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According to Solitary Watch.com, best available data confirm "at least 80,000 prisoners in isolated confinement on any given day in America's prisons and jails, including some 25,000 in long-term solitary in supermax prisons."
ACLU Lawsuit Charges Arizona's Prisons with Cruel and Unusual Punishment
On March 6, the ACLU Prison Law Office and Arizona Center for Disability Law, as well as Jones Day and Perkins Coie law firms claimed Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) authorities house thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement conditions so harsh they violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Gratuitous cruelty's inflicted. It includes windowless cells, 24 hour illumination, two poor quality daily meals, little or no medical care, constant isolation except for six hours weekly most prisoners refuse because they hardly differ from daily confinement, and much more. An ACLU press release states:
"Prisoners in the custody of the Arizona Department of Corrections receive such grossly inadequate medical, mental health and dental care that they are in grave danger of suffering serious and preventable injury, amputation, disfigurement and even death, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed today by a legal team led by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Prison Law Office.""The lawsuit also charges that thousands of prisoners are routinely subjected to solitary confinement in windowless cells behind solid steel doors, in conditions of extreme social isolation and sensory deprivation, leading to serious physical and psychological harm. Some prisoners in solitary receive no outdoor exercise for months or years on end, and some receive only two meals a day."
Prison Law Office executive director Donald Specter called Arizona's prison conditions "among the worst I've ever seen. Prisoners have a constitutional right to receive adequate health care, and it is unconscionable for them to be left to suffer and die in the face of neglect and deliberate indifference."
Critically ill prisoners desperate for help are told "be patient," or "it's all in your head." Lung cancer victim Ferdinand Dix filed repeated health need requests in vain. Untreated, it spread to his liver, lymph nodes, and other major organs before being hospitalized when it was too late.
Arizona Center for Disability Law attorney Jennifer Alewelt said:
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