Ruling on Prisoners' Grievances

In this article, the author describes his experience as an active participant on a central review board designed to hear appeals by prisoners front adverse decisions made by local prison grievance and disciplinary boards. The invitation to serve as "citizen member" on this appellate board came to the author as a result of his earlier work on inmate grievance procedures, reported in a previous Journal article. The present article gives a close-up account of the types of inmates and inmate problems encountered while serving on such a board and of the difficult role conflicts that the board members face in trying to make decisions that are both fair and realistic. The article also gives a first-hand impression of the flavor of prison life.