The ACLU of Virginia, in collaboration with global law firm White & Case LLP, today filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) seeking to end the practice of solitary confinement in two of its most notorious prisons.

Drugs are just as available, cheap, and in demand as ever. Expanding the law to allow someone to be charged for murder for supplying a drug when another adult voluntarily takes the drug will not end overdoses.

While the coalition is grateful to the Virginia General Assembly for unanimously passing this legislation, we believe that the bills, as passed by the legislature, remain flawed and will be, potentially, ineffective in accomplishing the goal of real transparency.

The DOJ report released Wednesday after two years of review confirms and validates our concerns to a greater degree than we could have imagined, and we are convinced that the systemic problems and harms being experienced there are worse still than we know.

Today, the ACLU of Virginia sent a letter to Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam urging him to act with dispatch to ensure that Virginia’s protocols for administering the death penalty exemplify the highest standards of transparency and accountability.