A group of Pennsylvania prison inmates who claim they were savagely beaten and abused by guards while held in solitary confinement three years ago are due in court Monday on charges that they sparked a riot in their unit.
 
Authorities allege that in April 2010 six inmates at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) at Dallas provoked an uproar after they barricaded their cell doors and windows with bedding, forcing guards to forcibly remove the men, according to the police criminal complaint.
 
And yet the prisoners and their advocates claim they were simply staging a peaceful protest they say was designed to draw attention to rampant abuses and deplorable conditions in the security housing unit — from food deprivation to medical neglect.
 
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