Source: http://openjurist.org/print/28907
Timestamp: 2016-05-04 19:23:58
Document Index: 713999179

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2242', '§ 2241', '§ 40', '§ 2242', '§ 2255', '§ 122', '§ 138']

393 US 483 Johnson v. S Avery
Home > 393 US 483 Johnson v. S Avery
Even in the absence of such alternatives, the State may impose reasonable restrictions and restraints upon the acknowledged propensity of prisoners to abuse both the giving and the seeking of assistance in the preparation of applications for relief: for example, by limitations on the time and location of such activities and the imposition of punishment for the giving or receipt of consideration in connection with such activities. Cf. Hatfield v. Bailleaux, 290 F.2d 632 (C.A.9th Cir. 1961) (sustaining as reasonable regulations on the time and location of prisoner work on their own petitions). But unless and until the State provides some reasonable alternative to assist inmates in the preparation of petitions for post-conviction relief, it may not validly enforce a regulation such as that here in issue, barring inmates from furnishing such assistance to other prisoners.11
That traditional, closed-shop attitude is utterly out of place in the modern world1 where claims pile high and much of the work of tracing and pursuing them requires the patience and wisdom of a layman rather than the legal skills of a member of the bar.
'If poverty lawyers are overworked, some of the work can be delegated to sub-professionals. New York law permits senior law students to practice law under certain supervised conditions. Approval must first be granted by the appellate division. A rung or two lower on the legal profession's ladder are laymen legal technicians, comparable to nurses and lab assistants in the medical profession. Large law firms employ them, and there seems to be no reason why they cannot be used in legal services programs to relieve attorneys for more professional tasks.' Samore, Legal Services for the Poor, 32 Albany L.Rev. 509, 515—516 (1968).
And see Sparer, Thorkelson, & Weiss, The Lay Advocate, 43 U.Det.L.J. 493, 510—514 (1966).
The plight of a man in prison may in these respects be even more acute than the plight of a person on the outside. He may need collateral proceedings to test the legality of his detention2 or relief against management of the parole system3 or against defective detainers lodged against him which create burdens in the nature of his incarcerated status.4 He may have grievances of a civil nature against those outside the prison. His imprisonment may give his wife grounds for divorce and be a factor in determining the custody of his children; and he may have pressing social security, workmen's compensation, or veterans' claims.5
While the demand for legal counsel in prison is heavy, the supply is light. For private matters of a civil nature, legal counsel for the indigent in prison is almost nonexistent. Even for criminal proceedings, it is sparse.6 While a few States have post-conviction statutes providing such counsel,7 most States do not.8 Some States like California do appoint counsel to represent the indigent prisoner in his collateral hearings, once he succeeds in making out a prima facie case.9 But as a result, counsel is not on hand for preparation of the papers or for the initial decision that the prisoner's claim has substance.
Many think that the prisoner needs help at an early stage to weed out frivolous claims.10 Some States have Legal Aid Societies, sponsored in part by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, that provide post-conviction counsel to prisoners.11 Most legal aid offices, however, have so many pressing obligations f a civil and criminal nature in their own communities and among freemen, as not to be able to provide any satisfactory assistance to prisoners.12 The same thing is true of OEO-sponsored Neighborhood Legal Services offices, which see their function as providing legal counsel for a particular community, which a member leaves as soon as he is taken to prison.13 In some cases, state public defenders will represent a man even after he passes beyond prison walls. But more often, the public defender has no general authorization to process post-conviction matters.14
'The experience at Leavenworth has shown that there have been very few attacks upon the (prison) administration; that prospective frivolous litigation has been screened out and that where the law school felt the prisoner had a good cause of action relief was granted in a great percentage of cases. A large part of the activity was disposing of long outstanding detainers lodged against the inmates. In addition, the program handles civil matters such as domestic relations problems and compensation claims. Even where there has been no tangible success, the fact that the inmate had someone on the outside listen to him and analyze his problems had a most beneficial effect. * * * We think that these programs have been beneficial not only to the inmates but to the students, the staff and the courts.'15
The difficulty with an ad hoc program resting on a shifting law school population is that, worthy though it be, it often cannot meet the daily prison demands.16 In desperation, at least one State has allowed a selected inmate to act as 'jailhouse' counsel for the remaining inmates.17 The service of legal aid, public defenders, and assigned counsel has been spread too thinly to serve prisons adequately.18 Some federal courts have begun to provide prisons with standardized habeas corpus forms, in the hope that they can be used by laymen.19 But the prison population has not found that satisfactory.20
Where government fails to provide the prison with the legal counsel it demands, the prison generates its own. In a community where illiteracy and mental deficiency is notoriously high, it is not enough to ask the prisoner to be his own lawyer.21 Without the assistance of fellow prisoners, some meritorious claims would never see the light of a courtroom. In cases where that assistance succeeds, it speaks for itself. And even in cases where it fails, it may provide a necessary medium of expression:22
'Many writ-writers have said that they would be able to make positive plans for the future if they knew when their (indeterminate) sentences would end. They seem to feel that they are living in a vacuum where their fates are determined arbitrarily rather than by rule of law. One writ-writer very aptly summed up the majority's view with these words: 'When I arrived at the prison and discovered that no one, including the prison officials, knew how long my sentence was, I had to resort to fighting my case to keep my sanity.' * * * Psychologically, the writ-writer, in seeking relief from the courts, is pursuing a course of action which relieves the tensions and anxieties created by the (indeterminate) sentence system.'23
In that view, which many share, the preparation of these endless petitions within the prisons is a useful form of therapy. Apart from that, their preparation must never be considered the exclusive prerogative of the lawyer. Laymen—in and out of prison should be allowed to act as 'next friend' to any person in the preparation of any paper or document or claim, so long as he does not hold himself out as practicing law or as being a member of the Bar.
The cooperation and help of laymen, as well as of lawyers, is necessary if the right of '(r)easonable access to the courts'24 is to be available to the indigents among us.
Although some jailhouse lawyers are no doubt very capable, it is not necessarily the best amateur legal minds which are devoted to jailhouse lawyering. Rather, the most aggressive and domineering personalities may predominate. And it may not be those with the best claims to relief who are served as clients, but those who are weaker and more gullible. Many assert that the aim of the jailhouse lawyer is not the service of truth and justice, but rather self-aggrandizement, profit, and power. According to prison officials, whose expertise in such matters should be given some consideration, the jailhouse lawyer often succeeds in establishing his own power structure, quite apart from the formal system of warden, guards, and trusties which the prison seeks to maintain. Those whom the jailhouse lawyer serves may come morally under his sway as the one hope of their release, and repay him not only with obedience but with what minor gifts and other favors are available to them. When a client refuses to pay, violence may result, in which the jailhouse lawyer may be aided by his other clients.*
Habeas corpus petitions, as the majority notes, are relatively easy to prepare: they need only set out the facts giving rise to a claim for relief and the judge will apply the law, appointing a lawyer for the prisoner and giving him a hearing when appropriate. This fact does not buttress the unregulated jailhouse lawyer system, but undermines it. To the extent that it is easy to state a claim, any prisoner can do it, and need not submit to the mercies of a jailhouse lawyer. To the extent that it is difficult— and it is necessary to understand what one's rights are before it is possible to set out in a petition the facts which support them there may be no fellow prisoner adequate to the task. There are some well informed and articulate prisoners and some (not necessarily the same) who give advice and aid out of altruism. When the two qualities are combined in one man, as they sometimes are, he can be a perfectly adequate source of help. But the jails are not characteristically populated with the intelligent or the benign, and capable altruists must be rare indeed. On the other hand, some jailhouse clients are illiterate; and whether illiterate or not, there are others who are unable to prepare their own petitions. They need help, but I doubt that the problem of the indigent convict will be solved by subjecting him to the false hopes, dominance, and inept representation of the average unsupervised jailhouse lawyer.
28 U.S.C. § 2242 provides in part: 'Application for a writ of habeas corpus shall be in writing signed and verified by the person for whose relief it is intended or by someone acting in his behalf.'
28 U.S.C. §§ 2241—2255.
See Note, Constitutional Law: Prison 'No-Assistance' Regulations and the Jailhouse Lawyer, 1968 Duke L.J. 343, 347—348, 360—361.
Tennessee Department of Correction, Departmental Report: Fiscal Years 1965—1966, 1966—1967.
Tennessee's post-conviction procedure provides for appointment of counsel 'if necessary.' Tenn.Code Ann. §§ 40—3821, 40—2019 (Supp.1967).
Note, supra, n. 4, at 349, n. 27, and 359. See also Rossmoore & Koenigsberg, Habeas Corpus and the Indigent Prisoner, 11 Rutgers L.Rev. 611, 619—622 (1957).
In reversing the District Court, the Court of Appeals relied on the power of the State to restrict the practice of law to licensed attorneys as a source of authority for the prison regulation. The power of the States to control the practice of law cannot be exercised so as to abrogate federally protected rights. NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 83 S.Ct. 328, 9 L.Ed.2d 405 (1963); Sperry v. Florida, 373 U.S. 379, 83 S.Ct. 1322, 10 L.Ed.2d 428 (1963). In any event, the type of activity involved here preparation of petitions for post-conviction relief—though historically and traditionally one which may benefit from the services of a trained and dedicated lawyer, is a function often, perhaps generally, performed by laymen. Title 28 U.S.C. § 2242 apparently contemplates that in many situations petitions for federal habeas corpus relief will be prepared by laymen.
L. Silverstein, Defense of the Poor in Criminal Cases in American State Courts: A Preliminary Summary (Amer. Bar Foundation 1964); Note, Legal Services for the Poor, 49 Mass.L.Q. 293 (1964); O.E.O. and Legal Services—A Symposium, 14 Catholic Law. 92—174 (1968); Note, Legal Services for Prison Inmates, 1967 Wis.L.Rev. 514; Uelmen, Post-Conviction Relief for Federal Prisoners Under 28 U.S.C. § 2255: A Survey and a Suggestion, 69 W.Va.L.Rev. 277 (1967).
Ill.Rev.Stat. c. 38, § 122—4 (1967); Ore.Rev.Stat. § 138.590 (1967).
'Lawyers generally require at least a fifty dollar fee to travel to the prisons to consult with a prisoner. The ones not able to pay this sum must resort to the next best course of action act as their own lawyers. The disadvantages to the prisoner are obvious. A lawyer, after examining the prisoner's transcripts or conducting an independent investigation of the facts, could immediately advise him on a course of action. Lacking the money to hire a lawyer, the prisoner must spend considerable time researching the law, preparing the required legal documents, and filing them. Sometimes years pass before the prisoner discovers what a lawyer could have told him in several weeks—that his case either has or lacks merit. The prisoners who have militantly prosecuted frivolous actions have wasted time they could have devoted to preparing themselves for release from prison. The state, by shouldering these indigent prisoners with the responsibility of acting as their own counsel, has dissipated the taxpayers' money in wasted manpower and court costs.' Larsen, A Prisoner Looks at Writ-Writing, 56 Calif.L.Rev. 343, 345—346 (1968).
Note, Representation of Indigent Criminal Defendants in the Federal District Courts, 76 Harv.L.Rev. 579 (1963); Note, Representation of Indigents in California—A Field Study of the Public Defender and Assigned Counsel Systems, 13 Stan.L.Rev. 522 (1961); Gardiner, Defects in Present Legal Aid Service and the Remedies, 22 Tenn.L.Rev. 505 (1952); Note, Prisoner Assistance on Federal Habeas Corpus Petitions, 19 Stan.L.Rev. 887 (1967).
O.E.O. and Legal Services—A Symposium, 14 Catholic Law. 92—174 (1968).
Note, Representation of Indigent Criminal Defendants in the Federal District Courts, 76 Harv.L.Rev. 579 (1963); Note, Representation of Indigents in California—A Field Study of the Public Defender and Assigned Counsel Systems, 13 Stan.L.Rev. 522 (1961).
R. Sokol, A Handbook of Federal Habeas Corpus 53—54, 192 200 (1965).
Note, supra, n. 5, at 348—349.
Freund, Remarks, Symposium, Habeas Corpus—Proposals for Reform, 9 Utah L.Rev. 18, 30 (1964).
Larsen, A Prisoner Looks at Writ-Writing, 56 Calif.L.Rev. 343, 347—348 (1968).
Krause, A Lawyer Looks at Writ-Writing, 56 Calif.L.Rev. 371 (1968); Spector, A Prison Librarian, Looks at Writ-Writing, 56 Calif.L.Rev. 365 (1968); Note, Constitutional Law: Prison 'No-Assistance' Regulations and the Jailhouse Lawyer, 1968 Duke L.J. 343, 345—347; Note, Legal Services for Prison Inmates, 1967 Wis.L.Rev. 514, 520—522; Note, Prisoner Assistance on Federal Habeas Corpus Petitions, 19 Stan.L.Rev. 887, 891, n. 31 (1967).
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