A convicted murderer serving a life sentence at the state prison in Greene County won a $37,500 jury verdict this week over allegations he was improperly held in solitary confinement for 50 days.
In 2018, Maurice D. Able filed a federal lawsuit on his own behalf against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and several officials at State Correctional Institution-Greene. He alleged constitutional violations including cruel and unusual punishment and deliberate indifference.
Although several corrections officials were dismissed from the lawsuit, four defendants remained, and the case went to trial last week before U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan in Pittsburgh.
On Monday, a jury returned its verdict in favor of Able for $37,500 in punitive damages.
Rachel McElroy, who represented Able for free at trial, praised the verdict on Wednesday.
“We were happy to see the jury acknowledge what he went through and his conditions of confinement,” McElory told TribLive. “It’s part of our constitutional rights that they must provide basic life necessities.”
The state Department of Corrections did not comment for this article.
According to Able’s complaint, on Aug. 21, 2018, prior to a search of his cell, an officer entered and asked for some candy Able had.
When Able refused, the officer became angry, stating “‘You want to play like that?’” and then left.
Although other officers had already left Able’s cell after the search, the lawsuit said, Gould returned a short time later. He confiscated two record boxes containing Able’s candy — Nips and Frooties — and removed them.
Able then claimed that the next day, officers falsified a document asserting that they found a paper in his cell that tested positive for K2, synthetic marijuana, as well as a sample of white powder they claimed was cocaine.
Able, who was convicted of two counts of murder out of Philadelphia in 2011, was given two misconducts and moved to solitary confinement in a unit where mentally ill prisoners were held.
“Mr. Able does not have a mental health diagnosis and did not belong in the chaotic, dehumanized conditions” of that unit, he wrote in a pre-trial statement.
He remained in solitary until Oct. 10, 2018, when he was moved back to general population.
Able asserted in his lawsuit that during those 50 days, he was denied yard time, did not have clean underwear and was subjected to physical, mental and emotional anguish.
Able said he was unable to sleep because of “psychotic screams of his neighbor,” and “insistent clamoring of metal by mentally ill inmates.”
In addition, Able claimed that he was denied access to important legal mail causing him to miss filing an important brief in his ongoing appeal of his conviction.
Although four defendants remained when the case went to trial, the jury’s finding that Able’s rights were violated applied only to Candice Lackey, the unit manager at SCI-Greene, who was responsible for inmates in solitary, and Michael Beers, a sergeant counselor at the prison.
The jury awarded only $1 in nominal damages against Beers. However, it awarded $37,500 in punitive damages against Lackey.
It is unclear if the state will appeal.