Judge orders retaliation to stop against incarcerated people participating in Florida solitary confinement lawsuit
Tallahassee, FL 鈥� Following a five-day evidentiary hearing U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin A. Fitzpatrick has ordered the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) to stop retaliation and threats of retaliation against incarcerated people for participating in the Harvard v. Inch lawsuit.
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The lawsuit challenges the FDC鈥檚 use of solitary confinement, also referred to as 鈥渋solation鈥� as cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. It was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (人兽性交), Florida Legal Services, and the Florida Justice Institute in 2019 in the Northern District of Florida.
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At this hearing, eleven people in solitary confinement testified virtually from four different prisons with shackles around their wrists and prison guards sitting inches away from them.听 They testified about how prison guards verbally and physically intimidated them because they spoke to class counsel and their experts. For example, officers denied them basic necessities of food and water; called them 鈥渟nitches;鈥� demanded to know what they told their attorneys; and threatened to physically assault them just for exercising their constitutional rights by participating in this lawsuit.听 Fitzpatrick, in ruling in plaintiffs鈥� favor, determined that these witnesses provided 鈥渃redible testimony.鈥�
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Several prison administrators and officers testified in defense of FDC.听 Magistrate Fitzpatrick found much of their testimony to be 鈥渘ot credible,鈥� 鈥渃onfusing,鈥� 鈥渘ot believable,鈥� and 鈥渘onsensical.鈥澨� He said, 鈥淭he record establishes that retaliation, harassment, and threats of retaliation continued鈥� despite a February 2020 memo from Secretary Mark Inch prohibiting such conduct.听 As a result, Magistrate Fitpatrick stated it was necessary to order that 鈥渞etaliation and threats of retaliation of any kind relating to an inmate鈥檚 participation in the 鈥� civil litigation will not be tolerated.鈥澨�
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Kelly Knapp, senior supervising attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center and lead counsel in the case said, 鈥淥ur clients, who are already suffering because FDC locked them in solitary confinement for extended periods of time, had to face threats and harassment for exercising their constitutional rights. The cruelty displayed by employees of FDC must stop. It is an issue of fundamental fairness that anyone who wants to take part in this case be able to without threats and harassment from the Department of Corrections.鈥�
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The ruling can be read here.
