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Abstract: 

Typically, “CRIPA” (Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act) letters issued by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice are strong on fact finding and weak on recommendations. The DOJ’s recent letter on the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ (PDOC) use of solitary confinement on prisoners with serious mental illness (SMI) and intellectual disabilities (ID) documents some exceptionally substandard conditions and practices, reviewed here in detail with commentary providing the legal context for the review, including an important prison mental health case from 1994, Austin v. Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, which was to have permanently corrected many of the same deficiencies highlight in this new CRIPA finding.

Keywords: solitary confinement; serious mental illness; intellectual disabilities; Austin v. Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

Affiliations:  1: Executive Editor.