Lawyers for the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project sent an advocacy letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) on behalf of James Savage, a legally blind man incarcerated at State Correctional Institution (“SCI”) Phoenix.

A group of people incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) Fayette have filed a class action lawsuit seeking to end the unconstitutional solitary confinement being imposed on men in the Security Threat Group Management Unit (STGMU). The men filed the lawsuit from their solitary confinement cells, without the assistance of attorneys, in October 2022, and, at their request, a team of lawyers from the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PILP), Abolitionist Law Center (ALC), and Dechert LLP have now entered the case.

Lawyers from the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project have announced that a preliminary injunction has been ordered in a case which sought a return to a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) policy allowing for the purchase of optional meals during religious ceremonial holidays or celebrations.

After five years of advocacy, the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PILP) is pleased to announce that their client has become the first person in Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) custody to receive gender-affirming surgery. The client, Mx. Doe, first became a client of PILP in 2017 when they were one of the first individuals to begin receiving testosterone at SCI Cambridge Springs and experienced numerous issues with the provision and dosage of the medication.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PILP) have settled a federal lawsuit alleging violations of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution due to inhumane conditions at the 130-year-old Fayette County Prison. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of four people incarcerated at the prison.