Archive for the ‘civil rights’ tag
Federal Judge: You can’t gas mentally-ill inmates
Huge atta-boys to the Florida Justice Institute, Florida Institutional Legal Services, and pro bono counsel at Holland + Knight today as they have secured a very favorable decision from the Middle District of Florida. From the Daily Business Review (registration required):
Now a federal judge has ruled that the use of chemical agents against McKinney and another severely mentally ill inmate constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
Advocates for mentally ill inmates hope the 75-page order by U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan will open up a dialogue with the state Department of Corrections to prevent the gassing of prisoners who are too ill to respond to negative reinforcement.
This decision is very significant because it’s the first time a federal court in Florida has held that use of chemical agents, including pepper spray, on mentally ill inmates locked in their cells who are doing no harm to themselves or others violates the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the 8th and 14th amendments,” said Randy Berg, executive director of the Florida Justice Institute in Miami, who represented inmates in the case.
Leon Fresco, a Holland & Knight associate in Miami who worked on the case pro bono, said, “This is a decision that is going to have broad national impact. This is really ground-breaking.”
Also of note:
“We have been asking all along for intervention prior to the use of chemical agents,” Berg said. “See if the inmate understands what he is doing is wrong and if the application of chemical agents would serve any purpose.”
The Florida Justice Institute and the legal aid group Florida Institutional Legal Services in Gainesville spearheaded the lawsuit on behalf of 10 inmates. Four were dismissed from the litigation after being released, and the judge ruled against four others, finding prison officers did not have sufficient information about their mental illness before using chemical restraints.
There’s a lot more detail in the article. I’m sure we’ll be linking to other media outlets as they report the decision. If you’d like to dig into the ruling yourself, have at it.