• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Partnering with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the south to defend and advance their political, social and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing and communications.

  • Home
  • About
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Employment Opportunities
  • News
  • Programs
    • Voting Rights
      • News
      • Featured Cases
      • Resources
    • Justice System Reform
      • News
      • Featured Cases
      • Resources
    • Youth Justice Project
      • News
      • Resources
  • Resources
    • Make a Voting Plan: North Carolina
    • Make a Voting Plan: National
    • #MyVoteMyVoice
    • Early Voting Advocacy 2020
    • Videos
    • Reports
    • Infographics
    • SCSJ-led Projects
  • SCSJ Monthly Digest
  • Contact
  • Donate

Search Southern Coalition for Social Justice

SCSJ Files Suit Challenging Mistreatment at Lanesboro Correctional

November 18, 2014 by stacy

Five men formerly held at Lanesboro Correction Institution in Anson County, NC have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that officers repeatedly helped gang-affiliated inmates get weapons and wage attacks. Plaintiffs in the case allege that they were violently assaulted by fellow prisoners wielding contraband weapons, and that corrections staff were aware of these attacks and refused to intervene or move the plaintiffs to safer quarters. The Lanesboro Complaint is available here.
“This case is about protecting the human rights and dignity of people who were held in Lanesboro Correctional Institution.  Our U.S. Supreme Court has held that a person’s punishment for committing a crime is imprisonment, not exposure to maltreatment and unsafe conditions,” said Daryl Atkinson, Senior Staff Attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, which filed the complaint in partnership with the NC Central School of Law and the law firm of Tin Fulton Waker & Owen, PLLC.
“The Supreme Court has made clear that prison officials have a duty under the Eighth Amendment to protect the people in their custody from violence at the hands of those who might do them harm,” said Ian Mance, an attorney at the Southern Coalition.  “The plaintiffs in this complaint were stabbed in their heads and throats by people armed with deadly weapons, some of whom, we allege, carried out the attacks while in areas of the prison where they had no business being,” said Mance.
“This lawsuit raises important concerns about how the administration at Lanesboro has jeopardized the safety of the people in its custody, its own employees, as well as members of the community at large,” said Scott Holmes, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys and Director of the Civil Litigation Clinic at the NC Central School of Law.
Media coverage is available below.
 
WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC
Charlotte Observer

Category iconCriminal Justice,  Recent News Tag iconDaryl Atkinson,  Ian Mance,  Lanesboro,  Lanesboro Correctional,  Scott Holmes

Next Article: Votes Not Counted: Marianne's Story
Previous Article: Charlotte Observer Reports that Officers at Lanesboro helped gang members wage attacks

Footer

Contact

1415 West Highway 54, Suite 101
Durham, NC 27707
info@southerncoalition.org
office: 919-323-3380
fax: 919-323-3942
Map

Key Links

About
Donate
Most Recent 990
Staff
Board

The Latest

NOW: 17-year #ncga veteran Rep. @priceyharrison — who serves on House elex cmte and has sponsored dozens of elex-related bills — testifies re: the voter ID amendment legislation's strange trajectory to passage. “It was interesting.” Watch: bit.ly/3dyQEYW #NCVoterIDtrial

About 2 hours ago

REMINDER: Join @nc_cred & @LawyersComm on tomorrow's #webinar from 7-8PM ET to review the law & how communities can continue advocating for the removal of monuments and other iconography to white supremacy from all court spaces. Learn more and register: bit.ly/2R9llLK

Yesterday

ICYMI: Research presented by Dr. Ariel White, an expert in how voter ID policies impact behavior, supported #NCvoterIDtrial testimony of disenfranchised voters. Bias aside, she said ways county poll workers in NC are trained to enforce these complicated laws can lead to problems. pic.twitter.com/vM3o…

Yesterday

"plaintiffs argue the newer law still fits into the same pattern of voter suppression laws from the past. 'Preventing fraud was one of the reasons given for imposing a literacy test,' testified James Leloudis, a professor of history at UNC wunc.org/politics/20… #NCvoterIDtrial

Yesterday

Mr. Kearney has been a registered voter for 50+ years. Poll workers knew him by name, and still voter ID kept him from voting in 2016. This is why we’ve taken NC’s latest voter ID law to court. Watch as the #NCVoterIDtrial continues tomorrow: youtube.com/channel/… pic.twitter.com/vTWA…

Yesterday

Follow @scsj
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Copyright © 2021 Southern Coalition for Social Justice · All Rights Reserved · Website by Tomatillo Design