A Pennsylvania prison retaliated against inmates suspected of smoking synthetic marijuana by punishing entire cell blocks — confiscating legal paperwork, withholding necessities like toilet paper, soap and warm clothing, and cutting off power and heating , inmates allege in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Top prison officials waged an escalating, months-long campaign of collective punishment, imposing “near total deprivation” and violating the constitutional rights of people incarcerated in Dauphin County Prison, a 1,000-person lockup outside the capital of the United States. state of Harrisburg, the lawsuit said.
“It is appalling that DCP is launching this campaign of mass torture. Their actions violate the Constitution and basic human decency,” said Margo Hu, an attorney for the Abolitionist Law Center, which is representing the plaintiffs. “People at the Dauphin County Jail have been advocating against the deplorable conditions at the jail for years. It is time for Dauphin County to be held accountable for the damage they have caused.”
A message seeking comment was sent to the Dauphin County Prison Board.
County Commissioner Justin Douglas, who took office after the 2023 jail crackdown, said Tuesday he has been “deeply troubled” by the allegations since they first surfaced in local media reports several months ago.
“I believe it is essential for this process to proceed fully. When inappropriate actions occur, it is important that there are appropriate consequences,” he said.
The abuses detailed in the lawsuit occurred in November and December 2023 in the prison’s restricted housing unit, where inmates are typically held for violating prison rules and where prison officials believed synthetic drugs were being used.
The prison responded by confiscating the inmates’ tablet computers, eliminating their access to religious texts, legal mail and other materials and cutting off communications with anyone outside the prison, the lawsuit said. Prison officials are accused of confiscating personal hygiene products and locking inmates in their cells nearly 24 hours a day, allowing only one 15-minute shower every three days. Electricity and heating were turned off and some inmates cut their mattresses to stay warm as temperatures outside dropped below freezing, the suit alleges.
Most of the people affected were pretrial detainees. When one of the inmates, 27-year-old Kani Little, complained about the conditions, a dozen guards in riot gear attacked him, knocked him to the ground and sprayed him with a chemical irritant, the lawsuit said.
Little and two other plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages on behalf of all inmates held in the restricted housing unit at any time between Nov. 16 and Dec. 19, 2023. Dauphin County, the warden, the chief deputy warden and other prison officials and guards are named as suspects.
Dauphin County has a “widespread and well-deserved reputation as a troubled jail facility,” plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote in the filing. More than 20 people have died in prison since 2019, advocates say, and the number of overdoses is disproportionately high.
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“I have seen so many people die in DCP that I feared I would be next,” one of the plaintiffs, James Patterson, said in a statement released by the Abolitionist Law Center. “I kept talking to the staff and no one would listen. They all had a hand in this, none of them protected us, and they all need to go.”