(WTAJ) -- A class action lawsuit has been filed in Pennsylvania that looks to end the "unlawful use" of solitary confinement in the Pa. Department of Corrections (DOC).
The federal lawsuit, filed on Monday, March 3, was brought against the DOC and alleged that all prisons hold incarcerated individuals in long-term, often indefinite, solitary confinement. The solitary confinement units are classified as Security Level 5 units (SL5) units and include, but are not limited to, the Intensive Management Unit (IMU) and the Restricted Housing Unit (RHU).
According to the lawsuit, individuals incarcerated in solitary confinement in the DOC are locked in "extremely small cells for as many as 21 to 24 hours every day" and "denied necessary social, environmental and occupational simulation."
Individuals with mental health diagnoses are disproportionately placed in solitary confinement, while individuals with mental illness being 37% of the DOC population and are 50% of the solitary confinement population, according to the lawsuit.
When individuals are in prolonged isolation, especially those with mental illness, sleeplessness, hopelessness, paranoia, consuming foreign objects, eating and covering themselves in feces, head banging, self-harm injury and suicide attempts are exacerbated.
The lawsuit continues to read that there is only about 5% of the DOC's population is in solitary confinement at any given time, approximately 40% of suicide attempts in the DOC occur on solitary confinement units.
"It is by now a scientific fact that solitary confinement creates and worsens a predictable constellation of adverse psychological symptoms including but not limited to uncontrollable anxiety, impaired impulse control, depression and suicidality, cognitive impairments, memory loss and auditory and visual hallucinations," the lawsuit reads.
According to the lawsuit, human brains are designed for social interaction, which means that social isolation "results in neurological changes to the brain, quickly degrading brain function."
The National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) states that people with mental illness, juveniles and pregnant women should never be in isolation. The NCCHC also stated that prolonged solitary, longer than 15 consecutive days, confinement is "cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and harmful to an individual's health."
The DOC stated in the lawsuit that it recognizes that, "the potential for suicide is greater if the individual is subjected to pressures such as but not limited to . . . placement in RHU and any movement to and from Level 5 Housing Unit."
There are six counts in the causes of actions, two violations of the Eighth Amendment, a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and two violations of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The lawsuit has been requested to be brought before a jury. The lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.