Solitary confinement case expands to more prisons

A U.S. Dis­trict Court judge in Oak­land on Monday ordered that a class ac­tion law­suit al­leging long-term sol­it­ary con­fine­ment is phys­ic­ally and psy­cho­lo­gic­ally cruel can be ex­pan­ded bey­ond Cali­for­nia’s Pel­ic­an Bay State Pris­on. The state had trans­ferred sev­er­al of the ori­gin­al 10 in­mates in the 2009 suit from Pel­ic­an Bay to high-se­cur­ity isol­a­tion cells at oth­er pris­ons. Judge Claudia Wilken ruled she will per­mit pris­on­ers’ law­yers to ex­pand their case to in­clude oth­er pris­ons. The lit­ig­a­tion cen­ters on the prac­tice of hold­ing pris­on­ers in isol­a­tion cells for 10 years or more. It is set for tri­al in Decem­ber.