The US court said the man can sue Pennsylvania over 26 years of solitary confinement

A man who spent 26 years in solitary confinement despite a history of mental illness can sue Pennsylvania prison officials for alleged cruel and unusual punishments, a US appeals court said in reopening the man’s trial.

Roy Lee Williams spent almost all of his time in solitary from 1993 until 2019, when a legal settlement led the state to end the practice of routinely housing death row inmates in solitary confinement.

Williams was sentenced to death for killing a construction worker in Philadelphia in 1988. An Associated Press article about the trial in 1992 reported that Williams, who is black, said he wanted to kill a white man because a white man put in prison. in a robbery case.

He was sentenced to death at the age of 26. His mental health issues date back to at least 14 years old, when he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility amid suicidal thoughts, according to his lawsuit. Prison officials knew of his history of serious mental health and cognitive problems at least as far back as 1996, U.S. Circuit Judge Theodore McKee wrote in a 2-1 decision issued last Friday that overturned a lower court ruling.

While state officials argued that the Department of Corrections was not notified before 2019 that its solitary confinement practices were unconstitutional, McKee found that they were. He cited a 25-page letter outlining needed reforms the agency received in 2014 from the US Department of Justice.

“The 2014 DOJ report succinctly packaged up much of the relevant and binding law and delivered it to the defendant’s door,” said McKee, who sits on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court in Philadelphia.

Isolation prohibitions

The ruling comes as at least a dozen states have banned or restricted solitary confinement, and lawsuits both in Pennsylvania and across the country are also targeting the practice, particularly for people with mental illness. Critics say a person’s mental health can deteriorate rapidly in isolation, leading in some cases to self-harm.

Williams, who filed his original lawsuit without the help of a lawyer, described a six-month disciplinary period he once spent without a radio as “isolated on top of being isolated,” according to the ruling.

The 3rd Circuit also revived Williams’ claim that prison officials ignored his right to services under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“The evidence here is uncontradicted,” McKee wrote. “By not removing Williams from solitary confinement for 26 years or making changes to his conditions of detention, the DOC did not act.”

Williams remains in custody and on death row at a state prison near Philadelphia. He is represented by the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, which has filed a series of similar lawsuits alleging wrongful damages from years of solitary confinement. Some lawsuits are seeking policy changes, while Williams is seeking monetary damages because he is no longer in solitary confinement.

“His is the first to enter the appeal. So I think this opinion will certainly help all the other men whose cases are currently pending in the courts at this time,” said Matthew Feldman, a supervising attorney for the group.

The state Attorney General’s Office, which argued the case, declined to comment Tuesday while it reviewed the opinion. His client, the Department of Corrections, did not immediately return email messages seeking comment.

According to Feldman, about 5 percent of the state’s prison population is in solitary confinement. He said about half of that group — compared to a third of the total prison population — has a history of mental illness.

People living in solitary confinement usually only go outside their small cell for about an hour a day, and are often detained when they do. Advocates argue that it is difficult to sleep because the environment is often noisy and brightly lit, even at night.

“I personally find it inspiring that despite everything these men went through, they had the courage to sue their jailers,” Feldman said of Williams and others who wrote the original lawsuits themselves. “They had the ingenuity to file these cases and create compelling legal arguments. And I think they had faith that they could claim their rights in court.”

Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

TOPICS
US lawsuits Pennsylvania