Business Insider exposed how a series of Supreme Court decisions and laws have made it nearly impossible for incarcerated plaintiffs to seek redress in the courts for violations of the Eighth Amendment – a constitutional protection for prisoners against “cruel and unusual punishments.” Business Insider detailed its findings in a seven-part series. The reporting took over two years and is based on a review of tens of thousands of pages of court records; hundreds of pages of training materials, medical records, incident reports and surveillance footage; and interviews with more than 170 sources. With support from the Fund, Business Insider built a database analyzing a sample of nearly 1,500 federal cases alleging cruel and unusual punishments and identified hurdles prisoners face in bringing lawsuits. In just 11 cases in the team’s sample – less than 1% of the cases – prisoners prevailed in their claims.
Two-year grantee investigation documents the gutting of the Eighth Amendment
