Pennsylvania Death-Row Prisoners File Lawsuit Challenging Automatic, Permanent Solitary Confinement

Five pris­on­ers on death row in Pennsylvania have filed a class-action law­suit chal­leng­ing the Commonwealth’s pol­i­cy man­dat­ing soli­tary con­fine­ment for all con­demned pris­on­ers. The five named plain­tiffs have been held in soli­tary con­fine­ment between 16 and 27 years each, kept in cells the size of a park­ing space, allowed out for a max­i­mum of two hours per day for exer­cise, and denied human con­tact with fam­i­ly mem­bers dur­ing prison vis­its. The pris­on­ers, rep­re­sent­ed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Abolitionist Law Center, and three law firms, call these con­di­tions ​“degrad­ing” and ​“inhu­mane” and say the ​“pol­i­cy and prac­tice of auto­mat­i­cal­ly and per­ma­nent­ly plac­ing all death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers in soli­tary con­fine­ment” is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly cru­el and unusual punishment. 

David Fathi, direc­tor of the ACLU National Prison Project, said Pennsylvania’s death-row soli­tary con­fine­ment ​“until either the pris­on­er is exe­cut­ed, or dies of nat­ur­al caus­es, or has his death sen­tence over­turned is very dif­fer­ent from the way soli­tary con­fine­ment is used for all oth­er pris­on­ers. For all oth­er pris­on­ers, you earn your way in and you earn your way out. You serve your pun­ish­ment, and, if you behave, you can come back to the general population.” 

While many states still keep death-row pris­on­ers in soli­tary con­fine­ment, that prac­tice is chang­ing. At least eight states have recent­ly allowed death-row pris­on­ers more time out­side their cells, includ­ing Arizona, which changed its pol­i­cy in 2017 in response to a sim­i­lar law­suit. According to the Pennsylvania suit, how­ev­er, about 80% of those cur­rent­ly on death row have been held in soli­tary con­fine­ment for more than ten years. The United Nations’ Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners pro­hibits soli­tary con­fine­ment for peri­ods longer than 15 days. 

One of the named plain­tiffs in the law­suit who has been held in soli­tary con­fine­ment for 21 years ​“describe[d] his expe­ri­ence as ​‘psy­cho­log­i­cal tor­ture,’ where pris­on­ers are ​‘treat­ed like ani­mals’ and forced to ​‘depend on every­body for every­thing.’ ” The law­suit says “[h]e feels ​‘trapped in [his] cell’ – and his ​‘mind is like a popcorn machine.’” 

Pennsylvania’s death-row con­di­tions were chal­lenged in 1980, but upheld by a fed­er­al court. ​“In the inter­ven­ing time, there has been a sea change in the sci­en­tif­ic under­stand­ing of soli­tary con­fine­ment and increas­ing recog­ni­tion by the courts that this cross­es con­sti­tu­tion­al bound­aries when it is pro­longed,” said Bret Grote of the Abolitionist Law Center. Just last year, a fed­er­al court ordered Pennsylvania to end its prac­tice of keep­ing pris­on­ers in soli­tary con­fine­ment even after their death sen­tences had been vacat­ed, until they were for­mal­ly resen­tenced or released. The retri­al or resen­tenc­ing process often took many years and, in some cas­es, took decades.