Stephen Hampton is a prisoners’ rights litigator with Grady & Hampton LLC. As one of Delaware’s foremost prisoners’ rights attorneys, Steve has represented hundreds of prisoners for alleged civil rights violations and other claims such as medical malpractice. He has litigated everything from incarcerated individuals being held long past their release date to prisoners being denied medical care after repeated requests to see a doctor. While defendants in the cases Steve litigates are frequently prison employees, they often include privately contracted medical providers for the prisons who can also be held liable for civil rights violations and medical malpractice. Following the 2017 uprising at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center, Steve represented more than 100 incarcerated individuals who reported being beaten and tortured by Vaughn prison officials in the weeks following the February 1, 2017 incident. The 80-page complaint he filed described “inhumane conditions” at the prison and claimed that for many years prior to the riot, prison personnel “illegally abused, mistreated and tortured inmates with virtually nothing being done by their JTVCC [Vaughn prison] or DOC [Department of Corrections] supervisors, to stop them.” In November 2018, claiming that inmate abuse was still ongoing, he accused the Delaware Department of Corrections of negligent behavior that he believes led to the deaths of two prisoners in that month. Steve has served on the governing board of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association and on the Board of Directors of the Community Legal Aid Society. 

Steve actively participated in the development of PLAN work product that comprised the initial body of work of the Jailhouse Law Library. He helped supervise the legal work of PLAN Law Clerks who contributed to PLAN’s COVID-19 Campaign for jurisdictions in the Third Circuit. He presented with one of these Law Clerks at the PLAN’s 2020 Continuing Legal Education Program, which disseminated legal research, analysis and source materials to help practitioners and pro se litigants challenge pandemic conditions in prisons and jails.