San Jose, CA — After three years of extensive negotiations, the Prison Law Office, Cooley LLP, and the County of Santa Clara, California, have reached a settlement of Chavez v. County of Santa Clara, a class action lawsuit that alleged that some conditions in the County’s jails were unconstitutional.

The Prison Law Office, ACLU, Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, and the law firm of Meyers Nave Riback Silver & Wilson, PLC filed a motion for preliminary injunction on Sept. 5, 2018, in Teneng v. Trump, a federal lawsuit challenging the conditions of confinement for immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a federal prison in Victorville, California. The motion seeks immediate relief from the court, including an order prohibiting ICE from transferring additional immigrants to the prison.

On June 22, 2018, the federal court in Parsons v. Ryan issued a scathing order finding Arizona prison officials in contempt of court for the Arizona Department of Correction’s ongoing failure to provide basic health care to the approximately 34,000 people in its custody.  The court also ordered the appointment of independent experts after massive failure of medical care and in the monitoring of ADC’s health care contractor.

Fox News – 05/25/18,

BISMARCk, N.D. – More than 80,000 inmates are placed in solitary confinement every year across the country.

A study by New York University says solitary confinement is considered harmful to a prisoner’s mental health because it restricts meaningful social contact.