On April 7, 2020, the Florida Bar Foundation announced that the Florida Justice Institute is Second Runner-Up of the 2020 Goldstein-Van Nortwick Award for its exceptional legal advocacy for the Hepatitis C Class Action litigation. A special selection committee was created to review, score, and select the award winners. This year’s Goldstein-Van Nortwick selection committee […]
Civil Rights Groups Demand Precautions for People in Florida’s Prisons and Jails
With the spread of COVID-19 around the world, we know these may be difficult times for many people. That is especially true for people incarcerated in Florida’s prisons and jails. That’s why, in addition to taking steps to safeguard our employees and communities, we are also demanding adequate precautions for those who may be most […]
Arrested panhandler fights city’s law, saying it violated his free speech right
More than 100 people have run afoul of Pompano Beach’s ban on street solicitation in recent years, leading to a string of arrests and citations. But for one arrested homeless man, it has become a battleground for repealing the law that landed him behind bars. Bernard McDonald, a homeless and disabled laborer, is suing the […]
FJI Files Lawsuit Challenging Pompano Beach’s Anti-Panhandling Ordinance as Unconstitutional
Today, the Florida Justice Institute (FJI), in partnership with Fort Lauderdale lawyers Mara Shlackman and Frantz J. McLawrence, filed a lawsuit challenging the City of Pompano Beach’s anti-panhandling ordinance as an unconstitutional restriction of free speech. The Ordinance prohibits the solicitation of donations, business, or sales during certain times and at certain intersections, and otherwise […]
Senate proposal funds Department of Corrections pilot program, officer pay raises
The Senate is proposing spending more than $5.5 billion on the state’s Department of Corrections, court system and law enforcement agencies (SB 2500). That number includes general revenue and trust fund revenue. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice Chair Jeff Brandes said DOC has serious serious problems on which lawmakers must take action. […]
Claim of chronic overcrowding at Brevard Jail lands county back in federal court
For years, the Brevard County Jail has housed hundreds of inmates over its “operational capacity,” in apparent violation of a 27-year-old court decree, according to a motion filed in federal court in Orlando last week by a prisoners’ rights group. The Miami-based Florida Justice Institute filed the motion, seeking an order to show cause as to […]
More tax dollars won’t solve Florida’s dire prison crisis
Last year, a Florida prison inmate at Martin Correctional Institution used a hidden camera to document the conditions there. It showed inmates living in mold-infested squalor, passed out on synthetic drugs, and continuous, horrific violence. The video documents for the public what most legislators already knew: Florida’s prisons are crumbling. Illegal drugs are rampant. Assaults […]
FJI Returns to Court to Enforce Brevard Jail Overcrowding Consent Decree
The Florida Justice Institute (FJI) has filed a Motion for Order to Show Cause to enforce a Consent Decree that prohibits overcrowding in the Brevard County Jail. The Decree requires the jail population to remain below a certain level, but in recent years the population has exceeded that level. FJI has been monitoring the Decree […]
FJI 2019 Year in Review
It’s been quite a year for FJI, and we want to thank you for all the support that has made our work possible. While we mourned the loss of our dear friend and founder, Randy Berg, we continue to celebrate his life by advancing the work that he started. Some of this year’s accomplishments include: We […]
Federal Judge Refuses to Dismiss Lawsuit Challenging Juvenile Solitary Confinement
A federal judge Friday rejected a request by the state Department of Juvenile Justice to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the use of solitary confinement for juveniles. The Southern Poverty Law Center, Florida Legal Services and the Florida Justice Institute sued the state in September and alleged that placing juveniles in solitary confinement violated the constitutional […]
Florida breached agreement to accommodate inmates with disabilities, lawsuit says
It’s been about two years since Florida and Disability Rights Florida, a statewide advocacy group, reached a settlement that was meant to improve conditions for inmates with disabilities. But the group says the state has failed to comply with the 2017 agreement by not providing interpreters for inmates who are deaf or hard of hearing, […]
FJI, Representing Disability Rights Florida, Sues Florida Department of Corrections for Breach of Settlement Agreement Protecting Incarcerated People with Disabilities
TALLAHASSEE, DECEMBER 4, 2019– Disability Rights Florida, Florida’s federally funded Protection and Advocacy organization for individuals with disabilities, has brought suit against the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) over its systemic failure to comply with a settlement agreement signed by both parties in July 2017. DRF is represented by the Florida Justice Institute and Morgan […]
Florida’s troubled teens don’t belong in ‘the hole’ | Opinion
The use of solitary confinement for children and juveniles has been prohibited in federal prisons, but Florida continues this practice, despite its harmful effects. The “hole,” as solitary confinement is often called, consists of tiny cells where young offenders are placed in isolation for 22 to 24 hours a day. For weeks or months at […]
Florida shrugs off the cruelty of locking children in solitary cells | Fred Grimm
Florida continues to consign children to the sensory deprivation and unceasing loneliness of solitary confinement. As if the Department of Juvenile Justice still regards sadism as a best practice. State lawyers last week asked a federal judge to dismiss a class-action lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Florida Legal Services and the Florida […]
Lawsuits aim to stop Florida’s use of solitary confinement for children, but state agencies are pushing back
In separate but parallel lawsuits, civil-rights and legal groups are challenging Florida’s use of solitary confinement in prisons and juvenile detention centers – but are facing pushback from state agencies. The Southern Poverty Law Center, Florida Legal Services and the Florida Justice Institute this year sued the state Department of Corrections and the Department of […]
New Lawsuit Challenges Use of Solitary Confinement for Children in Florida
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –Citing scientific, medical and mental health evidence likening solitary confinement to torture and demonstrating its dangers to the development and rehabilitation of children, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Florida Legal Services (FLS), and the Florida Justice Institute (FJI) have filed a federal class action lawsuit against Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) […]
After inmate ‘dragged like a ragdoll,’ lawmaker calls prison conditions ‘less than human’
In a video posted on Facebook, State Rep. Dianne Hart excoriated excessive heat, excessively short eating times, inadequate female hygiene materials and inmate treatment after spending Sunday at Lowell Correctional Institution, days after an inmate was brutally manhandled, leaving her gravely hurt. Hart’s been at Lowell several times before, but this is the first time […]
Protest planned after brutal attack by guards on woman at Florida’s Lowell prison
Advocacy groups are organizing a protest at Florida’s largest women’s prison, Lowell Correctional Institution, Saturday morning in the wake of a violent assault, allegedly by a correctional lieutenant, that gravely injured a 51-year-old inmate, sources have told the Miami Herald. The inmate, identified by sources as Cheryl A. Weimar, had suffered from both mental and […]