January 15th, 2020
The Honorable Mark A. Kearney of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued a permanent injunction on Wednesday, January 15th, ordering Berks County to provide women with the lowest security classification the same rights and privileges as men with the same classification. Some of these include: the amount of out-of-cell time; access to phones, microwaves, and showers; and visitation conditions.
This ruling comes after Judge Kearney and a jury found that Berks County did, in fact, discriminate against the women in the jail.
However, the ruling did not remedy Berks County's actions on the eve of trial in November 2019 when, rather than provide the lowest security women with more freedoms, the county moved the lowest security men from their much lauded Community Reentry Center to the Berks County Jail. In doing this, Berks County chose to make the conditions of confinement and access to resources worse for the men rather than improving conditions for the women.
We are pleased with the Court’s ruling that Berks County must not discriminate against incarcerated women, but we remain disheartened by the County’s actions.
The Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project and Dechert LLP represented the plaintiffs Theresa Bohning (née Victory), Alice Velazquez-Diaz, and a class consisting of all current and future female Trusty prisoners in the Berks County Jail in the class action Victory, et al. v. Berks County, 18 Civ. 5170 (E.D. Pa).
Read the Court Order granting permanent injunction
Read the full Court Opinion