Once costly drugs were produced to cure hepatitis C, the state Corrections Department dragged its feet on treatment with direct-acting antiviral drugs, which are effective 95 percent of the time. The Florida Justice Institute sued on behalf of as many as 20,000 inmates, and U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker quickly responded. The lawsuit was filed […]
FJI Helps Secure First Amendment Victory for Individuals on Sex Offender Registry
FJI attorneys, along with attorneys Valerie Jonas and Beth Weitzner, have secured an important First Amendment victory for individuals on the sex offender registry. As a result of our lawsuit over a law requiring registrants to report their Internet identifiers to the state, a federal judge has issued an Order prohibiting the state from associating […]
It’s time to give prisoners a big raise
By David C. Fathi September 3 David C. Fathi is the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project. Prisoners across the United States began a strike Aug. 21 that is scheduled to last until next Sunday. The strike’s organizers are encouraging their fellow prisoners to refuse to work and to engage in other forms of […]
Update on Prison Strike Demanding End of “Slave Labor”: After 10 Days, Protests Spread to 11 States
Prisoners across the country join work stoppages, hunger strikes and commissary boycotts in at least 11 states to protest prison conditions and demand the end of what they call “prison slavery.” Organizers report prisoners in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Indiana are demonstrating. Individuals in Texas, California and Ohio have gone on hunger strike, including […]
Tempering The Cost Of Aging, Dying In Prison With The Demands Of Justice
Photo: Meredity Nierman / WGBH A Massachusetts state prison is expanding the graveyard where it buries inmates who die in custody, one consequence of the state’s huge increase in aging prisoners. And as more inmates age and die behind bars, the cost of their care is skyrocketing, fueling new efforts to release prisoners who are too […]
FDC withdraws proposed rule to cut prison visitation hours
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CNS) — Prison reform groups are celebrating a victory after a proposed rule to cut visitation hours in Florida prisons was withdrawn after extensive public outcry. The Florida Department of Corrections had been trying to cut prison visitation hours since February. The department was met with outrage from families of those behind bars. “I […]
Despite Privatization, Prison Health Costs Continue To Rise
As a candidate, Gov. Rick Scott pitched the idea of having private companies provide health care to the state’s prisoners in a plan to save taxpayers $1 billion over seven years. But in the first five years of privatization, the cost has climbed from $278 million to $375 million. Privatization isn’t the only cause for […]
As he was strangled by his cellmate at Dade prison, guards did nothing, complaint says
Anthony Vidal was sentenced to 15 years in prison — not to death — for a non-violent robbery in 2006. But he died by the actions of the Florida Department of Corrections anyway, alleges a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Florida Justice Institute against the department in Miami-Dade circuit court Tuesday morning. Vidal was […]
FJI Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit against Florida Department of Corrections for Prisoner Murdered at Dade CI
The Florida Justice Institute, Inc. (FJI) today filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Vidal’s family alleging that Anthony Vidal’s death was caused by negligent guards at Dade Correctional Institution (DCI). Not only did these guards fail to help him once the attack began, guards at Dade CI knowingly put a very violent […]
ACLU, FJI, and Others Return to Court to Enforce Historic Pottinger Agreement Protecting Miami Homeless
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – June 1, 2018 MIAMI, FL – The Greater Miami Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida has filed a motion urging a federal court to enforce a historic legal agreement protecting the rights of homeless persons in Miami, in response to recent actions by the City of Miami that […]
Florida inmates’ families will have to pay for video “visits”
TALLAHASSEE — Faced with in-person visitations slashed in half and an offer to pay for the privilege, a coalition of inmate families and reformers announced Thursday they will fight the Florida Department of Corrections where hurts: in the pocketbook. The Campaign for Prison Reform said it will boycott a new FDC program that will allow […]
Advocates File Lawsuit Over Threat to Eject and Arrest People Left Homeless by Miami-Dade Residence Restrictions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – May 7, 2018 CONTACT: ACLU of Florida Media Office, media@aclufl.org, (786) 363-2737 MIAMI, FL – Attorneys from Legal Services of Greater Miami, Florida Justice Institute, and the ACLU of Florida’s Greater Miami Chapter have filed a lawsuit on behalf of a group of homeless individuals encamped at NW 71st Street and NW 36th Avenue, challenging […]
Video Shows City Workers Destroying Property of Homeless Miamians
The morning of April 17, Wilbur Cauley left all of his belongings in their usual place: stacked by a fence under the I-395 overpass at NW First Court and 13th Street. It was in the middle of a four-block area where about 30 homeless Miamians live. That morning, Cauley, an Army veteran in his late […]
Florida prisons see visitation upheaval as corrections officials cite contraband crisis
After a ramp up of enforcement that led to thousands of prisoner visitor strip searches beginning last summer, the Florida Department of Corrections will cut visitation days in half, saying it can’t safely facilitate the process. Since July, Florida corrections officials have implemented a contraband crackdown that has weighed heavily on inmates’ girlfriends, wives and […]
Arizona death row inmates die from hepatitis C, not lethal injection
PHOENIX — Since executions were put on hold by a federal judge in 2014, five Arizona death-row inmates have died of “natural causes.” All of them were related to hepatitis C infections, according to attorneys and relatives of the dead prisoners. The medical director at the Arizona prison complex that until last year housed the majority of death […]
Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2018
By Peter Wagner and Wendy Sawyer March 14, 2018 Press release Can it really be true that most people in jail are being held before trial? And how much of mass incarceration is a result of the war on drugs? These questions are harder to answer than you might think, because our country’s systems of confinement are so […]
Hepatitis C Drugs Save Lives, but Sick Prisoners Aren’t Getting Them
By Ted Alcorn March 15, 2018 Any national campaign to eliminate hepatitis C, an insidious virus that kills tens of thousands of Americans a year, would almost certainly involve prisons. One in seven state inmates are believed to be infected, and the regimented environment of a prison has its advantages when it comes to screening and treatment. […]
Prisoner Rights Advocates Rally Against Visitation Cutbacks In Florida Prisons
They arrived in street-parked caravans carrying stark white banners and neon signs with slogans like, “Invest in people, not in prisons.” Several of them donned black-and-white striped prisoners costumes as they gathered to the screech of the megaphone and the beat of a snare drum. Around 50 protesters were barred from the building by police tape. […]