Medical care in Louisiana prisons is desperately lacking resources, funding, and staff. The majority of the physicians at the Louisiana State Penitentiary have had their medical licenses stripped. The majority of the hospital care workers are prisoners with a small amount of training, called EMTs. 

In 2018 PJI took the Louisiana State Penitentiary to trial in a class action suit to fight their abhorrent and unconstitutional medical care. Incarcerated men at the prison were ignored, accused of malingering, denied treatment, and left to languish in pain. Many treatable illnesses were ignored until chronic, untreatable, or desperate measures were required to treat them.

November 6, 2023: Federal Judge Orders Louisiana Department of Corrections to Remedy Unconstitutional, “Abhorrent” Medical Care at Angola

On November 6, 2023, PJI and co-counsel secured a massive victory in its longstanding class action challenging the quality of healthcare provided by the State to men incarcerated at Angola.

In a 104-page order, Judge Shelley Dick issued a permanent injunction requiring the State to immediately overhaul its healthcare system. The Court observed:

“After years of discovery, 21 days of trial, and two site visits to Angola by the Court, the Plaintiffs proved that, rather than receiving medical “care,” the inmates are instead subjected to cruel and unusual punishment by medical mistreatment. The human cost of these 26 YEARS is unspeakable.”

ECF 778 at 2. The Court proceeded to “make detailed and extensive findings of the callous and wanton disregard for the medical care of inmates at Angola. The finding is that the ‘care’ is not care at all, but abhorrent cruel and unusual punishment that violates the United States Constitution.” Id. (emphasis added).

In a simultaneous remedial order, the Court ordered the appointment of three Special Masters to develop and monitor remedial plans to cure and eliminate the numerous constitutional violations identified by the Court. Those Special Masters will include one physician, one nurse or nurse practitioner, and one expert in disability access. See ECF 779.

The remedial plans will address disability access, staff training, standards for sick call, clinical care, specialty care, infirmary and in-patient care, emergency care, records management, and medical management and administration. Id.

Filed in 2015, the class action case alleged unconstitutional medical care at Angola, as well as violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and the Rehabilitation Act (“RA”) there. Following a trial on liability, the Court found that Angola officials violated the Eighth Amendment and found violations of the ADA and RA in several ways.

In 2022, the Court held a two-week remedy phase trial in this matter, wherein the State “steadfastly defend[ed] its healthcare system and denies that it was constitutionally deficient at any time.” ECF 778 at 7. The Court disagreed, finding that the medical care remains constitutionally inadequate and, in some cases, that the quality of care had taken “a significant step backwards” since the liability trial. See id. at 81.