The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida has ruled that the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) violated federal law when it seized a civil rights settlement from Jason Baez, an incarcerated man who lost an eye and was left nearly blind after a beating by FDC officers. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Florida Justice Institute (FJI) filed suit on Baez’s behalf challenging FDC’s seizure of his settlement funds.
In July 2024, the FDC imposed the $547,850 “cost of incarceration” lien after Baez settled a lawsuit against the FDC officers responsible for the beating. Without providing notice or following any state law procedures required for lien collection, FDC took the very funds it paid to settle the suit from Baez’s prison bank account.
In an order granting summary judgment for Baez, the court held that federal civil rights law preempts FDC from using a cost of incarceration lien to take his settlement funds. The court found that allowing the state to “reimburse itself” from the same money it paid to settle Baez’s claims undermines the dual purposes of federal lawsuits: to deter state actors from committing civil rights violations and to compensate victims of those violations.
“The court’s ruling confirms what we’ve said from the start,” said Kelly Knapp, senior staff attorney, SPLC. “The state can’t add an additional penalty of over a half million dollars two decades into a sentence and take back the very money it paid Mr. Baez for partially blinding and disfiguring him. Civil rights settlements exist to hold the state accountable, not to be clawed back through a debt-collection statute. The SPLC applauds this ruling and will continue to challenge the unjust treatment of incarcerated individuals across the South.”
Under Florida law, FDC can impose “cost of incarceration” liens in the amount of $50 for each day of a person’s prison sentence, plus almost 10% interest. These liens attach to any money the convicted person has now or in the future until paid off. While in prison, FDC generally does not pay incarcerated people for prison labor, and their only income comes from people who give them money to buy daily necessities like deodorant and stamps from the prison canteen. A national study found that, after release, about two-thirds of formerly incarcerated people were “jobless at any given time.”
“This ruling puts prison officials on notice that funds from civil rights settlements are protected,” said Dante P. Trevisani, litigation director, FJI. “It will help incarcerated people and their attorneys hold officials accountable for their unconstitutional actions.”
The court order can be viewed here.
The case is Baez v. Dixon, Case No. 25-CV-216 in the Northern District of Florida. Contact: press@splcenter.org.