Abolitionist Law Center, our clients, and our supporters have made important strides in overturning laws aimed at silencing prisoners’ voices, in challenging long-term solitary confinement, and in pushing for life-saving treatment for hepatitis C+ prisoners. None of this would have been possible without the support of our donors, and so much more is possible with increased support. Please donate so we can keep fighting to abolish mass incarceration.
Our recent victories were more than just precedents and press. They contributed to the growing momentum of the Movement to End Mass Incarceration. Maroon’s public statement on the Settlement won in his case puts it best:
“Since joining the struggle for Human Rights in the mid 1960s, I have always chosen to fight! Frederick Douglass was right when he said ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand.’ So have no doubt that I see this Settlement as anything but the latest blow struck, and you rest assured that I will continue in the struggle for Human Rights. Straight Ahead!”
We plan on being right there beside Maroon in the struggle for Human Rights, and with your support we will continue to push “Straight Ahead!” But we need your help to do that, so please show your commitment to our work – and to abolition – by contributing today.
We continue to work on several important cases:
Palakovic v. Wetzel
This lawsuit against the DOC for repeatedly placing a mentally ill prisoner in solitary confinement, leading to his suicide, will be argued in front of the Third Circuit this winter, as we seek to reverse improper dismissal by the district court.
Wallace v. Fitzgerald
This case against Allegheny County Jail officials and Corizon for starving a prisoner nearly to death, causing him to have a heart attack at the age of 28, reveals how decisions to cut costs in medical care of the incarcerated can have potentially lethal consequences.
Holbrook v. Jellen
Case against the DOC for censoring the correspondence, communications, and written works of prisoner-activist Robert Saleem Holbrook. We are waiting for a decision on cross motions for summary judgment, but we already compelled the DOC to institute changes to its censorship policies, including providing due process protections for non-prisoners when their mail is intercepted by prison censors.
Abu-Jamal v. Kerestes
In this case suing the DOC to get Mumia Abu-Jamal life-saving treatment for his hepatitis C infection the judge has already ruled that the DOC’s hepatitis C protocol is unconstitutional, though he has as not yet granted the injunction ordering treatment for our client. We have several motions pending that can be ruled on any day in this groundbreaking case seeking to establish a right to a cure for incarcerated patients with chronic hepatitis C.
We are also developing several new projects:
The Hepatitis C Project
Expanding litigation to win hepatitis C treatment for many prisoners by training a network of pro bono attorneys and connecting them with prisoner-plaintiffs.
Solitary Confinement
Bringing new cases challenging and seeking to abolish the practice of keeping prisoners in long-term solitary confinement.
Ending Death By Incarceration
Increasing support to the movement to end Life Without Parole (LWOP), representing juvenile lifers during their re-sentencing and bringing cases on behalf of clients who were 18-years-old at the time of the offense giving rise to their mandatory life without parole sentence, arguing for reversal of their sentences.