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• Settlement Reached in Contra Costa County Jail Class Action Lawsuit

  (Oct. 1, 2020) – On behalf of the thousands of people incarcerated in Contra Costa County Jail now and in the future, the Prison Law Office reached a settlement with Contra Costa County in a class action lawsuit that seeks to end the dangerous and unconstitutional conditions at the jail.

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• Prison Law Office Mourns the Death of Our Co-Founder, Michael Satris

  The Prison Law Office is deeply saddened to announce that our co-founder, and first Director, Michael Satris died on July 29, 2020, at the age of 70. Mike and Paul Comiskey founded the Prison Law Office in 1976 after their graduation from UC Davis Law School.  Mike was a tireless advocate for his clients, and without him the office would not exist and many people would still be in prison today.  The San Francisco Chronicle published a tribute to his work on August 21, 2020.

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• Settlement Reached in Lawsuit Challenging Conditions in Santa Barbara County Jail

  

  On behalf of the hundreds of people incarcerated in Santa Barbara County Jail, on July 17, 2020, Disability Rights California, Prison Law Office, and King & Spalding LLP reached a groundbreaking settlement with Santa Barbara County and the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office in a class action lawsuit that seeks to address the dangerous and unconstitutional conditions at the jail.

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• Prison Law Office Statement of Solidarity With Protests of Systemic Racism and Police Violence

  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.

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• Continued Advocacy on Behalf of People Incarcerated in Terminal Island and Lompoc Prisons

  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.

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• People Incarcerated in Riverside County Jails Seek Federal Court Action to Address COVID-19

  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.

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• PLO’s Efforts to Address COVID-19 in Arizona Prisons

  The Prison Law Office, and our co-counsel ACLU National Prison Project, ACLU of Arizona, and Arizona Center for Disability Law are actively working to enforce the rights of people in Arizona prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic in our case of Parsons v. Shinn.

   

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• Ninth Circuit Upholds Contempt Order in Arizona Prison Health Care Case

  

  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.

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• PLO and Partners Demand Humane Conditions at Oklahoma’s Death Row

  

  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.

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• Settlement Reached in Class Action Challenging Conditions in Sacramento County Jail

  

  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.

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