Lawsuit seeks to keep prisoners with mental illness out of Northern Correctional
Claims solitary confinement and in-cell shackling amount to discrimination
A desk and a steel slab that would serve as a frame under a thin mattress at Northern Correctional Institution. The lawsuit alleges those incarcerated at the Somers prison spend up to 24 hours a day in their cells, confined to this space. The image is a still photo corrections officers took of an empty cell for a documentary about the prison, according to lawyers involved in the lawsuit.
Northern Correctional Institution’s use of solitary confinement and in-cell shackling amounts to discrimination against prisoners with mental illnesses, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday that seeks to end those practices.