LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST ANGOLA PRISON AND LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY AND CORRECTIONS OVER UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND DEFICIENT MEDICAL CARE
NEW ORLEANS – Prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola (Angola) filed a
lawsuit today alleging that they needlessly suffer from chronic pain, permanent injury, and
preventable sickness and death as a result of prison officials’ failure to provide constitutionally
adequate medical care.
The Promise of Justice Initiative (PJI), the law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
(Cohen Milstein), the Advocacy Center (AC), and the American Civil Liberties Union
Foundation of Louisiana (ACLU-La) filed a complaint against the Louisiana Department of
Public Safety and Corrections (DOC) and Angola’s wardens alleging violations of the Cruel and
Unusual Punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment and federal disability statutes. The
complaint, titled Lewis et al. v. Cain et al., was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle
District of Louisiana. In challenging the inadequate medical care, the complaint alleges that the
prison’s more than 6,000 prisoners are all at risk of serious harm, while scores of men have already experienced unnecessary injury, suffering and death.