ACLU Delaware filed a federal lawsuit last week against the Delaware Department of Correction over an alleged incident at one of its facilities.
The lawsuit is in response to what ACLU Delaware alleged was an unprovoked raid by prison officials Sept. 5 into the early morning of Sept. 6.
“Plaintiffs shared graphic first-hand accounts depicting the violence of the attack, as well as Vaughan’s failure to provide adequate care in the aftermath of the arbitrary and unjustified raid,” according to a release from the ACLU.
Six incarcerated people at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna claim they were beaten, pepper sprayed, sexually abused, humiliated and subjected to invasive strip searches.
ACLU Delaware attorney Jason Beehler said these alleged actions violate Eighth Amendment protections from cruel and unusual punishment.
“The law in America is that prison is the punishment,” Beehler said. “We don't allow the folks who run prisons and administer prisons to inflict violence at will… They have an obligation to uphold and comply with the United States Constitution and the case law interpreting it.”
This is not the only case the ACLU has against the state’s Department of Correction. Beehler said it’s just one in a suite of cases that display violations against incarcerated people.
“The Department of Correction is the second largest administrative executive agency in the state. It's a big entity. And big entities change slowly, and habits develop over a long period of time, and things that might not otherwise be tolerable become tolerable and then become routine.”
One of the ongoing cases alleges incarcerated individuals had health care delayed or entirely denied. Beehler said some faced “somewhat catastrophic results.” The ACLU has represented individuals for prison voting lawsuits. In another, 40 plaintiffs from a prison in Georgetown allege excessive uses of force against correctional officers.
“It's easy to say, ‘well, if you don't want this kind of treatment, don't go to prison,’” Beehler said. “But prison is the punishment, and these are human beings… These guys thought they were going to die during this raid. And it's incumbent upon all of us to make sure that we're protecting the constitutional rights of everybody in our society.”
