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News Roundup

This week the ACLU of North Carolina and North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services filed a class action lawsuit in state court arguing that solitary confinement practices used in the state’s prisons constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the state constitution.  In the suit, the plaintiffs say that people in solitary confinement “face substantial risks of serious psychological and physiological harm” and ask for a court order ceasing current practices and directing the formulation of new ones that comply with the constitution.  Two of the named plaintiff inmates each have been in solitary confinement for more than 10 years; about 3,000 inmates were in solitary confinement at the end of July of this year.  The News Roundup previously has noted that the Department of Public Safety has been investigating ways to reduce the use of solitary confinement.  Keep reading for more news.

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