
adults and youth to filing meritorious claims in court. The number of federal cases filed by
prison inmates has declined since the passage of the PLRA. However, recent research and
analysis indicates that it is unclear whether the PLRA is effectively limiting only frivolous
claims. 6 Rather, inmate cases that are filed in federal court are actually “less successful than
before the PLRA’s enactment.” 7 Many feel that, as a result of the PLRA, constitutionally
meritorious claims are facing “insurmountable obstacles” before they can move forward in
federal court. 8

The extent of abuse against incarcerated youth nationwide is morally reprehensible. One
need only look to the recent scandals plaguing the Texas Youth Commission and Mississippi’s
Columbia Training School for evidence of how vulnerable incarcerated youth are to abuse. 9 A
recent Associated Press survey found more than 13,000 claims of abuse were identified in
juvenile correction centers around the country from 2004 through 2007. 10 Many experts feel that
this number represents a significant underreporting of the extent of abuse, with thousands of
4

42 U.S.C. § 1997e(d).
42 U.S.C. § 1997e(h).
6
MARGO SCHLANGER & GIOVANA SHAY, AM. CONSTITUTION SOC’Y, PRESERVING THE RULE OF LAW IN AMERICA’S
PRISONS: THE CASE FOR AMENDING THE PRISON LITIGATION REFORM ACT” 2 (2007), available at
http://www.acslaw.org/files/Schlanger%20Shay%20PLRA%20Paper%203-28-07.pdf.
7
Id.
8
Id.
9
Adam Nossiter, Lawsuit Filed Over Treatment of Girls at State Reform School in Mississippi, N.Y. TIMES, July
12, 2007, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/us/12prison.html; Ralph Blumenthal, One Account of
Abuse and Fear in Texas Youth Detention, N.Y. TIMES, March 8, 2007, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/us/08youth.html.
10
Holbrook Mohr, AP: 13,000 Abuse Claims in Juvie Centers, USA TODAY, March 2, 2008, available at
http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2008-03-02-1668706373_x.htm.
5

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incidents believed to go unreported. In July 2005, the U.S Department of Justice released a
report stating that state-operated juvenile facilities had the highest rates of alleged staff sexual
misconduct compared to state and federal prisons. 11 Youth detained in adult jails are also at high
risk of becoming victims of physical and sexual assault. 12

Children and youth should be excluded from the requirements of the PLRA. First and
foremost, children do not file frivolous lawsuits. While the United States Supreme Court
acknowledged the right to counsel for juveniles in delinquency proceedings, 13 no such right to
counsel exists when they challenge the conditions of their confinement. Many incarcerated
children and youth lack adequate legal representation to assist them if they allege abuse or
violation of other rights. They certainly do not file frivolous claims in court without counsel.

The PLRA also places an unreasonable burden on the thousands of incarcerated children
and youth that face abusive conditions of confinement. The exhaustion requirement alone is a
significant enough reason to exclude juveniles from the requirements of the PLRA.

Children

and youth who face abusive conditions of confinement are far less capable than adults of
following the difficult and often convoluted administrative processes to which they must adhere
in order to exhaust all of their administrative remedies as outlined by the PLRA. Moreover,
administrative processes often require youth to report abuse to their abusers or subordinates of
their abusers. Many youth fear or risk retaliation if they file an administrative complaint. The
fact that most children and youth cannot overcome these hurdles effectively insulates

11

A.J. BECK & T.A. HUGHES, U.S. DEPT. OF JUSTICE, SEXUAL VIOLENCE REPORTED BY CORRECTIONAL
AUTHORITIES 5 (2004), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/svrca04.pdf.
12
CAMPAIGN FOR YOUTH JUSTICE, The CONSEQUENCES AREN’T MINOR: THE IMPACT OF TRYING YOUTH AS ADULTS
AND STRATEGIES FOR REFORM 7 (2007).
13
In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 36 (1967).

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correctional facilities from accountability for deplorable detention and correctional facility
conditions.

Allowing this kind of violence against children and youth to persist contradicts the
rehabilitative mandate set out for the juvenile justice system. It is extremely difficult for youth
to focus on education and treatment amidst abusive conditions. This kind of violence against
children and youth can also create a cycle of abuse that could perpetuate itself once they are
released and increase the likelihood that they will reoffend.

We must have a system that adequately protects the rights of incarcerated children and
youth. As such, I respectfully request that the Subcommittee take the necessary action to
exclude children and youth from the requirements of the PLRA. Such action would eliminate the
barriers to federal courts the PLRA creates for children and youth when they allege that their
constitutional or statutory rights have been violated. I thank Chairman Scott and the members of
the Committee for the opportunity to submit written testimony.

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