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.
(CN) – The Florida Department of Corrections routinely denies disabled prisoners access to wheelchairs, canes, sign language interpreters and even hearing aids, a disability rights group claims in court. In a lawsuit filed in Tallahassee Federal Court on behalf of 32 inmates, Disability Rights Florida claims the routinely encountered access of other difficulties that the […]
A group representing disabled inmates has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Florida prison officials of discriminating against prisoners who are deaf, blind or confined to wheelchairs, in violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Tallahassee by Disability Rights Florida, alleges that the Department of Corrections failed to provide interpreters […]
Prompted by complaints that the needs of deaf, blind, and wheelchair-bound inmates are being routinely ignored, lawyers for a group of prisoners filed suit against the Florida Department of Corrections on Tuesday, claiming a litany of abuses. The lawsuit, filed by the Florida Justice Institute on behalf of Disability Rights Florida, includes accounts from 32 […]
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A federal court in the state Capitol is considering what could be a landmark case when it comes to who represents you in local government. The case boils down to whether it’s fair to count state prisoners when creating local districts. The county told the judge that if he rules against them, […]
(CN) – Prison Legal News asked the 11th Circuit to revive its challenge to a ban on its magazine from Florida jails and prisons. Prison Legal News, a monthly publication of the Human Rights Defense Center, is written by and for prisoners. The muckraking 72-page magazine features articles about abuses inside prisons and jails, and […]
A coalition of 14 human rights groups on Thursday called for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Florida state prisons, contending that “immediate intervention” is necessary to stop the widespread abuse, neglect, torture and deaths of inmates in the Florida Department of Corrections. Read the full article.
Three inmates are suing the Florida Department of Corrections and medical contractor Corizon, alleging Corizon refused to provide medically necessary surgical procedures in an effort to keep costs down. The class-action lawsuit, which cites several other cases of alleged inadequate care, accuses Corizon of violating prisoners’ Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment. Corizon […]
There will be no José Milton Way in Miami-Dade County — at least not for now. Miami-Dade commissioners backed away from the previously approved street naming on Wednesday, two days after the Milton family’s real estate businesses were again sued for racial discrimination. “Until the court renders an opinion over that, I feel that it […]
Earlier this month, when Miami-Dade Commissioners named a street after real estate developer José Milton, they brushed aside the fact that Milton’s company had been previously accused in court of racial discrimination, saying the allegations had been settled decades ago. Milton had donated money to county parks and other charitable causes since the days of […]
A divided Florida Supreme Court refused Thursday to authorize Florida Bar leaders to raise attorney dues to fund legal aid. In a last batch of decisions before its summer hiatus, the court ruled 4-3 to turn down the request from a coalition of 522 Florida Bar members. The lawyers asked the high court to allow […]
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) – Florida taxpayers are on the hook for more than $1.5 million in legal fees — including nearly $1 million to civil-rights lawyers — because of Gov. Rick Scott’s failed push to force welfare applicants and tens of thousands of state workers to submit to suspicionless drug tests. The state agreed earlier this […]
Op-Ed by FJI Executive Director Randy Berg: On Aug. 2, 2011, Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado wrote then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder requesting Department of Justice’s (DOJ) assistance after seven black men had been killed by Miami Police Department (MPD) officers over eight months in 2010-2011. Travis McNeil was one of those black men unjustifiably killed. […]
A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit brought by a partially paralyzed inmate in a Santa Rosa County prison who had been denied the use of a wheelchair while in his cell and had been retaliated against by prison staff for pursuing legal action against the prison. The settlement requires the Florida Department of […]
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) — The Florida Department of Corrections plans to disallow the use of chemicals on prisoners with respiratory issues and is working to reduce the use of force on mentally ill inmates. The changes to the policy regarding inmates with respiratory ailments, such as asthma, come after reports of at least two prisoners dying as […]
Few people knew the depths of terror, misery and pain inflicted upon Florida’s state prison inmates more profoundly than Capt. James Kirkland. During 14 years as a corrections officer, Kirkland was repeatedly accused — and not just by inmates, but by fellow corrections officers — of abusing inmates at the Northwest Florida Reception Center in […]
Rommell Johnson, an inmate at a Florida Panhandle prison who had chronic asthma, couldn’t breathe on June 3, 2010. Less than five hours after receiving treatment for severe breathing problems by a day-shift nurse, Johnson was dead, the result of an asthma attack caused by noxious chemicals sprayed by guards. The death was ruled accidental […]
Details: Operation Southern Tempest was a joint federal-municipal effort assigned to nab gang members with ties to narcotics and illegal weapons. A police officer on the task force shot and killed an unarmed black man near a Miami nightclub on Feb. 10, 2011. The victim, Travis McNeil, had no gang affiliation or contraband. Plaintiffs case: […]
The petitioner’s lawyer and the federal trial judge erred, but that’s understandable, there are too many laws to keep straight, Chief Judge Ed Carnes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit opined in a civil rights case. “The current universe of federal law did begin with a bang, although not a big […]