This March 26, 2015 photo shows a maximum security cell block at the Whatcom County Jail in Bellingham, Wash. In a novel case with national implications, the Washington state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the jail to force it to provide opiate-withdrawal medication to prisoners, rather than requiring them to go cold turkey. The lawsuit, filed Thursday, June 7, 2018 in U.S. District Court in Seattle, says the Whatcom County Jail’s refusal to provide the medicine violates the Americans with Disability Act, because opioid addiction qualifies as a disability under the law. (Philip A. Dwyer/The Bellingham Herald via AP)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to end the use of solitary confinement at two of the state’s toughest prisons.
The lawsuit filed Monday alleges that inmates held in solitary confinement for extended periods of time at the Red Onion and Wallens Ridge prisons have suffered “severe physical and mental health damage.”
Both Red Onion and Wallens Ridge are super maximum-security prisons in the southwest corner of Virginia.
The Virginia Department of Corrections has denied using solitary confinement. The DOC says it uses “restrictive housing” and a “step-down program” that allows inmates to earn their way back into the general population.
A DOC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
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