ANGOLA — Following a previous court ruling, a federal appeals court found that prisoner health care at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola met standards set by the Eighth Amendment, The Advocate reported on Monday.

This overturns a lower court's 2023 order that would have required the prison to make certain improvements after judges sided with inmates who claimed medical care at the state penitentiary was inadequate and unconstitutional. 

The original case, Parker v. Hooper, was brought forward in 2015 by the Promise of Justice Initiative and the Disability Rights of Louisiana following an investigation into claims of improper medical care at Angola. Attorneys at the time claimed that many prisoners weren't allowed to see a specialist doctor until their health conditions deteriorated to the point of becoming terminal illnesses, according to The Advocate.

In 2023, the district court ruled that the Department of Corrections violated the Eighth Amendment along with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court's original ruling was split into two parts, with each having its own trial. Judges first found that the DOC was liable for needed improvements before ruling on what the improvements would be and how they would be made. 

Of the 17 prisoners who were the original plaintiffs in the case, only three currently remain at Angola, according to senior staff attorney for the Promise of Justice Initiative Samantha Pourciau. The other 14 prisoners have either died or been moved to other facilities.  

The Department of Corrections has made many improvements sought by prisoners over more than a decade since the class action suit was filed against the state, according to U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edith Hollan Jones. 

The Advocate reported that Jones went on to say that the lower court's original ruling did not consider the medical improvements the prison made. One example is the electronic medical records management system, which is an improvement made after the district court trial and before the court issued its remedial order.