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| Judge: Ohio Prison Violates Rights |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/11/2002 |
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A federal judge has ruled the state must reform its system for sending inmates to a super-maximum security prison where they live in solitary confinement 23 hours a day and are shackled any time they leave their cells. In a lawsuit filed on behalf of 30 inmates at the Ohio State Penitentiary at Youngstown, the American Civil Liberties Union accused the state of creating prison conditions more severe than solitary confinement at any other state prison and of making arbitrary decisions about who would go there and how long they would stay. The ACLU contended that some inmates were held at the prison for years at a stretch, with no clear process for receiving transfers to less-restrictive prisons. Lawyers for the state argued such decisions always involve some subjectivity. During a non-jury trial last month, the state agreed to make changes in health care at the prison and promised to build an open air recreation area. But disagreements about inmate placement were never resolved. U.S. District Judge James Gwin recently gave lawyers for both sides two weeks to file recommendations to change the system. The judge ruled that Ohio had denied the plaintiffs due process in a number of ways, including failing to provide them a chance to be heard before placing them in Ohio's most restrictive prison and not giving adequate reasons for keeping them there. During the trial, several inmates testified they were kept at the prison despite good behavior and rulings by a review committee that they should be moved to a lower-security prison. Gwin said in his ruling that the conditions at the prison 'impose an atypical and significant hardship' on the inmates. The state had not decided whether to appeal the ruling, said attorney Greg Trout. He said there were similar facilities in at least 30 states. The 'supermax' prison was opened in 1998 to take the most disruptive inmates from maximum-security prisons around the state, particularly inmates with records of attacks on officers or other inmates. The prison can hold 504 inmates and currently has about 335. |
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