|
|
|
Jury finds conditions in Philly's largest jail to be "punishment" (UPDATED)
The first of potentially hundreds of trials over overcrowding and conditions in Philly jails found conditions there amount to punishment, however no damages were awarded.
Jury finds conditions in Philly's largest jail to be "punishment" (UPDATED)
Philly's jails are crowded beyond capacity, and they're filling up more month by month, despite the fact that all inmates serving two years or more are now being moved to state facilities. We wrote a few weeks ago about what's driving some of this crowding — now, a jury has been asked to decide if the conditions at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility (CFCF) are unconstitutional.
The case was Marcellous Minnick v. the City of Philadelphia, the first of a whopping 500something civil actions brought by inmates who say the overcrowding and understaffing at CFCF, where some inmates sleep three to a cell, negatively impacted their health or violated their civil rights. The city has faced similar litigation before, but court-appointed lawyer Gerald Williams of the firm Williams Cuker Berezofsky says it’s probably the largest number of such lawsuits to be consolidated for trial in succession.
Minnick spent almost a year as a pretrial detainee starting in September 2009; he was convicted on sex charges in August of 2010, but he’s still in jail awaiting sentencing. Before his arrest, he had been scheduled for a hip replacement due to a degenerative joint disorder. He wasn’t able to get the surgery, and developed a hernia and “severe dermatitis” (i.e. a rash) all while awaiting trial and sleeping in over-capacity cells.
In his complaint, he says he was often confined to a “blue boat” — a plastic cot on the floor — 16 hours a day, since there was nowhere else to go during frequent lockdowns.
Jurors got a window into life in the jails via video depositions from experts who toured the jails and examined their records. Leonard Rice, a sanitation expert, showed photos of blue boats and other mattresses with cracked covers or with no covers — just exposed, dirty foam — that were “way beyond the normal lifespan of a mattress.” He also pointed to possible contamination from soiled canvas laundry carts, which were “in deplorable condition” and were used to transport both clean and dirty laundry. He said insects and rodents are a frequent complaint, and observed “cumulative problems related to space, sanitary conditions and lack of cleanliness that’s chronic” and that “could be tied directly or indirectly to overpopulation.”
Madeleine LaMarre, an expert on prison health care, reported that inmates, confined to cells 10 to 12 hours a day, have no emergency recourse except for call buttons that are frequently ignored or disabled by guards. She said requests for medical care were often ignored or answered only after long delays, resulting in predictable “pain and suffering, and possible deterioration of their condition.” She said one inmate who was attacked and was urinating blood asked for medical help, but guards didn't pass on the request. Another man who had tested positive for the tuberculosis bacteria, suffered abdominal pain, severe weight loss and other symptoms and had to wait six months for care; she said he could have had a full-blown case of tuberculosis and no treatment. Nurses, meanwhile, who are the first front of care in the prisons, have almost no latitude to administer treatment, meaning even longer waits for inmates to receive needed care.
As for Minnick, who finally received surgery in 2011 — and received only Tylenol in the meantime — “he suffered unnecessarily,” LaMarre said.
Jurors disagreed: They did find that the conditions Minnick faced amounted to punishment. But they said the overcrowding was related to a legitimate government purpose and that he sustained no injury, and so could receive no damages.
Williams told CP that the jury had in effect found that the conditions at CFCF were unconstitutional: "We're happy that our claim about the conditions has been vindicated," though Minnick will not benefit from that result, he said.
However, attorneys from the city said on the contrary that they had won the case, effectively, because the overcrowding was found to be for a legitimate reason and was therefore constitutionally allowed. Craig Straw, chief deputy with the civil rights unit at the city Law Department, said, "The jury found that placing an individual in a triple cell can constitute punishment, but it's not unconstitutional in this case.... We consider this a clear victory on the city's part, showing that the prisons, by triple celling, are meeting all fo the constitutional requirements. So from our perspective, it places the future plaintiffs in a much more difficult position." Minnick's and six others scheduled for trial are considered to be "bellwether cases" that could well indicate how the other 450 to 500 cases will pan out.
Amanda Shoffel, a lawyer for the city, told the jury that Philly doesn’t think its prisons are “operating in a state of constant perfection.” But it’s trying to be “progressive and creative,” and is over time replacing and retrofitting showers and mattresses to meet modern sanitation standards. Whether such efforts will be enough to win over several hundred more juries, if necessary, remains to be seen.
First, remove the mentally disturbed to hospital facilities (Yes, we need to build and staff these institutions). Then,based on the severity of the charge, separate offenders waiting for trial. This will create many jobs and will address the problems. We have so many universities. Team up with them to create programs: social workers, psychiatry, nursing, management/organization. Also, no one should sit in a cell for ten hours. Walk, run, aerobics, yoga, complete high school, college, trade school... (more jobs). Build, build, build...Then maybe we can live up to the name "corrections." For those who are not treatable, they can stay for life and manufacture goods to pay for their room and board, healthcare, education, etc. Boot camp for teens to 20 something.— ptahan- no one seems to get it. Grow up and wake the 6uck up-— Bobby Danger
- If Minnick does like the living conditions, why does he keep going back? It would seem that the easiest way out of his predicament would be to avoid being incarcerated. The ball is in his court.— bad joe s
- Some of you just don't get the point. The laws say u can't even treat animals like this. Let alone exposing EVERYBODY in the jails to this lack of common sense. Ppls kids can contract these diseases just because their family works in or visits these institutions. Also not all of these ppl are guilty. Just because they in jail don't mean they did the crime. Secondly jails are BIG BUSINESS. Put some of the money they're getting back in the jails. Not just lining their fat greedy mouths with it. TERRIBLE!— Fonztrenton
- It seems like most commenters don't realize that CFCF is a pre-trial detention facility. Many of the detainees have not been convicted of the charges that landed them in CFCF, they're in there awaiting trial either because the judge thinks they're a public safety/flight risk OR, troublingly, because they can't afford bail.
Furthermore, the U.S. guarantees rights to all people, not just those that are deemed to be "stand-up guys." You don't have to defend the actions of sex offenders to believe in rights and the rule of law.— wplt - My husband is in that god awful prison while the DA find the alleged victim of the crime he alledgely commited and as a witnessI know he didn't commit the crime so he is one of the ones who do not deserve thae conditions. He has crohn disease and severe RA. No medical treatment offered as of yet he was given tylenol for a pain that he normally recieves remicade. So now until his case is thrown out he has no medicaton. Despite the mistakes some people make in kife they still deserve to be treated humanely you have people in prison for self defense or stealing milk because they have no other means you have simple accidents that cause harm to others but until there case is sorted thru the courts they have to be there now that isnt fair a all— ummhas
- My husband is in that god awful prison while the DA find the alleged victim of the crime he alledgely commited and as a witnessI know he didn't commit the crime so he is one of the ones who do not deserve thae conditions. He has crohn disease and severe RA. No medical treatment offered as of yet he was given tylenol for a pain that he normally recieves remicade. So now until his case is thrown out he has no medicaton. Despite the mistakes some people make in kife they still deserve to be treated humanely you have people in prison for self defense or stealing milk because they have no other means you have simple accidents that cause harm to others but until there case is sorted thru the courts they have to be there now that isnt fair a all— ummhas
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
