JOHNSON VS AVERY

Johnson Vs Avery

Johnson Vs Avery

The fundamental right to legal assistance was established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Johnson vs. Avery, decided in 1969. In that case, Johnson, a Tennessee inmate, was disciplined by the correctional authorities of his state for violating a prison regulation that prohibited inmates from assisting other inmates in the preparation of writs. The trial ruled that the Tennessee Department of Corrections' (DOC) regulation prohibiting inmates from receiving assistance from fellow inmates was void because it had the effect of "barring illiterate prisoners from access to federal habeas corpus." The court of appeals reversed the trial court's ruling on the grounds that the "state's interest in preserving prison discipline and limiting the practice of law to attorneys justified any burden the regulation might place on access to habeas corpus." Eventually, the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed the ruling of the federal appeals court on the grounds that illiterate inmates must be given access to the courts to protect their habeas corpus rights.

Although in the Johnson case, the Supreme Court recognized the importance of illiterate offenders receiving assistance from inmates trained in legal research and writing, the actual application of the ruling was limited by the unwillingness of correctional administrators to adopt prison policies that would allow for contact between inmates. Administrative acceptance of the concept that illiterate offenders should receive assistance in the preparation of legal pleadings from their fellow inmates was, in fact, limited by a prison's desire to maintain a high degree of security.

The doctrine that offenders are constitutionally entitled to present their grievances in both state and federal courts also has been qualified by the procedural insertion of intermediate hearings. Specifically, these intervening appeals include administrative hearings held within the correctional system itself. In the case of ...