ABOLITIONIST LAW CENTER
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : d*********t@a******r.o*g
Mission Statement
The Abolitionist Law Center is a public interest law firm inspired by the struggle of political and politicized prisoners, and organized for the purpose of abolishing class and race based mass incarceration in the United States. We litigate on behalf of people whose human rights have been violated in prison, produce educational programs to inform the general public about the evils of mass incarceration, and work to develop a mass movement against the American penal system by building alliances and nurturing solidarity across social divisions.
About This Cause
Solitary Confinement Docket In July 2016 we announced a settlement in Shoatz v. Wetzel, our first case, which challenged the 22 year solitary confinement of former Black Panther Russell Maroon Shoatz. After the judge denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment in February 2016 and set a trial date the defendants agreed to pay Shoatz $99,000, not place him back in solitary confinement (he was released to the general population in February 2014) based on his past record, provide mental health treatment, and permanent single-cell status. Maroon’s life has been indescribably transformed by his release from isolation as he has been transferred closer to family, received countless contact visits, and been able to build meaningful relationships with others inside and outside prison who share his commitment to human rights. Moreover, this damage award – which was publicized in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette – will operate as a significant restraint on the Pennsylvania’s DOC use of prolonged solitary confinement. Two months later, in September 2016, we won a landmark victory in a case challenging the 36-year solitary confinement of Arthur Johnson, Johnson v. Wetzel, when Chief Judge Christopher Conner of the Middle District of Pennsylvania federal court granted our motion for preliminary injunction and ordered DOC Secretary Wetzel to enter Mr. Johnson into a step-down program that would transition him to the general population within 90 days. This is the first published opinion anywhere in the country that we are aware of ordering the release of a non-mentally-ill adult prisoner from long-term solitary confinement. The case built on the denials of motions to dismiss or for summary judgment in the Shoatz case, the California Ashker case, and the Angola 3 case, each of which was repeatedly cited by the judge as providing the precedent in support of a finding for Mr. Johnson. It was a very clear example of how popular organizing and prisoner-led grassroots strategies can combine with legal strategies to put limits on state violence. We litigated this one with the help of Jules and the firm Jones Day. We are building on these victories in the coming months and next year, and we’ve already begun identifying others in long-term solitary confinement in need of a path out of isolation, as well as begun working on a potential class action – along with other leading civil and prisoner rights litigators – challenging death row solitary confinement. It is possible that one of our cases will be the case that reaches the Supreme Court and sets a precedent for the whole country. Abu-Jamal v. Kerestes and the Hepatitis C Litigation Project We continue to seek treatment for Mumia Abu-Jamal’s hepatitis C and the many other prisoners in Pennsylvania (and around the country) denied the new cure for the disease solely because of its cost. In August 2016, Judge Mariani held that the DOC’s hepatitis C treatment protocol violated the Eighth Amendment, but refused to grant a preliminary injunction on a technical ground, which we are moving to remedy. While we believe the Judge was wrong in denying our motion, the court’s opinion made clear that the standard of care for treating hepatitis C inside prison is the same as it is outside prison: all those with chronic hepatitis C, such as Mumia, are to be treated with the new direct-acting antiviral medications that have a cure rate of over 95%. Since the court’s ruling we have filed a motion for reconsideration, a motion to amend that adds new defendants, and a related case, Abu-Jamal v. Wetzel, along with a renewed preliminary injunction, which means the Judge will have to revisit the preliminary injunction motion. This decision on the standard of care for treating hepatitis C in prisons is the first of its kind in the country since the advent of these new life-saving medications. Given the epidemic of hepatitis C in jails and prisons and the newfound ability to cure the illness en masse, the Abolitionist Law Center has obtained a grant to create a Hepatitis C Litigation Project. We hired a program coordinator to help launch this effort, our first staff addition since Dustin and I founded the organization in 2013. The Hep-C Project will identify Pennsylvania prisoners in need of hepatitis C treatment, train attorneys via Continuing Legal Education programs and personal consultations, and match those in need of treatment with attorneys who can provide them with effective legal advocacy. We have made positive connections with the local bar associations pro bono center and had success working with large firms, civil rights organizations, and solo practitioners in our other cases, and we are optimistic that we can build on that and help redirect badly needed legal resources to address this major public health issue. Release from Prison Docket This year also saw us file our first cases seeking the release of clients from prison. Kerry Shakaboona Marshall is a juvenile lifer who has spent 28 years in prison on a life-without-parole sentence, and he is now entitled to re-sentencing. We are aggressively pursuing a mitigation strategy with co-counsel, the Amistad Law Project in Philadelphia. We also filed cases on behalf of three clients – Charmaine Pfender, Avis Lee, and Arthur Johnson – who were 18 years old at the time of the incidents giving rise to their homicide convictions. The Duquesne Law School’s Juvenile Defender Clinic is co-counseling the Pfender and Lee cases with us, and a leading neuroscientist on adolescent brain development has agreed to act as an expert witness for us. We have also been consulting with other pro se litigants and counsel representing clients who were 18 or slightly older, providing them with case law, strategies, and sharing our efforts to push the law and challenge the pernicious idea that it is justifiable to force people to spend their entire lives, until death, in prison without any hope for release. We are in the fight against life-without-parole for the long haul and are actively strategizing with many grassroots groups and prisoners and their families on this front. We place this issue in the context of an ongoing, broader struggle against mass incarceration.