Ph.D. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY Reprints from a series published in Corrections Managers' Report . Access the entire collection at the CTT Web Site .
Correctional managers are frequently the target of lawsuits.
Not only are they subject to the litigation that most public managers face, such as cases involving personnel management or potential liability for an accident involving a public agency, correctional managers are also subject to prisoner lawsuits in federal court under civil rights laws. Fortunately, correctional managers lose few prisoner lawsuits. However, as anyone who has ever been sued understands, the discovery phase of defending a lawsuit can sometimes be more painful than the most pessimistic version of a potential outcome. In discovery, the Plaintiff gets to ask for documents and other evidence that might support the claims made in the suit. Sometimes the inquiries can be extensive, and responding can be time-consuming.