Samantha Bennett
86 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 587
Congress enacted the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”) in an effort to reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits brought by prisoners. As a result of some of its provisions, however—in particular, the exhaustion provision—nonfrivolous suits are effectively blocked from reaching the courts, enabling grave injustices to persist in America’s prison facilities without any accountability. Virtually unchecked, prison officials construct complex grievance procedures that make full compliance nearly impossible, thus barring many meritorious lawsuits from moving forward. Although children are particularly vulnerable to these abuses, the PLRA holds children to the same standard as adults in this context: exhaustion of administrative remedies is mandatory. Children—who are either detained or incarcerated in adult or juvenile facilities—now face danger when the government should otherwise act to protect them. But with recent Supreme Court precedent recognizing distinctions between children and adults that call for different treatment in the criminal justice context, the system is finally ripe for change for juveniles in custody. This Note proposes an amendment to the PLRA to allow for an exception to the exhaustion provision for juveniles, as well as formal recommendations to improve grievance procedures applicable to juveniles.
