On November 14, 2023, the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PILP) filed a lawsuit against Warden Craig Lowe and other staff at the Pike County Correctional Facility (PCCF) on behalf of Damion Davis, who was subjected to excessive force, racist abuse, and retaliation in December 2021, when he was being held at the jail as an immigration detainee. PCCF has a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain immigrants.
PILP Sends Advocacy Letter on Behalf of Incarcerated Man Seeking Approval to Get Married
The Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project has sent and advocacy letter to Department of Corrections (DOC) counsel and to the Superintendent of SCI Waymart. The advocacy letter is on behalf of an incarcerated man and his fiancée, who have been trying to get married for over a year and keep getting thwarted by DOC staff, who haven't offered any genuine reason to deny the request.
PILP Sends Advocacy Letter on Behalf of Man with Serious Visual Impairments at SCI Greene
PILP Sends Advocacy Letter to DOC on Behalf of Blind Man at SCI Phoenix
Class Action Lawsuit Filed to End Torturous Solitary Confinement Conditions in Pennsylvania Prison
A group of people incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) Fayette have filed a class action lawsuit seeking to end the unconstitutional solitary confinement being imposed on men in the Security Threat Group Management Unit (STGMU). The men filed the lawsuit from their solitary confinement cells, without the assistance of attorneys, in October 2022, and, at their request, a team of lawyers from the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PILP), Abolitionist Law Center (ALC), and Dechert LLP have now entered the case.
Preliminary Injunction Ordered in Case Seeking Halal Meat and Other Foods for Religious Holidays
Lawyers from the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project have announced that a preliminary injunction has been ordered in a case which sought a return to a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) policy allowing for the purchase of optional meals during religious ceremonial holidays or celebrations.