Another lawsuit has been filed against the Philadelphia Prison System for its failure to get its act together and fix deplorable conditions. As reported on philly.com yesterday, the suit was filed in federal court on Monday on behalf of 11 inmates, and the attorneys are seeking to certify the lawsuit as a class action on behalf of all inmates in custody under the Philadelphia Prison System.
There was also a recent lawsuit where the Hon. R. Barclay Surrick issued an order directing prison officials in Philadelphia to clean up the cells, and provided for three-inmate cells as a temporary fix, according to the article. Apparently, conditions have not changed much, as Philadelphia now houses nearly 9,500 inmates in its six major correctional facilities, which include Alternative and Special Detention, the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, the Detention Center, the House of Correction, the Phialdelphia Industrial Correctional Center and the Riverside Correctional Facility. Philadelphia has the highest per capita incarceration rate, and there’s no sign of that status as slowing down. (See my post on April 1, 2007 regarding the Justice Policy Institute study and incarceration rates in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.)
To read more about the Philadelphia Prison System, click here. You can also read about incarceration rates in this article here.
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