NCPLS and ACLU file class action challenging the state's use of solitary confinement
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A prisoner who suffers from several mental health disorders and has been held in solitary confinement for more than 12 years is one of four who filed a class-action lawsuit against the state of North Carolina on Wednesday, saying the treatment violates the state constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina said in a news release that it and North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services sued on behalf of the four men and others held in cells described as no bigger than a parking space for 22 to 24 hours a day.
"Solitary confinement is a cruel and unnecessary practice that destroys people's mental health, degrades their human dignity, and makes prison conditions all the more dangerous," Dan Siegel, a staff attorney for NCPLS, said in the news release. "Prison officials should use solitary confinement only as a last resort, and for the shortest duration possible, when there is no other option to address an imminent safety threat. But today in North Carolina, thousands of people are confined in tiny cells and denied human contact, sunlight, and fresh air for 22 to 24 hours a day for offenses as minor as using profanity. These policies must end."
The groups estimate that about 3,000 people were held in some form of solitary confinement in North Carolina as of July, including hundreds held for months or years.
