## Facts

- Arkansas prison regulations authorized corporal punishment by whipping inmates with a leather strap as a primary disciplinary method.
- Three Arkansas State Penitentiary inmates (Jackson, Ernst, and Mask) filed separate actions seeking to enjoin the strap’s use.
- The inmates alleged (1) officials failed to follow prior limits on corporal punishment and (2) strapping itself violated the Eighth Amendment.
- Evidence showed repeated abuses and injuries, including whippings on bare skin and departures from rules meant to limit severity and prevent inmate-administered whippings.
- Expert testimony described strapping as degrading and counterproductive, fostering hostility toward prison staff and undermining post-release adjustment.
- The record also indicated that the federal system and nearly all states had abandoned corporal punishment in prisons.

## Issues

1. Whether use of a leather strap to whip prisoners as discipline constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, even if regulated by procedural “safeguards.”
2. Whether a federal court may permanently enjoin a prison system from using strapping as a disciplinary measure.

## Decision

- The court held that strapping in the Arkansas prison system is cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.
- The court rejected the view that strapping can be made constitutional through procedural safeguards, finding such safeguards unworkable in practice.
- The court vacated the portion of the district court’s judgment that permitted continued use of the strap subject to additional rules.
- The court directed entry of an injunction prohibiting use of the strap as punishment in Arkansas penal institutions.

## Legal Principles

- The Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment is evaluated against contemporary standards of decency, including objective evidence of societal rejection of a practice.
- A punishment method may be unconstitutional based on its inherent character and predictable tendency toward abuse and degradation, not merely because of isolated excesses.
- Where a disciplinary practice cannot be reliably confined within constitutional limits, procedural regulations are insufficient to cure the constitutional violation.
- Administrative convenience or resource constraints do not justify retaining a disciplinary practice that violates the Eighth Amendment.

## Conclusion

The Eighth Circuit required Arkansas to abolish whipping prisoners with a leather strap, holding that corporal punishment of this kind violates the Eighth Amendment and cannot be legitimized by purported safeguards.


Jackson v. Bishop, 404 F.2d 571 (8th Cir. 1968)