On June 9, 2017, three mentally ill prisoners of the U.S. Penitentiary at Lewisburg (USP Lewisburg) filed this class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The case was assigned to Judge Yvette Kane. The plaintiffs sued the Federal Bureau of Prisons, alleging that the defendants’ failure to provide adequate treatment for prisoners with mental illness constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The plaintiffs alleged that they were deprived of medication, received puzzles and coloring pages in lieu of treatment, and had five-minute conversations in the public showers with mental health professionals instead of formal therapy sessions. Represented by the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, Washington Lawyers’ Committee, and private counsel, the plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief.
On August 11, 2017, the plaintiffs moved for class certification. The class would consist of all persons who were, as of the filing date of the complaint in this case, or are now, or will be in the future, confined to the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons in the United States Penitentiary Lewisburg and suffer from a Serious Mental Illness or a Mental Illness, requiring treatment under one or more of the BOP’s CARE levels.
On October 2, 2017, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim or, in the alternative, a motion for summary judgement. In the two weeks after filing the motion, the defendants filed a motion to stay the plaintiff’s motion for class certification pending their motion to dismiss and a statement of material facts containing records of the plaintiff’s interactions with mental health services. The defendant argued that the plaintiffs’ complaint did not sufficiently demonstrate that the defendants failed to provide treatment; rather, it merely demonstrated that the plaintiffs disagreed with the treatments that the medical professionals prescribed for them. On December 7, 2017, the court granted the defendants’ motion to stay class certification until after the defendants’ motion to dismiss was decided.
On June 20, 2018, Magistrate Judge Schwab issued a report recommending that the defendants’ motion to dismiss be denied. She found that the plaintiffs had not actually raised separate Eighth Amendment conditions-of-confinement claim in their complaint, but invited the plaintiffs to do so in an amended complaint if so desired. With regard to the Eighth Amendment medical care claims, the Magistrate Judge found that the plaintiffs had sufficiently alleged facts to state a claim of deliberate indifference, and so denied the motion to dismiss on that basis as well. The defendants also argued that the plaintiffs' complaint violated the favorable termination rule (by challenging the duration of their confinement), but the Magistrate Judge recommended that the court temporarily deny the motion to dismiss on that objection. The plaintiffs objected to the recommendation saying that they did not challenge the duration of their confinement, nor did they raise Eighth Amendment conditions claims.
On October 26, 2018 Judge Yvette Kane adopted the Magistrate Judge's recommendation insofar as it denied the defendants motion to dismiss, motion for summary judgment, and motion to stay discovery. The case was then reassigned to Magistrate Judge Schwab.
Over the following months, Magistrate Judge Schwab issued several orders. The first, on November 27, 2018, granted the plaintiffs motion for a protective order. The second, on February 22, 2019, denied class certification without prejudice. Discovery continued in the wake of these orders.
On November 20, 2019, Chief Judge Christopher C. Conner issued a verbal order reassigning the case from Judge Yvette Kane to Judge Jennifer P. Wilson, and the plaintiffs again moved for class certification. On January 29, 2020, Magistrate Judge Schwab issued an order requiring that plaintiffs show cause why their claims should not be denied as moot and also issued a recommendation that the plaintiff's motion for class certification be denied due to lack of numerosity, among other grounds.
On February 24, 2021, Judge Wilson declined to adopt Magistrate Judge Schwab's recommendation to deny the class certification due to lack of numerosity and recommitted the matter to Magistrate Judge Schwab with instructions to make further findings on whether the plaintiff's claims had been rendered moot by the closure of the Special Management Unit at USP Lewisburg.
On March 23, 2021, the plaintiffs filed a stipulation of dismissal after conferring with Defendant's counsel. Both parties agreed that the subject of the plaintiff's legal action had been mooted by the closure of SMU at USP Lewisburg and the transfer of the named plaintiffs to other prisons within the BOP. The case was terminated on March 24, 2021.
Rebecca Strauss - 06/07/2018
Abigail DeHart - 08/02/2018
Alex Moody - 11/20/2019
Casey D'Alesandro - 04/10/2021
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