Herrera v. Cleveland
Rights Behind Bars is amicus counsel for six formerly-incarcerated attorneys with extensive experience litigating prison conditions cases both inside and outside of prison. Pro se prisoner plaintiffs face a number of important barriers to obtaining discovery, including identifying officers who violate their constitutional rights. This poses immense challenges to holding those officers accountable in civil litigation. Many of those barriers require incarcerated plaintiffs to identify correctional defendants by detail in Doe-captioned complaints and substitute names later. Defendants attempt to challenge this practice with a proposed rule that effectively shortens the statute of limitations for incarcerated pro se litigants. Along with co-counsel James Davy, Rights Behind Bars highlights the unique litigation challenges of pro se prisoners, including the legal structures enacted to govern their claims, the realities of defendants’ institutional positions, and defendants’ responses to litigation.