A nonprofit public interest law firm that conducts civil rights litigation and advocacy in the areas of prisoners’ rights, housing discrimination, disability discrimination, and other areas that impact the lives of Florida’s poor and disenfranchised.
In this section you'll find press coverage of our work.
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 […]
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 […]
Recently, a federal lawsuit was brought against the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) over its excessive reliance on solitary confinement, despite an abundance of information about its damaging effects. Some critics warn that solitary confinement might be increasingly used as a management tool by understaffed correctional officers in many overcrowded state prisons. It has been […]
Florida is an “outlier” in prison systems across the nation when it comes to the use of solitary confinement, according to a 90-page federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that alleges the state Department of Corrections is violating the constitutional rights of inmates. Attorneys with the Southern Poverty Law Center named the state agency and Secretary Mark […]
https://www.nbcmiami.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Suit-Says-Solitary-Confinement-Police-Cruel-Excessive_Miami-509676192.html https://www.theledger.com/news/20190508/lawsuit-seeks-to-end-solitary-confinement-in-florida-prisons/4 https://www.wptv.com/news/state/florida-solitary-confinement-policy-excessive-and-cruel-lawsuit-says https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/federal-suit-filed-to-end-solitary-confinement-in-florida/1989993175 https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/state/2019/05/08/transgender-inmate-sues-fdc-over-solitary-confinement/1134061001/ http://www.fox35orlando.com/news/local-news/florida-prisons-targeted-over-solitary-confinement https://www.law.com/dailybusinessreview/2019/05/09/florida-prisons-targeted-over-solitary-confinement/
Blasting the Florida Department of Corrections’ “long and sordid history of neglecting” inmates who have hepatitis C infections, and citing a “risk of such deliberate indifference reoccurring in the future,” a federal judge ordered Thursday evening that the state must treat all inmates with the disease. The order is the result of a class-action lawsuit […]
Blasting the Florida Department of Corrections’ “long and sordid history of neglecting” inmates who have Hepatitis C infections, and citing a “risk of such deliberate indifference reoccurring in the future,” a federal judge ordered Thursday evening that the state must treat all inmates with the disease. The order is the result of a class-action lawsuit […]
A federal lawsuit is accusing the Florida Department of Corrections of unlawfully separating Florida inmates from their rightful property, namely, digital media they’d purchased in prison. The class action filed in the Northern District of Florida on Tuesday charges the FDOC and its newly appointed secretary, Mark Inch, with violating Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment assurances […]
Florida inmate William Demler says that since 2012, he has spent $569.50 on digital music via a proprietary digital music service sponsored by the Florida prison system. Demler listened to his music on a prison-sponsored music player he purchased for $99.95. Demler, who is serving a life sentence, says ads for the prison-sponsored service promised […]
A Florida prison inmate is suing after a switch between contractors removed prisoners’ access to millions of dollars’ worth of their own music. As reported by The Florida Times-Union, William Demler filed a class-action suit against the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) — which he says falsely promised to let inmates buy music permanently through one digital […]
TALLAHASSEE — Florida inmates are accusing state corrections officials of effectively stealing millions of dollars’ worth of digital music and books to benefit a new contractor. Attorneys with the Social Justice Law Collective and the Florida Justice Institute filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday in Tallahassee, alleging a Department of Corrections program is unconstitutional because it […]
A federal class action lawsuit accuses the Florida Department of Corrections of stealing millions of dollars of inmate-purchased digital music and books from prisoners. The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of Florida by the Florida Justice Institute and the Social Justice Law Collective on behalf of lifer William Demler, names state Corrections Secretary Mark […]
Two social justice organizations announced on Tuesday a class-action lawsuit alleging the Florida Department of Corrections forced inmates to surrender millions of dollars in downloaded books and music so they’ll have to repurchase them from its new vendor. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, says FDC sold digital media files to prisoners […]
The Florida Department of Corrections is facing a potential class action over recently forcing inmates to forfeit millions of dollars worth of mp3 and other multimedia files purchased under a since-axed media player contract. William Demler, a 74-year-old incarcerated man at South Florida Reception Center is the lead plaintiff in the case, which was filed […]
INMATES AND THEIR advocates are pushing for legal and political fixes to fight hepatitis C, a public health problem experts say can’t be solved in the U.S. overall without first tackling it within prison walls. The hepatitis C virus attacks the liver and can turn deadly: Research shows it was associated with more fatalities in 2013 than 60 […]
For more than 40 years, Randall Berg fought for the rights of the downtrodden, disabled, disenfranchised and even the despised. As founder and executive director of the Florida Justice Institute, the soft-spoken 70-year-old Miami attorney battled powerful landowners and intransigent state agencies — most notably the Florida Department of Corrections — to right wrongs suffered by people who society often […]