Florida Joins the Growing Number of States to End the Uncivilized Practice of Automatically and Permanently Putting Death Row Inmates in Solitary Confinement

From [DPIC] Florida has joined the growing number of states that have ended automatic permanent solitary confinement for prisoners sentenced to death.

The Florida Department of Corrections agreed to the action as part of a settlement of a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by eight prisoners who alleged that the state’s death-row conditions were “extreme, debilitating, and inhumane, violate[d] contemporary standards of decency, and pose[d] an unreasonable risk of serious harm to the health and safety.” U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Morales Howard approved the settlement in late April 2022, to eliminate permanent solitary confinement for death-row prisoners and to improve death-row conditions in the state.

Florida death-row prisoners had for more than forty years spent almost every day in 24-hour-a-day solitary confinement in concrete rooms the size of a parking space with no windows. They had severely limited access to exercise, phone calls, and other human interaction, including with other prisoners and staff. 

The settlement allows the prisoners to spend up to 20 hours a week in a day room, where they can meet with others, watch television, and have access to Department of Corrections multimedia kiosks. They will also have more access to phones to call loved ones, increased shower access, and will be granted six hours a week of outside activity — up from three hours — with a new sunshade. Prisoners who meet eligibility requirements determined by the Department of Corrections will also have access to institutional jobs.

Evan Shea, whose law firm helped coordinate the lawsuit, praised the settlement. “This is going to lead to a smoother operation of the prison,” he said. “It’s not a good way to run a prison to have inmates that are subject to severe psychological strain. That leads to unhappy prisoners, inmates that are not stable and react in ways that place burdens on correctional officers and on the prison administration.”