State: No deal made to get prisoner to opt out of lawsuit

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An inmate’s decision to withdraw from a lawsuit alleging brutal treatment of mentally ill inmates at a north Louisiana prison prompted a warning to state officials from a federal judge: Don’t grant privileges to inmates in hopes of undermining the lawsuit.

The state Attorney General’s Office says no deals were made between prison officials at the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer and the inmate.

The inmate remains under a restrictive “extended lockdown” status despite assertions to the contrary, Attorney General Jeff Landry said.

The lawsuit was filed last year by the Advocacy Center in New Orleans. Damonte Henry, wasn’t an original plaintiff but court records show lawyers filed motions to add him in March. They moved to dismiss him in early May after he wrote them saying he wanted to “terminate all communications” with the center, and after they obtained hand-written letters he wrote to Col. Lonnie Nail, an official at Wade.

Advocacy Center lawyers said in their filing they believe Henry has been removed from “extended lockdown,” which the Corrections Department says is a maximum security area for prisoners. The lawyers said Henry “refuses to communicate with counsel, seemingly resultant from an agreement between himself and Defendant Nail.”

Last week, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Foote of Shreveport dismissed Henry from the lawsuit. She also noted the allegation that Henry had been removed from extended lockdown. Foote told state lawyers to make sure prison officials don’t “grant or withhold privileges in order to undermine the progress of this litigation.”

Landry’s filing said Henry remains on extended lockdown.

Accompanying the filing is an affidavit from Nail, who stated he has made no deal with Henry.

The lawsuit was filed in February 2018. It alleges that Wade officials subject inmates with mental health problems to inhumane conditions, providing them with inadequate treatment and “haphazard medication.” It says the condition of prisoners with mental illness deteriorates when they are put on extended lockdown. It accuses Wade staff of responding to symptoms with chemical spray, reduction of outdoor time, moving prisoners to extreme isolation or chaining them in restraint chairs. And it says in some cases cells are allowed to become extremely cold during the winter to punish behavior.

The department has denied the allegations.