A former Black Panther held for 22 years in solitary confinement has won a $99,000 settlement and a permanent reprieve from solitary, in a case that challenged his treatment as cruel and unusual and was set to go to trial this week.
Russell “Maroon” Shoatz was convicted in 1970 of first-degree murder for an attack on a Philadelphia police station that left one officer dead and another wounded. He earned his nickname that refers to escaped slaves in North and South America after he twice broke free from prison.
By the 1980s Shoatz shifted his efforts to win release by lobbying lawmakers to repeal sentences of life without parole. He became president of the Pennsylvania Association of Lifers in 1983 and was placed in solitary confinement for several years. He was again placed in solitary in 1991, where he remained until 2014 after successfully finishing a step-down program.
In his deposition, Shoatz describes having “approximately 84 square feet of floor space” in his restrictive housing unit cell, but notes “the presence of the steel bunk, and toilet diminished the actual area wherein one could walk” to about 58 square feet. Rubber strips lined his cell door and sealed him inside for 23 hours a day. His lights remained on at all times, and he faced an invasive strip-search each time he left.
Shoatz had no major rule violations while held in isolation, but he was placed on a restricted release list that required the prison’s superintendent to recommend his release. Authorities repeatedly denied his requests, citing his past escape attempts and political activism, even though in 2010 they acknowledged that at his advanced age he was unlikely to escape again.
Shoatz also said there were mental health impacts from his punishment, including severe depression and anxiety, saying in his deposition: “I was infantilized for so long.”
The Pennsylvania department of corrections said in a statement it is “happy with the terms of the agreement”, which also include a full mental health evaluation, “and will continue to abide by them for the duration of Mr Shoatz’s sentence”.
Shoatz responded in a statement through lawyers with the Abolitionist Law Center that he has “always chosen to fight! Frederick Douglass was right when he said ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand.’”
Shoatz was granted a trial in his lawsuit around the same time that Albert Woodfox, another former Black Panther, was released from prison in Louisiana after a record 43 years in solitary confinement.
The settlement only applies to Shoatz but could make it more difficult for Pennsylvania to argue against the release from solitary of other prisoners who have been held even longer.
Next month, the head of the state’s prison system is set to testify in a case the Abolitionist Law Center filed on behalf of 63-year-old Arthur Johnson, who the state has held in isolation since 1979.
