Resource: Federal Prisoners Sue Over Unconstitutional Isolation Practices

The DC Prisoners’ Project of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs filed a class action lawsuit today alleging that the Federal Bureau of Prisons has systematically mistreated seriously mentally ill prisoners at the United States Penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, by denying them access to the most basic mental health care in violation of the United States Constitution. Three prisoners filed the case on behalf of all mentally ill prisoners at the facility.

The lawsuit, styled McCreary v. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, seeks to compel the Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) to comply with its own existing policies and rules regarding the placement and treatment of men suffering from mental illness. It also seeks to define a minimum level of care and mental health treatment for those in custody that is sufficient to satisfy the prohibitions of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution against cruel and unusual punishment.