Press Coverage

A federal judge granted a protective order on Monday to inmates suing the Florida Department of Corrections and its secretary, Mark Inch, for what they say are unconstitutional isolation practices. The inmates — housed in isolation at Santa Rosa Correctional Institution, Florida State Prison, Lowell Correctional Institution and the Reception and Medical Center, a prison […]

FORT LAUDERDALE — Mike Messina and Bernard McDonald, who are lifelong Broward County residents and have been homeless at various points in their lives, are challenging Fort Lauderdale’s anti-panhandling laws. They say the measures are an unconstitutional restriction of free speech. One of Fort Lauderdale’s ordinances prohibits anyone from requesting donations in all public parks, […]

The draft text of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ first piece of proposed legislation since COVID-19 began to pummel Florida is finally circulating. The Defeat COVID-19 and Renew Florida Act? No — The Combatting Violence, Disorder, and Looting and Law Enforcement Protection Act. DeSantis’ proposed legislation is his reaction to the protests this summer after the killings […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 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 […]