Federal Court Approves Settlement of Pennsylvania Death-Row Conditions Lawsuit

A fed­er­al dis­trict court judge has approved a set­tle­ment of a class action chal­lenge to the con­di­tions of con­fine­ment on Pennsylvania’s death row that offi­cial­ly ends the state’s pol­i­cy of manda­to­ry incar­cer­a­tion of death-row pris­on­ers in per­ma­nent solitary confinement. 

The court approval comes near­ly five months after the Department of Corrections agreed to a ten­ta­tive change to the con­di­tions of incar­cer­a­tion. In a 14-page Memorandum and Order, Judge John E. Jones III of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania called the for­mer con­di­tions ​“dra­con­ian” and expressed ​“absolute­ly no hes­i­tan­cy” in accept­ing the pro­posed agree­ment, which he said ​“effec­tu­ates a sweep­ing alter­ation of the class mem­bers’ con­di­tions of confinement.”

The set­tle­ment agree­ment, reached in November 2019, pro­vides death-row pris­on­ers with at least 42.5 hours a week out of their cells and 15 min­utes of phone access each day and allows pris­on­ers to have con­tact vis­its, out­door exer­cise, dai­ly show­ers, group reli­gious ser­vices, jobs, and access to edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams. It also ends the Commonwealth’s prac­tices of sub­ject­ing death-row pris­on­ers to body cav­i­ty search­es when­ev­er they leave their cells and requir­ing 24-hour illu­mi­na­tion of the pris­on­ers’ cells. Pennsylvania had already begun imple­ment­ing some of the terms of the agree­ment in antic­i­pa­tion of its approval.

Prior to the set­tle­ment, pris­on­ers on death row were kept alone in their 8‑by-12-foot cells for 22 hours on week­days and all day on week­ends, and they were denied human con­tact with fam­i­ly mem­bers and direct access to their lawyers dur­ing vis­its. They also were not eli­gi­ble for jobs or edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties. The set­tle­ment also includes a pro­vi­sion to pro­vide ​“reso­cial­iza­tion assis­tance” for those who endured solitary confinement.

Several oth­er states have recent­ly tak­en sim­i­lar steps to improve the con­di­tions of con­fine­ment for pris­on­ers on death row. In May 2019, a fed­er­al appeals court in Virginia ruled that the Commonwealth’s for­mer pol­i­cy of 23- or 24-hour per day soli­tary con­fine­ment of death-row pris­on­ers con­sti­tut­ed cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment in vio­la­tion of the Eighth Amendment. Two months lat­er, in the midst of a fed­er­al law­suit chal­leng­ing its death-row con­di­tions, South Carolina end­ed its prac­tice of hous­ing death-row pris­on­ers in as much as 23-hour per day soli­tary con­fine­ment in win­dow­less cells the size of a park­ing space. In September 2019, Oklahoma end­ed its pol­i­cy of hous­ing its death-row pris­on­ers in soli­tary con­fine­ment in an under­ground facil­i­ty that civ­il rights groups had called ​“inhu­mane and oppres­sive.” The groups had threat­ened legal action if the state did not institute reforms. 

Decades of research show that soli­tary con­fine­ment, like that expe­ri­enced by death row pris­on­ers, is deeply detri­men­tal to men­tal health, and inter­na­tion­al human rights groups have likened it to torture.