On June 2, 2016, a group of residents of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) filed this class-action lawsuit against the IDOC in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201. Represented by the Uptown People's Law Center and private counsel, the plaintiffs alleged that the IDOC subjected the prisoners to be housed in “extreme isolation,” which the plaintiffs defined as segregation from the mainstream prisoner population where prisoners are involuntarily confined to their cells for upwards of 22 to 24 hours a day. This, they alleged, violated the Eighth Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as class-action certification.

On August 22, 2016, the IDOC moved to dismiss this case for failure to state a claim and lack of jurisdiction. The court denied the motion on March 10, 2017. The parties continued to engage in discovery.

The plaintiffs filed for class certification on September 6, 2019. The court issued an order on March 6, 2020 announcing that plaintiffs' motion for class certification was fully briefed and that the court intended to set this motion for oral argument. As of April 10, 2020, the case has yet to go to oral argument and is ongoing.

Gloria Han - 01/22/2017
Elizabeth Heise - 10/25/2018
Alex Moody - 04/10/2020


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