Taking Prison to Court: Exploring the Judicial Review of Prison Decision-Making Through Supreme Court Judges in Israel.

This article examines how Israeli Supreme Court Judges perceive and negotiate their judicial review of prison officials' decisions, revealing three distinct approaches: bureaucratization, re-sentencing, and reform. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 17 retired Judges, the study finds that some Judges view their role as formalistic overseers upholding prison regulations without engaging in penal logic, while others incorporate punitive reasoning to calibrate prison conditions according to the severity of offenses. A third group adopts a rehabilitative stance, using judicial review to improve prison conditions and promote prisoners' dignity and reintegration. These findings highlight the complex judicial consciousness at the intersection of administrative law and the penal realities of imprisonment, expanding scholarly understanding beyond sentencing to the qualitative experience of punishment.