The US Supreme Court docket Monday declined to listen to a case that asks if prolonged solitary confinement is a violation of the Eighth Modification to the nation’s structure.
In Hope v. Harris, the petition for the plaintiff described the solitary confinement of Dennis Wayne Hope since 1994 following an escape try from jail. For nearly 30 years, Hope “has spent between 22 and 24 hours per day alone in a 54-square-foot cell. He doesn’t socialize with different prisoners. [He] has been allowed one private telephone name since 1994.” Particularly, Hope alleged this isolation contributed to psychological well being circumstances together with nervousness, despair and suicidal ideas.
The government’s petition asserted that the jail resolved Hope’s claims, explaining that processes began in February of final yr to take away Hope from solitary confinement into the overall jail inhabitants.
The US Court docket of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit beforehand heard Hope’s problem however held in a 2 to 1 opinion that Hope didn’t present sufficient proof that he suffered merciless and weird punishment to violate the Eighth Amendment. Moreover, the panel of judges discovered that the jail’s overview hearings, which decided if Hope ought to have nonetheless remained in solitary confinement, ensured Hope’s due course of rights had been met. Nonetheless, Hope argued these hearings had been a sham, the place the overview board didn’t truly focus on Hope’s solitary confinement.
After his conviction for carjacking and robbery, a courtroom sentenced Hope to 80 years in jail in 1990. Hope was denied parole in April 2021 as a result of parole board’s opinion that he’s likely to reoffend and poses a violent menace to the neighborhood if launched. In April 2024, the parole board will rethink if he’s eligible for early launch.
This motion additional demonstrates an ongoing development within the US Supreme Court docket to say no to listen to prisoners’ complaints. Final week, the courtroom declined to dam the execution of a Florida man after his loss of life sentence was not unanimously agreed upon by a jury.
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