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• Federal Judge Issues Final Injunction to Reform Arizona Prisons

  (April 7, 2023) In a 57-page order, U.S. District Judge Roslyn O. Silver ordered substantial reform to the Arizona prison system. Judge Silver explained that the “unusual” order includes “significant detail regarding medical care, mental health care, and conditions imposed on the subclass to remedy the egregious constitutional violations” because of “the substantial dysfunction in Defendants’ operations.”

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• Federal Judge Issues Sweeping Remedial Order to Arizona Prison Officials

  (January 9, 2023) In a thorough and sweeping order, 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. 

  Judge Silver’s remedial order brings Jensen v. Shinn — a decade-long struggle to ensure that the nearly 30,000 adults and children in Arizona’s prisons receive the basic health care and minimally adequate conditions to which they are entitled under the Constitution and the law — closer to a resolution. Both parties have 30 days to provide Judge Silver any comments on the remedial order before it becomes final. 

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• Court Expert Finds That People With Disabilities in Largest California State Prison Are “Living Diminished and Needlessly Difficult Lives”

  (December 20, 2022) The Court Expert in Armstrong v. Newsom, a class action lawsuit regarding disability accommodations in the California state prison system, released his report and recommendations following a year-long investigation of the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran (SATF). He found that people with disabilities are “living diminished and needlessly difficult lives” at SATF, and as a result “face harsher prison conditions, and thus greater punishment, than their peers.” People were denied accommodations needed to safely and independently perform a wide array of activities, including to eat, perform bodily functions, write, and participate in rehabilitative programs.

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• Federal Court Finds Conditions in Arizona State Prisons Unconstitutional

  (June 30, 2022) U.S. District Judge Roslyn O. Silver found on June 30 that the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (ADCRR) systematically violates the constitutional rights of persons incarcerated in the state’s prisons by failing to provide them minimally adequate medical and mental health care, and by subjecting them to harsh and deprived conditions in solitary confinement units.   

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• Judge Reopens Case and Orders Trial on Conditions in Arizona Prisons

  (July 16, 2021) The Prison Law Office and our co-counsel ACLU National Prison Project, ACLU of Arizona, and Arizona Center for Disability Law are working to enforce the rights of people in Arizona state prisons in the federal class action lawsuit Parsons v. Shinn. On July 16, 2021, the Court reopened the case and ordered a trial, to start no later than November 1, 2021. The Court’s order found that “Defendants have in the past six years proffered erroneous and unreliable excuses for non-performance, asserted baseless legal arguments, and in essence resisted complying with the obligations they contractually knowingly and voluntarily assumed.”

   

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• Settlement Reached in Contra Costa County Jail Class Action Lawsuit

  (Oct. 1, 2020) – On behalf of the thousands of people incarcerated in Contra Costa County Jail now and in the future, the Prison Law Office reached a settlement with Contra Costa County in a class action lawsuit that seeks to end the dangerous and unconstitutional conditions at the jail.

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• Prison Law Office Mourns the Death of Our Co-Founder, Michael Satris

  The Prison Law Office is deeply saddened to announce that our co-founder, and first Director, Michael Satris died on July 29, 2020, at the age of 70. Mike and Paul Comiskey founded the Prison Law Office in 1976 after their graduation from UC Davis Law School.  Mike was a tireless advocate for his clients, and without him the office would not exist and many people would still be in prison today.  The San Francisco Chronicle published a tribute to his work on August 21, 2020.

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• Settlement Reached in Lawsuit Challenging Conditions in Santa Barbara County Jail

  

  On behalf of the hundreds of people incarcerated in Santa Barbara County Jail, on July 17, 2020, Disability Rights California, Prison Law Office, and King & Spalding LLP reached a groundbreaking settlement with Santa Barbara County and the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office in a class action lawsuit that seeks to address the dangerous and unconstitutional conditions at the jail.

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• Prison Law Office Statement of Solidarity With Protests of Systemic Racism and Police Violence

  The Prison Law Office stands in solidarity with people across the world and the United States calling for justice for George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Atatiana Jefferson, Rayshard Brooks, and the scores of other Black, indigenous, and people of color who have been victims of state-sanctioned law enforcement brutality in this country since its founding.

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• Continued Advocacy on Behalf of People Incarcerated in Terminal Island and Lompoc Prisons

  On July 14, 2020, two judges issued orders in the cases brought by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California, the Prison Law Office, and the law firm Bird Marella  on behalf of people incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institutions in Lompoc (Santa Barbara County) and on Terminal Island (Los Angeles County).

  In Torres v. Milusnic, a case brought on behalf of people at FCI-Lompoc, District Judge Consuelo Marshall ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons to develop a process to identify all people held in the prison who are over the age of 50, or who have certain underlying medical conditions that put them at higher risk of complications from COVID-19.  Judge Marshall directed BOP to notify these incarcerated people by July 22, 2020 that they are being considered for release to home confinement or compassionate release, and to provide the court with the criteria for early release by that date, and that BOP complete the evaluation of the vulnerable people by July 28.

  In Wilson v. Ponce, a case brought on behalf of people in FCI-Terminal Island, District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald denied Plaintiffs’ request that he order BOP for a process for immediate evaluation of the incarcerated people for home confinement or compassionate release on the basis that the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”) barred such an order.  However, before ruling on the conditions at the prison, he ordered independent medical expert Dr. Michael Rowe conduct an independent site visit of the prison no later than August 3, 2020.

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