Rhodes v. Chapman
- Decided
- June 15, 1981
- Docket
- 80-332
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 6,761 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- concluding that "the Eighth Amendment prohibits punishments which, although not physically barbarous, 'involve the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain' " — Rasul v. Rumsfeld (2006)
- holding that conditions of confinement violate the Eighth Amendment only if . they “deprive inmates of the minimal civilized measure of life’s necessities” — James Polidoro v. Gerald Saluti (2017)
- holding that it was not cruel and unusual punishment for prisoners to be confined to double cells — Kimberlin v. United States Department of Justice (2001)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
[*339] Justice Powell delivered the opinion of the Court.
The question presented is whether the housing of two inmates in a single cell at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
I
Statutes cited
Cite this
Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337 (1981)Read the full opinion
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