The trial team in the case of Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania v. Wetzell was named as a finalist for the Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PILP) attorneys Angus R. Love and Su Ming Yeh were members of the litigation team on the case. 

Leading the team were Robert W. Meek, Kelly L. Darr and Jeffrey M. Skakalski of the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, along with co-counsel David Kornblau, Eric Hellerman, Mari K. Bonthuis and Laura Flahive Wu of Covington and Burling, LLP, of New York; David Rudovsky of Kairys Rudovsky Messing and Feinberg in Philadelphia; Michael Formichelli, formerly of Covington & Burling in New York; Witold J. Walczak of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh, in addition to Attorneys Love and Yeh from the PILP.

The award, which celebrates and recognizes the work of an attorney or team of attorneys working on behalf of individuals and groups that have suffered injustice and harmful abuse, will be presented at Public Justice’s Annual Gala and Awards Dinner on July 13 in Montreal. The five finalist cases for the award include landmark cases dealing with immigrants’, workers’, and civil rights as well as government misconduct and wrongful conviction.

Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania v. Wetzell addressed the effect of solitary confinement on individuals with mental illness. Solitary confinement can be a harrowing experience for any prisoner. For those with mental illnesses, however, it is especially brutal. Forced to spend 23 hours each day alone, locked in a tiny cell, prisoners with pre-existing mental health conditions often experience exacerbated illness.

The Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania conducted an exhaustive investigation of Pennsylvania’s prisons and discovered that roughly 800 of the 2400 prisoners in solitary confinement had serious mental illnesses, a significantly disproportionate share compared to the general prison population. DRN tried to engage directly with officials at the state Department of Corrections, but when talks proved unsuccessful, they filed a lawsuit—one of only a handful ever brought concerning solitary confinement and its impact on prisoners with mental illnesses.

The lawsuit was so meticulously executed that, within weeks of filing, the DOC announced it was ready to negotiate. The resulting settlement finalized this year was remarkable in its breadth. The agreement ensures prompt and regular mental health evaluation for all Pennsylvania prisoners, ends solitary confinement for those with serious mental illness absent exceptional circumstances.

The settlement also establishes three types of new mental health treatment units. In all, the suit led to state-wide reform of mental health treatment for 52,000 prisoners in Pennsylvania, including over 4,000 total prisoners in the system with a serious mental illness. 

Original Announcement of the Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Finalists