ACLU Sues State for Failing to Provide Adequate Heat at ACI Facility for More than a Month
After receiving numerous complaints from inmates at the ACI’s Intake Center, the ACLU of RI today filed a class-action lawsuit against the RI Department of Corrections (DOC) claiming that the facility has failed to provide adequate heat to at least two cell blocks for more than a month and a half. The lawsuit, filed by ACLU of RI cooperating attorneys Sonja Deyoe and Lynette Labinger, argues that the facility’s failure to provide heat during the coldest months of the year has made cells “dangerously cold,” placing prisoners’ health and safety at risk, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.