The ACLU of Virginia, in collaboration with the law firm of White & Case LLP, filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) seeking to end the practice of solitary confinement in two of its most notorious prisons.
On April 12, 2023, Senior United States District Judge Jones certified Thorpe v. Clarke et al. as a class action lawsuit, allowing the hundreds of people who have been held in solitary confinement in Virginia since 2012 to join the ACLU of Virginia’s suit against the Virginia Department of Corrections.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of people who have suffered in torturous conditions, some for decades, at Red Onion and Wallen's Ridge state prisons. It was transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in April of 2020. Both facilities are super maximum-security prisons located in the far southwest corner of the state that were designed to hold people in near-constant isolation and deprivation.
Solitary confinement, the practice of keeping someone alone in a small space for 22 hours or more per day with little to no stimulation or human contact, is known to cause mental and physical deterioration in as little as 10 days. The lengths of stay in solitary confinement of the 12 named plaintiffs in the case range from two to 24 years.
The lawsuit describes VDOC’s use of a complex, arbitrary system – known as the Step-Down Program – purportedly intended to help people work their way out of solitary. The lawsuit alleges that in practice, the Step-Down Program has kept hundreds of people in solitary confinement at Red Onion and Wallens Ridge. The lawsuit further alleges that officials administer the program in violation of the constitutional rights of those being held and with indifference to the suffering and harm being inflicted.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that VDOC built Red Onion and Wallens Ridge – and instituted the Step-Down Program – after settling a previous class-action lawsuit about solitary confinement at Mecklenburg Correctional Center, which closed in 2012. In the 1984 settlement agreement, VDOC promised never again to reinstate the type of program or conditions at Mecklenburg; yet it did so and continues to do so at Red Onion and Wallens Ridge without notifying the court or the plaintiffs in the previous case as was required.
The lawsuit alleges the current Step-Down Program is nearly identical to a “Phase Program” used at Mecklenburg, which an independent study commission formed by the state government determined VDOC was using to divert people from other state facilities and inappropriately keep them in solitary at Mecklenburg.
The lawsuit alleges under VDOC’s current Step-Down Program, people who are subjectively classified by correctional officers as being a security risk based on vague criteria and without due process may be placed in solitary confinement. Once there, it is nearly impossible for many to navigate the labyrinth of requirements to be released into general population.
Some are kept in solitary for infractions as minimal as not shaving their beard, using disrespectful language, or refusing to stand for count, while others are placed and kept in solitary because they cannot meet the program’s journaling requirements, according to the lawsuit. Still others are in solitary because of behaviors related to mental illness even though solitary confinement itself exacerbates and even causes mental illness.
The lawsuit seeks to end the Step-Down Program, close the solitary confinement units at Red Onion and Wallens Ridge, and appoint a special master to bring VDOC’s prisons into compliance. It also seeks to award the plaintiffs compensatory damages for these violations.
