Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
The Indiana Department of Correction has agreed to pay more than $1.2 million in settlement funds to 31 individuals who claimed to face abusive conditions at Miami Correctional Facility.
The case stems back to 2021, when the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit on behalf of Jeremy Blanchard, a former inmate at Miami Correctional Facility who is now at Westville Correctional Facility. Blanchard claimed to have been confined to a cell in nearly total darkness for about a month, leading to hallucinations and anxiety.
After Blanchard filed suit, 30 more inmates filed similar lawsuits, the ACLU said, further detailing the conditions of the cells, such as live electrical wires hanging from the ceilings, shocking people as they tried to navigate the darkness.
“After more than five years of litigation, these settlements bring some measure of justice to people who have endured horrific abuse at Miami Correctional Facility,” said Ken Falk, legal director for the ACLU of Indiana, in a press release Monday. “The Eighth Amendment protects people in state custody from cruel and unconstitutional conditions, and our clients showed enormous courage in coming forward with their experiences.”
The settlements are only monetary and do not include specific policy or practice changes, said Kenzie Conrad, senior communications specialist at ACLU of Indiana, in a written statement Tuesday.
“However, given the size of the total settlements and the severity of the conditions our clients endured, our hope and expectation is that the Indiana Department of Correction will take meaningful steps to ensure this never happens again,” Conrad said.
The settlements also do not include an admission of wrongdoing by the IDOC, Conrad said.
Noelle Russell, chief communications officer for the IDOC, told The Lawyer in an email on Tuesday that the issues were remedied “well before the settlement.”
Russell said DOC has no formal statement on the settlement.
Miami Correctional Facility, the high-medium security state prison located in Bunker Hill, has been the subject of numerous reports and condemnations asserting insufficient living conditions.
The Indiana Lawyer recently reported that the facility’s detainees, both criminally-convicted inmates and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees, have faced delayed health care and unsanitary living conditions, including flooded cells containing feces-laced water. ICE has denied allegations of subpar living conditions.
The allegations came as two people died in federal immigration custody at the facility this year: 59-year-old Lorth Sim and 55-year-old Tuan Van Bui.
The Miami County coroner ruled that Sim’s death was caused by atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Bui’s death remains under investigation.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.