After two years of advocating for relief from the deplorable conditions of confinement in the Philadelphia jails in the case Remick v. Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PILP), Kairys Rudovsky Messing Feinberg and Lin, Abolitionist Law Center, and Dechert LLP announce that they have reached a class action settlement with the City of Philadelphia designed to immediately address and improve those conditions for people incarcerated in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons. Today, U.S. District Court Judge Berle M. Schiller, the federal judge who overseeing the Remick case, issued an order granting preliminary approval of the global settlement agreement.
A key provision of the settlement agreement is the appointment of a monitor, who will assist the court and the parties in ensuring prompt implementation and compliance with the settlement agreement with the Philadelphia Department of Prisons.
Under the terms of the settlement, the city has also agreed to:
Implement measures to increase the hiring and retention of correctional officers;
Provide minimum times for out-of-cell time on a schedule with presumptive future increases;
Ensure adequate and timely medical and mental health treatment along with benchmarks in reducing backlogs for medical appointments;
Resume mental health programming for those held in segregation;
Release from segregation of most people who were not present at their disciplinary hearings from the period March 2020-the present date, and expunge misconduct records for individuals placed in solitary confinement without due process;
Ensure compliance with individuals’ due process rights at disciplinary hearings;
Increase capacity for in-person visits by family and friends, and in conjunction with plaintiffs and the monitor, develop a plan for return to pre-pandemic programming;
Expand phone and tablet access for incarcerated people
Implement a lock replacement program including a training for correctional personnel on the emergency call button system;
Adhere to Covid-19 related protocols to ensure individuals are available for court and for meetings with attorneys; and
Retrain correctional officers on the department’s policy for the appropriate deployment of pepper spray and other uses of force.
“People incarcerated in the Philadelphia jails have a right to be treated humanely and to have access to all necessary services,” stated Su Ming Yeh, executive director of the Pennsylvania
Institutional Law Project. “We are hopeful that the settlement, with the oversight of the court-appointed monitor, will improve the dire conditions that have persisted over the past two years.”
“This settlement is but one tool needed to make justice a reality for those who have been subjected to the crisis of deplorable conditions at PDP,” stated Nia Holston, staff attorney of the Abolitionist Law Center. “We are pleased that this settlement will continue to shine a light to improve the situation for those housed within the jail walls.”
With the preliminary approval of the settlement agreement, notice will be provided to all persons currently incarcerated in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons to provide them with an opportunity to comment on the settlement agreement. The federal court has scheduled a hearing for July 6, 2022 regarding final approval of the settlement.
For more information on this case, please visit Remick v. City of Philadelphia.
The lawsuit, Remick et al. v. City of Philadelphia, 20-cv-1959, was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The plaintiffs are represented by Su Ming Yeh, Matthew A. Feldman, and Sarah Bleiberg of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project; David Rudovsky, Susan Lin, and Grace Harris of Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing, Feinberg & Lin LLP; Nia Holston, Rupalee Rashatwar, and Bret Grote of Abolitionist Law Center; and Ben Barnett of Dechert LLP.