Medical neglect is rampant in jails and prisons. Physical and mental health care is typically grossly inadequate and untimely, or altogether non-existent. Incarcerated people often face repercussions for even seeking mental or physical health care.

People are often denied necessary medications, medically-prescribed diets, and access to health-related equipment such as facemasks, prosthetics, etc.

As a result, premature deaths and other dire health outcomes are rampant. ALC uses litigation, organizing, and strategic communications to bring attention to and mitigate these crises.

• • We’ve been involved with multiple, wide-ranging, lawsuits around mental health care, including Howard v. Williams.

• • We litigated and organized around conditions for incarcerated people during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• • We won the largest settlement in history against the PA DOC for an instance of medical neglect, in a case that addressed the death of an incarcerated person after he was repeatedly pepper-sprayed and then denied care while experiencing a severe asthma attack (Busbee v. DOC).

To learn more about our health care and medical neglect-related cases, campaigns, news coverage, publications, etc., search on health-related Topics on our homepage.

People inside jails and prisons are often subjected to horrifying and unhealthy environmental and sanitary conditions; inadequate access to hygiene and sanitary services and products such as regular showers, working sinks and toilets, menstrual products, and cleaning supplies; and dismal quality and quantity of food.

ALC uses litigation, organizing, and strategic communications to address these deficiencies and advocate for incarcerated people’s well-being.

To learn more about our cases, campaigns, news coverage, publications, etc., search on relevant Topics on our homepage.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a health catastrophe for incarcerated people, many of whom who were forced to live in close proximity with others, or conversely to endure indefinite solitary confinement. Many people were without adequate PPE, including facemasks, and were held in cells that lacked sufficient ventilation and access to the means to wash hands and perform other sanitary activities.

ALC joined with many other advocates to use litigation, organizing, and strategic communications to attempt to force massive decarceration of jails and prisons during the height of the pandemic, to require that institutions followed CDC guidelines for congregate housing and COVID-19 healthcare, and to organize or amplify mutual aid support efforts for supplies for incarcerated people.

To learn more about our pandemic-related advocacy, search on COVID-19 in the Topics section on our homepage.

ALC advocated for pregnant people in Allegheny County Jail who were subjected to strip-searching following their sessions with a doula service that empowers BIPOC and marginalized birthing people and birthworkers.

ALC (along with co-counsel) also litigated Seitz v. Allegheny County, a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of five incarcerated people who were held in solitary confinement in the Allegheny County Jail while they were pregnant, and were confined in isolation for such minor offenses as having two pairs of shoes in a cell and possessing a library book.

While in solitary, the people were denied a proper pregnancy diet and rarely had opportunities to leave their cells for exercise or for showering. The lawsuit asserted that this practice was prohibited by the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and asked the court for relief that included an end to the practice, and a requirement that ACJ change its policies to properly accommodate pregnant inmates.

A settlement was reached with Allegheny County leading to numerous new policies and accountability measures that are among the most comprehensive and progressive procedures for housing pregnant people in the United States. The settlement prohibits the jail from placing pregnant people in restrictive housing except in rare instances, and decisions to place pregnant people in restrictive housing must be reviewed by the deputy warden and cleared by a medical professional.

To learn more about our advocacy for pregnant people, search in the Topics section on our homepage.

Hepatitis C is one of the most prevalent infectious diseases. Approximately 3.2 million people in the United States are living with it, and the percentage is much larger for incarcerated populations.

There are direct-acting antiviral medications that clear the virus from a person’s body within 12 weeks, with a cure rate of close to 100%. However, despite this treatment being safe and effective, the high cost of the medications can result in people being unable to obtain treatment. When hepatitis C treatment is denied or delayed, the medical consequences include fibrosis, cirrhosis, liver cancer, liver transplant, internal bleeding, and premature death.

The Hepatitis C Project was developed out of ALC’s work in Abu-Jamal v. Kerestes, and our correspondence with almost 100 incarcerated individuals from various prisons throughout the state of Pennsylvania, from which we discovered that incarcerated individuals living with hepatitis C were being denied treatment, either until they were very sick, or indefinitely.

The initial goal of the project was to develop a network of pro bono attorneys to litigate prison medical care claims for incarcerated people suffering from untreated hepatitis C in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PADOC). Another goal of the project was to increase public attention to the hepatitis C epidemic in prison.

ALC created a Hepatitis C Pro Se Litigation Packet for incarcerated individuals in Pennsylvania to file litigation against the PA DOC to seek treatment.

In addition to Abu-Jamal v. Kerestes, we filed three other cases based on the denial of hepatitis C treatment for incarcerated individuals and the resulting adverse health outcomes:

• • Piergrossi v. Noel
  • Foderingham v. Wetzel
  • Tillery v. Noel

For more detail about our involvement with hepatitis C advocacy, search for that Topic on our homepage.

Surrounded by “about 40 million tons of waste, two coal slurry ponds, and millions of cubic yards of coal combustion waste,” State Correctional Institution (SCI) Fayette is inescapably situated in the midst of a massive toxic waste dump. The prison was built on part of a Coal Refuse Deposit Area owned by Matt Canestrale Contracting (MCC), which currently operates a coal ash dump bordering the prison. Before Matt Canestrale Contracting took it over, the land was a dumping ground for coal waste from one of the world’s largest coal processing plants.

An investigation was launched in August 2013 by the Abolitionist Law Center (ALC), the Human Rights Coalition, and The Center for Coalfield Justice after receiving reports of high rates of illnesses at SCI Fayette. Incarcerated people reported a number of overlapping symptoms and diseases, including chronic sore throats, extreme throat swelling, shortness of breath, headaches, dizziness, vision problems, stomach pain, and sores, cysts, and tumors in their mouths, noses, and throats, as well as on their skin. Many incarcerated people reported being diagnosed with thyroid disorders or cancer after arriving at SCI Fayette. Residents of the nearby town of LaBelle, PA also reported high rates of breathing problems and cancer, and have been calling for the coal ash dump to be shut down.

On September 30, 2013, ALC filed a comment with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) protesting the renewal of MCC’s permit to dump coal ash at the site. On July 14, 2014, DEP sent notice that MCC’s permit had been renewed, granting it the right to transport and dump 416,000 tons of coal ash at the site. However, MCC reportedly entered into a “long-term agreement” with FirstEnergy to receive “more than 3 million tons of coal ash and smokestack scrubber waste each year,” and dump it at the Labelle site beginning in 2017. The agreement allowed FirstEnergy to dispose of ash that would have gone to the Little Blue Run dump in Beaver County, which was ordered to close due to the health threat it poses to nearby residents. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted a permit to Alpha PA to build a new coal terminal at the Labelle Dock, while DEP announced its intent to increase the permitted coal throughput of the facility from 3,500,000 tons per year to 10,000,000 tons per year. Alpha PA is a subsidiary of Alpha Natural Resources, which was assessed a record fine of $227,500,000 for seven years of illegally discharging pollutants into the waters of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

On September 2, 2014, the Abolitionist Law Center and the Human Rights Coalition released a report entitled, No Escape: Exposure to Toxic Coal Waste at State Correctional Institution Fayette. The report represented the preliminary findings of a year-long investigation into the health impacts of exposure to coal waste at the prison, and revealed alarming rates of illnesses consistent with exposure to coal ash. More research is needed to better understand both the risks posed by the dump and the nature of prisoners’ health problems. Nonetheless, these preliminary findings raise legal questions about the location of the prison: “Situating a prison in the midst of a massive toxic coal waste dump may be impermissible under the Constitution, if it is shown that prisoners face a substantial risk of serious harm caused by exposure to pollutants from the dump.” ALC attorney Dustin McDaniel put it this way, “If the patterns of illnesses we’re seeing at SCI-Fayette are indeed related to pollution from the dump, then this prison should be shut down.”

Related Info:

• • America’s Poisoned Prison (Newseek, 05/27/15)
  • Coal Ash May Be Making Pennsylvania Inmates Sick, and Now They’re Fighting to Shut Their Prison Down (Vice Magazine, 05/18/15)
  • ALC Press Release. Feb. 10, 2015: As Department of Corrections refuses to release information about prisoner health, human rights groups, LaBelle residents launch health survey of their own
  • ALC Press Release, Dec. 16, 2014: State Office of Open Records Orders PA Department of Corrections to Release Prisoner and Staff Health Records SCI Fayette

For more information about the SCI Fayette coal ash investigation, search on that Topic on our homepage.