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.

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.