Louis D. Brandeis Quotes. “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”
“Whatever limitations the PLRA has imposed on prison- ers’ rights litigation, it is imperative to prevent the statute from pulling an iron curtain across the bars of our nations’ correctional institutions. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has spoken eloquently about the “hid- den world of punishment,”6 and has emphasized the importance of “know[ing] what happens after the prisoner is taken away.”7 His recognition of the need for increased transparency in correctional operations speaks to the essential value of such transparency when it comes to ensuring humane treatment of prisoners. PLRA or not, we cannot go back to a time when prisons operated outside the rule of law, confident that the courts would allow them to act without interference. Prisons should never again be “shadow world[s].”8”
https://lbj.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/file/news/Deitch–The%20Need%20for%20Independent%20Prison%20Oversight%20in%20a%20Post-PLRA%20World–Federal%20Sentencing%20Reporter–April%202012%5B1%5D.pdf