On January 25, 2018, five death-sentenced prisoners in Pennsylvania filed this class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC). Represented by the Abolitionist Law Center, the ACLU National Prison Project, and the ACLU of Pennsylvania, the plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief along with attorneys fees and costs under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The plaintiffs challenged the DOC's practice of automatically placing all death-sentenced prisoners into solitary confinement merely because they were sentenced to death and claimed that this violated their Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and their Fourteenth Amendment Due Process right.

The solitary confinement conditions meant that prisoners spent 22-24 hours a day inside a cell about 8 feet by 12 feet. Unlike other prisoners, this placement in solitary is not triggered by violations of prison rules or a need for protective custody, and there is no procedure for prisoners to challenge placement in solitary. Nearly 80 percent of these prisoners have spent more than a decade in this form of solitary confinement.

The plaintiffs sought a permanent injunction enjoining defendants from automatically confining all death-sentenced prisoners in indefinite solitary confinement with no opportunity for review. The plaintiffs also sought a permanent injunction requiring the defendant to present a plan that provides for individual assessment of death sentenced prisoners based on a validated risk assessment.

The case was assigned to Judge John E. Jones III. On March 29, 2018, the plaintiffs filed an unopposed motion to certify class and appoint class counsel. The plaintiffs defined the class as “all current and future death-sentenced prisoners in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” On April 29, 2018, Judge Jones granted the unopposed motion.

The case is ongoing.

Jake Parker - 05/25/2018


compress summary