Lawsuit Alleges Federal Death-Row Conditions Violate U.S. Constitution and Human Rights Treaties

A Russian nation­al on the U.S. fed­er­al death row has filed a civ­il rights law­suit chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the fed­er­al government’s use of auto­mat­ic and pro­longed soli­tary con­fine­ment to house indi­vid­u­als sen­tenced to death. 

The class action com­plaint, filed January 12, 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on behalf of Jurijus Kadamovas (pic­tured) and 37 oth­er pris­on­ers incar­cer­at­ed on death row in the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, alleges that the ​“severe­ly iso­lat­ing” and ​“unre­lent­ing soli­tary con­fine­ment” to which the pris­on­ers are sub­ject­ed falls below the min­i­mum stan­dard pre­scribed by inter­na­tion­al human rights treaties for the treat­ment of pris­on­ers and vio­lates the U.S. con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­hi­bi­tion against cru­el and unusual punishment.

The law­suit, authored by lawyers from the ACLU of Indiana and the nation­al law firm, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, states that the pris­on­ers on fed­er­al death row are auto­mat­i­cal­ly assigned to incar­cer­a­tion in the ​“Special Confinement Unit” (SCU), where they are held in ​“soli­tary con­di­tions” in sin­gle cells 12 feet, 8 inch­es deep by 7 feet wide — rough­ly the size of a park­ing space. ​“Each cell con­tains a table and stool affixed to the floor, a met­al sink/​toilet unit, and a show­er,” leav­ing even less space for move­ment. Once assigned to the SCU, a fed­er­al death pris­on­er is like­ly to be kept in soli­tary con­fine­ment ​“for decades.”

“It is well known that pro­longed iso­la­tion and soli­tary con­fine­ment can cause, and pre­dictably will cause, pris­on­ers to suf­fer seri­ous emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal injuries,” the com­plaint states. Bureau of Prisons per­son­nel are ​“ful­ly aware of the iso­lat­ed, dan­ger­ous, and harm­ful con­di­tions that exist in the SCU,” the com­plaint alleges, are ​“respon­si­ble for the con­di­tions there, and allow[ ] them to exist and continue.”

The pris­on­ers seek an injunc­tion to end auto­mat­ic soli­tary con­fine­ment and require BOP to allow them ​“to be out of their cells for mul­ti­ple hours a day and to engage in con­gre­gate activ­i­ties.” The com­plaint also seeks unspec­i­fied ​“indi­vid­ual dam­ages” for the harms expe­ri­enced by the pris­on­ers, plus attor­neys’ fees. Kadamovas specif­i­cal­ly claims to have suf­fered ​“phys­i­cal, men­tal, and emo­tion­al injuries and harm by the iso­lat­ed, dan­ger­ous, and harm­ful con­di­tions that exist in the SCU.”

The law­suit asserts that ​“numer­ous inter­na­tion­al treaties and oth­er instru­ments out­law the use of pro­longed soli­tary con­fine­ment or oth­er­wise rec­og­nize its severe harm.” The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) — one of three treaties regard­ed as the International Bill of Rights — pro­hibits sub­ject­ing indi­vid­u­als ​“to tor­ture or to cru­el, inhu­man, or degrad­ing treat­ment or pun­ish­ment.” A sec­ond inter­na­tion­al treaty, the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (known as the ​“Nelson Mandela Rules”) specif­i­cal­ly pro­hibits ​“indef­i­nite” soli­tary con­fine­ment, ​“pro­longed soli­tary con­fine­ment” of more than 15 con­sec­u­tive days, and the auto­mat­ic place­ment in soli­tary con­fine­ment ​“by virtue of a prisoner’s sentence.” 

The law­suit alleges that after the pris­on­ers are sent to Terre Haute to await their exe­cu­tion, they are auto­mat­i­cal­ly placed in the SCU, where they are housed in small cells with tiny win­dows that do not open and small slits to pass in food or oth­er items. ​“For all pris­on­ers, this unre­lent­ing soli­tary con­fine­ment will last the entire­ty of their stay in the SCU — that is, for many of them, until they die,” the law­suit states. They are not pro­vid­ed out-of-cell pro­gram­ing and face near total con­fined with­in their cells. Prisoners are afford­ed one dai­ly hour of time in the law library, by them­selves, if it is oth­er­wise unoc­cu­pied. They are grant­ed five hours a week of out-of-cell time for soli­tary exer­cise in an out­door cage or in an indoor ​“leisure” room, although this out-of-cell time is fre­quent­ly can­celed for admin­is­tra­tive rea­sons and not rescheduled. 

Death-row pris­on­ers have no ​“con­tact vis­its” with out­side vis­i­tors and must be grant­ed spe­cial ​“Phase II” sta­tus before they may share recre­ation time with anoth­er pris­on­er. Even then, they are lim­it­ed to con­tact with one pre-assigned pris­on­er. ​“Aside from grant­i­ng some SCU pris­on­ers Phase II sta­tus,” the law­suit says, ​“no attempt is made by [BOP] to deter­mine whether SCU pris­on­ers pose a threat to oth­er pris­on­ers that jus­ti­fies their near-total iso­la­tion. SCU pris­on­ers are placed in these con­di­tions sole­ly because of their place­ment in the SCU, and not because of their in-prison behavior.”

Most U.S. death-row pris­on­ers have been housed in con­di­tions that vio­late inter­na­tion­al human rights norms. As of January 2021, twelve U.S. states auto­mat­i­cal­ly placed cap­i­tal pris­on­ers in pro­longed, auto­mat­ic soli­tary con­fine­ment based on their sen­tence, irre­spec­tive of their in-prison behav­ior. A DPIC analy­sis found that those twelve states housed 953 death-row pris­on­ers, or 38.6% of those on death rows nation­wide at the end of 2020. At that time, an addi­tion­al 338 pris­on­ers, or 13.7% of death row, were sen­tenced to death in five states that, since 2017, had end­ed auto­mat­ic pro­longed soli­tary con­fine­ment in response to pris­on­er law­suits. In March 2022, Florida also end­ed auto­mat­ic pro­longed soli­tary con­fine­ment for pris­on­ers on their state death rows.