John McCann Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant v. T. Coughlin, Iii, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees

IRVING R. KAUFMAN, Circuit Judge:

Courts and public officials have long rejected the doctrine that a prisoner is a “slave of the state” with only those “rights which the law in its humanity accords to him.” Ruffin v. Commonwealth, 62 Va. (21 Gratt) 790, 796 (1871). Although the scope of an inmate’s rights is necessarily circumscribed, and at times may be further limited by exigencies such as the need to assure prison security, prisoners are not wholly without rights. “There is no iron curtain between the Constitution and the prisons of this country.” Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 555-56,…