Margo Schlanger, J.D., professor of law, testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Nov. 9. She testified during a hearing titled “Review of the Prison Litigation Reform Act: A Decade of Reform or an Increase in Prison and Abuses?”
In her testimony, Schlanger discussed how the Prison Litigation Reform Act has created “major obstacles to accountability and the rule of law within our nation’s growing incarcerative system.” She urged the Judiciary Committee to remove those obstacles while retaining the beneficial effects of the act, lightening the burden imposed on jails and prisons by frivolous litigation.
The other witnesses were Pat Nolan, vice president of Prison Fellowship; Garrett Cunningham, survivor of prison rape and member of the Board of Directors of Stop Prison Rape; David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union; and Ryan Bounds, deputy assistant attorney general and chief of staff of the Office of Legal Policy in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Schlanger is a member of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons, the reporter for the American Bar Association’s ongoing work revising Standards for the Legal Treatment of Prisoners and director of the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse.
She has written numerous publications related to the civil rights of prison inmates and teaches relevant courses including “Individual Rights and the Constitution” and the “Constitutional Law of Incarceration.”
Schlanger’s complete testimony is available at judiciary.house.gov/oversight.aspx?ID=395.