BETWEEN TWO COURTS: MASS INCARCERATION AND THE PRISONER’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN PUERTO RICO, 1970-1990

This thesis examines the 1979 and 1989 Morales Feliciano prisoner-rights case in Puerto Rico. I argue that the cases reveal how prisoners entrapped in Puerto Rico’s carceral state used Puerto Rico’s colonial status as a legal strategy to force the Commonwealth to provide them with proper living conditions and medical care. Prisoners in Morales Feliciano used the US and Puerto Rican constitution interchangeably and relied on the federal court system as part of that strategy. Unlike previous prisoner right’s movements on the Island, Morales Feliciano was the first to hold the whole prison system in Puerto Rico accountable for its treatment of prisoners. The case was filed at the dawn of mass incarceration as the Island’s incarcerated population exploded due to War on Drug policies. The combined increase in population and deteriorating prison infrastructure set the stage for the Morales Feliciano case.