The Indiana Department of Correction has agreed to pay more than $1.2 million to settle allegations that Miami Correctional Facility officials abused inmates by keeping them in dark cells for months.
A lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana in 2021, alleged that inmates were held in total or near-total darkness and were rarely allowed out of their cells. Windows were covered with metal, and the cells had no working lights, the lawsuit alleged. In some cells, according to the ACLU, live wires hung from the ceiling and shocked people as they tried to walk in the dark.
The case was initially filed in 2021 on behalf of Jeremy Blanchard, who was held in a restrictive housing cell for a month in 2020 and was let out only for a few minutes every few days to shower. The prolonged isolation caused Blanchard to lose all sense of time, to lose sleep and to hallucinate, according to the complaint. The pool of plaintiffs later expanded to 30 more inmates, some of whom harmed themselves and suffered panic attacks.
“After more than five years of litigation, these settlements bring some measure of justice to people who have endured horrific abuse at Miami Correctional Facility,” Ken Falk, ACLU of Indiana’s legal director, said in an April 27 statement announcing the settlement. “The Eighth Amendment protects people in state custody from cruel and unconstitutional conditions, and our clients showed enormous courage in coming forward with their experiences.”
Kenzie Conrad, a spokeswoman for the ACLU of Indiana, said the settlements are only monetary and “do not include policy or practice changes” at the prison.
“However,” Conrad said in an email to IndyStar, “given the size of the total settlements and the severity of the conditions our clients endured, our hope and expectation is that the Indiana Department of Correction will take meaningful steps to ensure this never happens again.”
Conrad declined to share how much each plaintiff is receiving.
It’s also unclear if the settlement involves any admission of wrongdoing by IDOC officials. A spokeswoman for the agency declined to comment. The Office of the Indiana Attorney General, which represented IDOC in the litigation, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Miami Correctional Facility, which began housing immigration detainees in October 2025 and which Trump administration officials nicknamed the Speedway Slammer, is one of the most violent prisons in Indiana’s correctional system, an IndyStar investigation found. The facility, located outside of Kokomo, has long been plagued with high death tolls and chronic understaffing. A booming, gang-operated drug market fueled much of the violence.
Since 2019, there have been at least 19 homicides in Indiana prisons, according to IndyStar’s analysis of media reports, and data from IDOC and the Indiana State Police. Nine, or nearly half of those homicides, occurred at the Miami prison. In one of the killings, J Trinidad Ramirez was stabbed 13 times during a fight the day before Thanksgiving last year, according to charging documents. Nine men have been charged in connection to Ramirez’s death.
Two ICE detainees have also died at the facility. Lorth Sim, a 59-year-old Cambodian national, and Tuan Van Bui, a 55-year-old Vietnamese national, both died of natural causes.
Contact IndyStar reporter Kristine Phillips at (317) 444-3026 or at kphillips@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana to pay $1.2M to settle abuse allegations at Miami prison
Reporting by Kristine Phillips, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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