Media

Brian Dorsey, who pleaded guilty to murder in the 2006 killings of Sarah and Ben Bonnie, is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday unless Missouri’s governor or the courts step in.

“He says he wants to find a way to make people’s lives better to atone for what he’s done."– Megan Crane

Amy Breihan, co-director of the Missouri office of the MacArthur Justice Center, a non-profit civil rights law firm which filed the lawsuit, said the decision was a win that will set the course for the department into the future. “The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals is one of the most conservative courts in the country,” she said. “Viewed in that context, this is a big win.”

“We want to treat them humanely. We don’t want them to be worse off coming out by being socially isolated, which is really devastating to one’s mental health, by being denied educational opportunities. This is a pretty shocking new policy,” MJC's Amy Breihan said.

"I'm shocked at what is going on in the jail, but I'm not at all surprised," says MJC's Amy Breihan, whose lawsuit helped bring the long-buried report to light. "This has been happening for years."

"People in leadership are aware of this happening, but they're not doing anything about it," said MJC's Shubra Ohri.

"Ms. Roe was trapped in isolation with no way to challenge her conditions," MJC's Shubra Ohri said. "Six years of that led Ms. Roe to self-harm, suicidal ideation, and actual suicide attempts."

“It’s well known that the use of solitary confinement, especially for a prolonged period of time, can have a severe impact on someone’s health, and that’s been accepted by courts and within the medical field when looking at the issue of solitary confinement," Lambda Legal's Richard Saenz

“Six years of that led Ms. Roe to self-harm, suicidal ideation, and actual suicide attempts. This tracks with widespread consensus among the human rights experts, psychologists, physicians, and mental health authorities who say solitary confinement is torturous and should be abolished," MJC's Shubra Ohri said.

A Missouri woman was placed in solitary confinement after being sexually assaulted by a cellmate in 2015 — and was kept there for six years.