In the settlement, the department agreed to house people who have been sentenced to death in the same manner as the prisons’ general population.

“The use of long-term solitary confinement on anyone is torture,” said Amy Fettig, deputy director of the National Prison Project. “The conditions Pennsylvania’s DOC was subjecting people on death row to — spending their entire lives in a tiny, filthy cell without any normal human contact, congregate religious services, sufficient access to exercise, sunshine, access to the outdoors, or environmental and intellectual stimulation — weren’t just deeply unconstitutional; they were horribly inhumane.”

New privileges for death row inmates include, but are not limited to:

-contact visits with family, lawyers and religious advisors

-daily showers and phone calls

-group meals and programming

-access to the outdoors, work assignments, the law library and religious worship