City Will Give $125,000 to Philadelphia Bail Fund in Legal Settlement Over Jail Conditions

In June of 2021, lawyers bringing a class action lawsuit against the Philadelphia jails reached a then-unprecedented settlement agreement with the City of Philadelphia, resulting in the payment of $125,000 to two nonprofit bail funds. This week, this same legal team has reached another agreement that will see the City duplicating that payment.

Lebanon County Agrees to Change Hair Policy and Pay $147k in Dreadlocks Solitary Confinement Cases

The Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PILP) is pleased to announce that a settlement agreement has been reached in the case of three Black men placed in solitary confinement at the Lebanon County Correctional Facility for refusing to cut their hair. The men, who were being held at the jail pretrial, were placed in solitary confinement pursuant to a jail policy that prohibited braids, cornrows, and dreadlocks but permitted other forms of long hair. The three men are all Rastafarian and wore their hair in deadlocks in accordance with their religious beliefs.

Following Months of Advocacy, City Reinstates Limited In-Person Visits for People Incarcerated in Philly Jails

After months of advocating for relief from the deplorable conditions 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 the Philadelphia prisons will resume some in-person friend and family visits with incarcerated people starting next week.