SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has filed a second round of lawsuits over “inhumane and decrepit” conditions at the Miami Correctional Facility.
This is the second filing by the ACLU of Indiana in thirty days on behalf of men currently at the prison.
“Once again, men were kept in isolation and subjected to brutal and dangerous conditions, suggesting a pattern of cruel and unusual punishment practiced inside the facility’s restrictive unit,” the ACLU of Indiana said Tuesday.
The filing says the warden and deputy warden continuously ignored the mens’ claims about conditions at the prison and refused to make basic repairs and even withheld medical attention from inmates when it was needed.
The lawsuit claims that prison officials violated the plaintiffs’ Eighth Amendment rights and are liable for damages.
“The Eighth Amendment requires that incarcerated people must receive the minimal civilized measures of life’s necessities—a baseline standard that officials at Miami Correctional Facility are consistently failing to meet,” said Kenneth J. Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana.
Falk continued: “Horrifying stories that continue to emerge from Miami Correctional Facility’s isolation unit shock the conscience and violate the Constitution. In case after case, prison officials subjected these men to brutal conditions no human being should ever experience – knowing full well the pain and trauma they were inflicting. Imagine being trapped in a small dark room where you were subject to being shocked by live electrical wires every time you attempted to move – we wouldn’t tolerate animals being held in such horrifying conditions, how can we tolerate them for people?”
New plaintiffs Nalakeio Benett, Latroy Maxwell, and Charles Rodgers join plaintiffs William Anderson, Charles Lyons, Anthony Parish, Jeremy Blanchard, Gerald Reed, and Jeffery Wagner in alleging the Miami Correctional Facility deliberately ignored the horrific conditions in which they were held.
