A Settlement Mandates Time Outside of Cells, Communal Meals and Recreation for Death Row Prisoners
A settlement agreement was finalized this week in a class-action lawsuit brought in 2017 by prisoners on Louisiana’s death row who charged that being held in solitary confinement — restricted to a cell for 23 hours a day, with no meaningful social interaction — for years or decades violated their constitutional and civil rights.
The terms of the agreement mandate that around 70 death row prisoners, all held at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, be let out of their cells at least four hours a day along with the other prisoners on their tier, the ability to have an hour long communal lunch five days a week, have at least five hours of outdoor “yard time” per week, group worship once a week, and access to a variety of educational courses.
