Prisoners’ Rights Groups Commend Allegheny County Jail on Improved COVID-19 Intake Testing Policy

The Allegheny County Jail has agreed to begin administering COVID-19 tests to everyone admitted to the jail before they are moved into general population housing in response to demands from lawyers representing incarcerated persons in a class action lawsuit challenging the jail’s failure to protect them from COVID-19.

PILP Files Civil Lawsuit On Behalf of Man Who Nearly Died After Diabetes Misdiagnosis

The Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PILP) has filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of a man who says that a misdiagnosis nearly led to his death. The lawsuit alleges that Federal Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) employees incorrectly identified Edward Kavanaugh, 39, as a Type II Diabetic in 2011, rather than acknowledging his previous diagnosis of Type I Diabetes.

PILP Files Lawsuit Against DOC Officials on Behalf of Transgender Woman Denied Healthcare, Surgery

The Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project filed a lawsuit today on behalf of a transgender woman who says she is being denied vital healthcare, including gender affirmation surgery, by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC). The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiff, a 46-year-old transgender woman currently incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy, has suffered extreme distress and suicidal ideation, including instances of self-harm, since receiving a diagnosis of gender dysphoria in 1998.