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 […]
Corrections Revamps Policies On Gassing Inmates, Use Of Force
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 […]
Culture of brutality reigned at state prison in Florida Panhandle
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 […]
State To Reopen Fatal Case Of Inmate Gassing
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 […]
Miami Police Killing Produces $1.125M Settlement
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: […]
Overlooked Law Costs Inmates Suing for Kosher Diet
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 […]
Victory for Privacy as Deadline for Florida to Appeal Welfare Urinalysis Case to Supreme Court Expires
MIAMI, FL – A years-long battle over the right of poor Floridians to be free from invasive government searches ended in victory today as Florida officials decided not to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a federal court ruling striking down a law mandating that applicants for the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program […]
City of Miami approves nearly $1 million payout to family of Travis McNei
The city of Miami has settled a civil rights lawsuit with the family of a man shot and killed by a police officer in 2011. On Thursday, Miami commissioners approved a $975,000 payout to Travis McNeil’s estate, which had already reached a $150,000 settlement with federal agencies who were participating in the operation that resulted […]
‘Prison Legal News’ vs. the State of Florida: A Battle Against Censorship
Last month, a small, black-and-white newsprint magazine quietly made a case in a Florida courtroom to protect the fundamental rights that nearly every citizen in the industrialized world holds dear. Yet the odds are, you didn’t hear a word about it. Prison Legal News has reported on the legal landscape of prisoners’ rights in America’s […]
Hundreds of South Carolina Inmates Sent to Solitary Confinement Over Facebook
In the South Carolina prison system, accessing Facebook is an offense on par with murder, rape, rioting, escape and hostage-taking. Back in 2012, the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) made “Creating and/or Assisting With A Social Networking Site” a Level 1 offense [PDF], a category reserved for the most violent violations of prison conduct […]
Court rejects Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s drug testing of welfare applicants
TALLAHASSEE – A federal appeals court on Wednesday dealt another blow to Gov. Rick Scott’s crusade to conduct drug tests on welfare applicants when it upheld a lower court ruling that the practice was unconstitutional. The unanimous ruling from a bipartisan panel of judges concluded that the state failed to show any evidence as to […]
State Prison Chief Focuses on Inmate Health Care
Department of Corrections secretary Mike Crews is threatening to stop payments to a Missouri-based company that won a five-year, $1.2 billion contract to provide health care to the majority of the state’s prisoners, accusing Corizon of failing to provide adequate treatment. Crews sent a letter to Corizon CEO Woodrow Meyers on Friday saying that the […]
Florida Lawyers Want More Spent on Legal Aid, but Differ on Who Should Pay
Hundreds of Florida attorneys, including a former state Supreme Court justice, are asking the state’s judiciary to raise the annual bar dues that lawyers pay to $365, a $100 hike opposed by state bar leaders. Two legal non-profits pushing for the hike say the extra dollars are needed to prop up a legal-aid financing system […]
Lawyers Are Seriously Asking To Be Charged Higher Dues
A coalition of Florida legal aid organizations and supporters filed a petition Monday with the Florida Supreme Court asking to raise the cap on Florida Bar dues by $100 to fund legal aid programs. The group called Access for Justice wants Bar dues raised from $265 to $365 annually for Florida’s nearly 100,000 lawyers. The […]
Housing Discrimination Lawsuit Filed
It was like a sting operation: send both black and white people into an apartment building posing as renters; then see if they’re treated differently because of the color of their skin. It resulted in a discrimination lawsuit being filed in federal court. “Discrimination, completely,” said Zipporah Hayes, one of the housing testers who went […]
Housing group charges racial discrimination at Miami apartment complex
When Zipporah Hayes arrived at Elite River View Apartments to ask about a two-bedroom apartment for rent, the rental manager told her there were no units available, according to a federal lawsuit filed against the apartment complex owner. Two hours later, Alexandra Del Rosario visited the same complex and asked about an apartment. The rental […]
Lawyers for the poor seek hike in bar dues
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Joined by a former state Supreme Court justice, attorneys for the poor are trying to raise annual Florida Bar dues by up to $100 to address what they call a fiscal crisis. The attempt to hike the annual dues, which have not increased since 2001, from the current $265 has sparked an […]
ACLU, Flagler sheriff reach agreement on postcard-only policy at jail
PALM COAST — An old policy of restricting mail sent and received by Flagler County jail inmates officially ended Thursday with an agreement reached between the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. The ACLU, along with the Florida Justice Institute, filed a class-action lawsuit in early 2013 against Flagler […]