Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Conditions
Jensen v. Thornell
UPDATE: In a thorough and sweeping injunction issued on April 7, 2023, U.S. District Judge Roslyn O. Silver is requiring the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (“ADCRR”) to make “substantial” changes to staffing and conditions so that medical care and mental healthcare at Arizona prisons comes up to constitutional standards.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
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Learn About Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Conditions
Featured
Sep 2022
![An illustration featuring a historic photo incarcerated people at Angola next to a modern image of incarcerated people at Angola. The outline of Louisiana is superimposed.](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2020/08/600x600_Wordpress.jpg)
Alex A. v. Edwards
The ACLU National Prison Project and partner civil rights attorneys filed a federal class-action lawsuit to prevent the transfer of children in the custody of Louisiana's Office of Juvenile Justice to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola Prison.
Status: Ongoing
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Texas
Jul 2021
![Sanchez et al v. Dallas County Sheriff et al](https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Sanchez et al v. Dallas County Sheriff et al
Decarceration has always been an emergency, a life and death proposition, but COVID-19 makes this effort intensely urgent. The ACLU has been working with our partners to litigate for the rights of those who are incarcerated and cannot protect themselves because of the policies of the institutions in which they are jailed.
Status: Ongoing
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Mississippi
Mar 2017
![Dockery v. Hall](https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Dockery v. Hall
The ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Law Offices of Elizabeth Alexander, and the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP, filed a petition for class certification and expert reports for a federal lawsuit on behalf of prisoners at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF). The lawsuit, which was filed in May 2013, describes the for-profit prison as hyper-violent, grotesquely filthy and dangerous. EMCF is operated "in a perpetual state of crisis" where prisoners are at "grave risk of death and loss of limbs." The facility, located in Meridian, Mississippi, is supposed to provide intensive treatment to the state's prisoners with serious psychiatric disabilities, many of whom are locked down in long-term solitary confinement.
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All Cases
13 Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Conditions Cases
U.S. Supreme Court
Mar 2015
![Kingsley v. Hendrickson](https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Kingsley v. Hendrickson
Whether the Constitution protects pretrial detainees against the unreasonable use of force regardless of the subjective motivation of the guards using that force.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
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![Kingsley v. Hendrickson](https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
U.S. Supreme Court
Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Conditions
Kingsley v. Hendrickson
Whether the Constitution protects pretrial detainees against the unreasonable use of force regardless of the subjective motivation of the guards using that force.
Mar 2015
Status: Closed (Judgment)
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Dec 2010
![Mass Incarceration](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/blog-prisonstandards-500x280-v01_0.jpg)
ACLU comments to European Court of Human Rights in Babar Ahmad and Others v. The United Kingdom
Conditions of confinement in a US "supermax" prison
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![Mass Incarceration](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/blog-prisonstandards-500x280-v01_0.jpg)
Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Conditions
+2 Issues
ACLU comments to European Court of Human Rights in Babar Ahmad and Others v. The United Kingdom
Conditions of confinement in a US "supermax" prison
Dec 2010
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U.S. Supreme Court
Nov 2009
![Davis, et al. v. Canyon County, Idaho, et al.](https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Davis, et al. v. Canyon County, Idaho, et al.
Six plaintiffs file this action on their own behalf and on behalf of a class of all other persons incarcerated, now or in the future, in the Canyon County Jail in Caldwell, Idaho.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
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![Davis, et al. v. Canyon County, Idaho, et al.](https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
U.S. Supreme Court
Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Conditions
+3 Issues
Davis, et al. v. Canyon County, Idaho, et al.
Six plaintiffs file this action on their own behalf and on behalf of a class of all other persons incarcerated, now or in the future, in the Canyon County Jail in Caldwell, Idaho.
Nov 2009
Status: Closed (Judgment)
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