Correctional Oversight: Comparing Legal Frameworks in the United States and Europe

• In Event: International Perspectives on Criminal Justice Policies

Abstract

Correctional Inspection and oversight is essential to upholding the rule of rule of law, the protection of rights and the legitimacy of penal power. European approaches to imprisonment tend to emphasise the need for independent inspection mechanisms and complaints procedures. Requirements for such bodies have been shaped by human rights treaties and, to a lesser, but increasing, extent, the European Court of Human Rights. Correctional oversight in the United States is comparatively much less developed. The constitutional and legal frameworks for such oversight are also limited. This paper examines the human rights principles which guide the European approach to correctional oversight. It explores the position of the European Court of Human Rights concerning correctional oversight emerging from its analysis of the right to an effective remedy, and how that position is being enforced. It contrasts this with the limited guidance given by the US courts in this field. The paper offers suggestions for how correctional oversight can be organised in compliance with human rights standards, and where those standards might be improved.

Author

• Mary Rogan, Trinity College Dublin