Marcel joined the Florida Justice Institute in 2019 and works primarily on issues of systemic prisoners’ rights violations in the use solitary confinement and failure to protect. Prior to joining FJI, Marcel was a Legal Trainee with the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Felony Early Representation Unit (ERU). While in ERU, he assisted public defender clients that were charged with felonies in successfully obtaining bond reductions, alternatives to monetary bail, vital medical and mental health services, and ultimately avoidance of pre-trial incarceration and its collateral consequences.
Marcel earned his B.S. in Legal Studies and Criminal Justice from the University of Central Florida and received his J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. While pursuing his studies, Marcel’s work focused on addressing the school to prison pipeline. He has represented students in school suspension hearings, received a 19th judicial service award for his work as a Panelist in Florida’s 19th Circuit Juvenile Diversion program, and worked as a constitutional law debate coach and Coordinator in Legal Outreach’s Law & Justice Institute at New York University School of Law and Summer Law Institute at Fordham University School of Law. As a Coordinator he developed and taught a criminal justice and advocacy curriculum to students from underserved communities in New York City.
