Due to steady increases in the population of inmates in the Philadelphia Prison System, KRMF lawyers and their co-counsel have asked a federal court to reinstate a 2008 class action lawsuit concerning serious overcrowding conditions in the System. Â On December 3, 2012, Judge R. Barclay Surrick of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia granted that request allowing the case to proceed.
After the case was first filed in 2008, the inmate population was substantially reduced and, in 2011, the parties to the suit reached a settlement agreement, approved by the Court and allowing for lawyers representing inmates in the system to monitor conditions of confinement.  Since that time, however, as reported in multiple press accounts, the inmate population has increased over and above the levels which prompted the filing of the suit in 2008.  Because these extreme population levels result in dangerous conditions for inmates and correctional officers alike, the lawyers on the case will now proceed with the litigation in an effort to prove to the Court that the conditions of confinement in the Philadelphia Prison System violate the Constitution.
KRMF partners David Rudovsky and Jonathan Feinberg are handling the case along with co-counsel from Pepper Hamilton LLP, the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project and the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania.
The case is Dwight Williams et al. v. City of Philadelphia et al., U.S.D.C. E.D. Pa. No. 08-cv-1979.