吃瓜大本营

Lawrence Carty, et al. v. Kenneth Mapp, et al. is a long-running challenge to inhumane and dangerous conditions at the Criminal Justice Complex (CJC) and the CJC Annex on the island of Saint Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. Prisoners represented by the ACLU National Prison Project filed a on June 20, 1994. Since that time, Plaintiffs have sought wide-ranging relief in the case, including improvements to the CJC facility and significant changes to the medical and mental health care afforded to prisoners by the Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections (BOC).

Plaintiffs have entered into two settlement agreements with the BOC. The , which was executed in October of 1994, required improvements to the CJC鈥檚 physical plant, including fire safety, and mandated sweeping reforms to the medical and mental care provided to prisoners. The , signed in 2013, required improvements in policies at CJC, including those addressing the use of force against prisoners, and again mandated changes to the medical and mental health care at the CJC.

For decades, the BOC has failed to live up to its obligation to improve conditions and health care for prisoners in its custody. As a result of these failures, the district court has held the Defendants in Carty in contempt four times. In 1997, the Court that the conditions at the CJC 鈥渃ontinue[d] to fall short of very basic, minimum habitability 鈥�.鈥� In 2001, the Court again held the Defendants in for failing to address problems related to medication distribution, fire safety, and security systems, among others. In May of 2003, the Court held Defendants in contempt for violating court orders 鈥渄esigned to remedy unconstitutional conditions鈥� at the CJC. In 2007, the Court held Defendants in for failing to transfer prisoners found to be not guilty by reason of insanity and other seriously mentally ill prisoners to appropriate psychiatric facilities, among other reasons.

叠翱颁鈥檚 has been its most appalling failure. For decades, the Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections has had a de facto policy of warehousing seriously mentally ill prisoners in violation of their due process rights under the United States Constitution鈥攁 practice that continues to this day. The cruelty of warehousing the mentally ill in prison is typified by the . In 2002, Mr. Ramos was arrested for stealing a bicycle from a Saint Thomas K-Mart. The charges against Ramos were eventually dropped, but he languished as a prisoner at the CJC with inadequately treated Schizophrenia for over five years. In December 2007, Jonathan鈥檚 sister reported that her brother 鈥渘o longer recognized her.鈥� Eventually鈥攁nd only after being found in contempt for its failure to transfer him鈥攖he BOC moved Jonathan Ramos to a stateside psychiatric hospital in Florida. In Florida, Ramos was released to the streets and was found sleeping in a public park鈥攖he victim of 叠翱颁鈥檚 callous indifference to his suffering.

Today, the CJC remains a where prisoners are subject to .