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.

The Prison Law Office filed an emergency motion in federal court to force the Riverside County jails to institute physical distancing for all people living in the jails and provide appropriate hygiene supplies to disinfect and protect against the spread of COVID-19.

The Ninth Circuit ruled unanimously on January 29, 2020 to uphold a lower court’s contempt order fining the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) more than $1.4 million for failing to improve the health care provided to people in Arizona prisons in Parsons v. Ryan (now known as Parsons v. Shinn).  The Prison Law Office, ACLU National Prison Project, ACLU of Arizona, Arizona Center for Disability Law, and Perkins Coie represent incarcerated people in the case.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Attorneys from the ACLU of Oklahoma,  Prison Law Office, ACLU National Prison Project, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, and Sidley Austin, LLP, sent a demand letter on July 29, 2019 to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections calling on the department to address the inhumane treatment of people condemned to death at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, OK.

The H-Unit is an underground bunker at the maximum-security prison facility, where people sentenced to death are incarcerated indefinitely in solitary confinement and restricted to their concrete tombs, no bigger than a parking space, for 22 to 24 hours per day. Underground, with no outside exposure or human contact, one prisoner made the comparison of the environment to being buried alive.

On June 20, 2019, on behalf of the nearly 4,000 people incarcerated in Sacramento County’s jails, the Prison Law Office, Disability Rights California, and Cooley LLP reached a proposed settlement with the County to address the dangerous and unconstitutional conditions in the jails.