Samuel Lee Murray, III v. Mississippi Department of Corrections

Today we are asked to decide whether an inmate may collect damages for violation of his constitutional and civil rights because he was compelled to work on private property without pay. We decline to create a private-property exception to our prior holdings that an inmate may be compelled to work without pay; therefore, we must conclude that compelling an inmate to work without pay on private property does not violate his constitutional or civil rights and that he may not collect damages on this basis.

In this case, Samuel Lee Murray, III, an inmate of the Mississippi State Penitentiary at…