Anderson v. Redman’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 12 district · 1 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Against this picture of [the jail] as a ticking time bomb must be weighed the fact that the inmates are convicted criminals, and in order to reduce the prison population to even emergency capacity involves certain risks. The difficulty of this balancing is compounded because it weighs the certainty of potentially undesirable, but perhaps minimal consequences of ordering interim reduction against the uncertainty of inaction with a potential for disastrous consequences. Putting aside for the moment the right of a prisoner to proper housing and right of a correctional officer to relatively safe working conditions, the remaining interest at stake is the right of the citizens of Delaware to be secure in their persons and property. The issue is whether an order to reduce the inmate population immediately to emergency capacity thereby limiting the possibility of random escapes by dangerous inmates better serves these citizens than an order which permits the present threat of a riot to continue with the concomitant possibility of a mass escape. Although the release of any inmate involves certain risks, those released pursuant to a controlled reduction are the least likely to present a threat to society.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Reece v. Gragg

2. “An inmate classification system, the heart of any correctional institution, not only determines the required custodial level of an individual but also establishes a scheme of goals to allow a person to obtain benefits from the correctional process after identifying his vocational, educational, mental and physical needs. Anderson v. Redman, 429 F.Supp. 1105, 1121 (D.Del.1977).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 437 F. Supp. 269 - Laaman v. Helgemoe

3. “By the time an inmate reaches his initial classification destination, be it maximum, medium, or minimum, it is difficult to discern nonconsensual homosexual activity, because the resistance of most nonconsensual victims has been broken by that time.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Withers v. Levine