Resource: Receiverships in the Prison Litigation Context: Factors Necessary for an Effective Judicial Remedy of Last Resort

This article addresses the most invasive of judicial equitable remedies in institutional reform litigation: the receivership. Unlike other equitable remedies, the receivership completely displaces the leadership of an executive agency in order to force it to comply with its constitutional obligations to the plaintiffs. This article is a comparative analysis of three receiverships in the prison litigation context. It analyzes various aspects of each receivership, including the circumstances that led to it, the mandate of the receiver, the experience of the receivership, and the outcome of the receivership in relation to the Court’s stated goals. The article concludes with structural recommendations that courts may institute in order to implement a receivership effectively.