Lawsuit challenges Pennsylvania’s use of solitary confinement

A lawsuit filed Monday in federal court seeks to ban Pennsylvania’s prison system from holding inmates in prolonged solitary confinement and to eliminate the practice entirely for those who are mentally ill.

Filed Monday in federal court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the complaint alleges violations of the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, the Americans with Disabilities Act and due process rights.

It also alleges that the state Department of Corrections has failed to properly train its mental health staff.

The complaint, which seeks class-action status, seeks damages for those affected.

According to the lawsuit, there could be as many as 2,000 people in the proposed class represented by the lawsuit.

There were more than 37,000 inmates throughout the state prison system in January.

The complaint names as defendants the corrections department as well as Secretary Laurel Harry; Executive Deputy Secretary Michael Wenerowicz; and Lucas Malishchak, the department’s director of psychology.

It also names the former secretary, George M. Little.

A corrections spokeswoman said she could not comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit, filed a day before Pennsylvania’s House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on solitary confinement, was brought by the Abolitionist Law Center, the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project and Dechert LLP.

It is the 12th such lawsuit filed by the Abolitionist Law Center over the last 10 years.

The organization has challenged solitary confinement on behalf of several individuals held for decades in isolation. The Abolitionist Law Center has also filed class-action claims regarding the practice in Allegheny County and at State Correctional Institution-Fayette.

Those lawsuits are pending in federal court.

The use of solitary confinement in all but emergency, short-term scenarios was banned in Allegheny County by a referendum vote in 2021.

However, advocates who fought for the ban say it is still being used improperly at the jail.

According to the latest complaint, in January, the corrections department’s monthly population report showed that more than 1,900 people were being held in restricted housing, or solitary confinement.

The lawsuit alleges that inmates with mental health diagnoses are disproportionately held in solitary confinement.

While they make up 37% of the prison population, they are 50% of those held in solitary, the complaint said.

For those who are mentally ill, solitary exacerbates symptoms, including sleeplessness, hopelessness, hallucinations, paranoia and self-harming, the lawsuit said.

Solitary also can create mental illness even for those who have no history of it, the complaint said.

The lawsuit, which did not ask for a maximum limit on how long an inmate could be held in solitary confinement, cites extensive research on the harms caused by isolation.

“Because human brains are designed for social interaction, social isolation also results in neurological changes to the brain, quickly degrading brain function,” the lawsuit said.

According to the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, people with mental illness, juveniles and pregnant women should never be held in isolation. The organization calls solitary for longer than 15 days “cruel, inhumane and degrading.”

The lawsuit alleges that the Department of Corrections and its staff know the risks of solitary confinement to those with mental illness, but prison officials have failed to protect them or enact policies that would do so.

While only 5% of the state prison population is in solitary at any one time, approximately 40% of suicide attempts and suicides occur in those units, the lawsuit claims.

The complaint also challenges the use of solitary confinement for inmates on something called the Restricted Release List, which applies to individuals who have attempted escape or engaged in physical violence in custody.

Plaintiffs allege that once an inmate is on that list, they can be held in solitary confinement indefinitely — sometimes for years.

In solitary, the suit said, inmates are locked in small cells for 21 to 24 hours a day and denied social, environmental and occupational stimulation.

During the limited time inmates are allowed out of their cells, they often remain isolated for exercise or to shower, the complaint said.

According to the lawsuit, even out-of-cell time is spent in another cage.

Malika Henderson, one of the plaintiffs from the Restricted Release List, claimed that she has been offered two hours a day out of her cell — alone in an outdoor cage — or for group activities.

But during those group activities on weekdays, the complaint said, Henderson is taken to a room with up to four other women also held in solitary and then placed inside “a tiny, individual cage the size of a phone booth.”

The women can do arts and crafts, watch cartoons or movies or listen to someone reading books to them, the complaint said.

According to the complaint, cells in solitary confinement often do not have a window, depriving incarcerated people from natural light and fresh air.

In addition, the doors are solid steel with only a small slot to pass food through.

The lawsuit alleges that those incarcerated in solitary confinement are not allowed to have contact visits, either, and when they do have a visit, it is behind glass, and the inmate remains in handcuffs.

They also do not have access to programming, the gym or athletic equipment.

As for mental health treatment for those in solitary, the lawsuit alleges it is either “grossly inadequate” or not provided at all.

The plaintiffs include six people incarcerated at prisons across Pennsylvania who have been diagnosed with mental illness and, according to the lawsuit, have spent years in solitary confinement.