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Shawn Brust has served over 23 years of a 15-years-to-life sentence. After reviewing Mr. Brust’s record and conducting a hearing, the Ohio Parole Board determined by an 8-0 vote that he was suitable for release and should be paroled. But, after receiving statements from the victim’s family, the Board reversed its decisions and denied Mr. Brust parole. The Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center, alongside the Due Process Institute, Cincinnati Black United Front and Abolitionist Law Center, filed an amicus brief in support of Mr. Brust on appeal to the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Tenth Appellate District.

A group of incarcerated men suffering from untreated or under-treated cancer filed pro se habeas corpus petitions seeking, among other things, release to home confinement in order to be treated by their own doctors. They alleged that they had been subject to unconstitutional conditions of confinement because prison officials were deliberately indifferent to their serious...

Jerry Cintron spent two and a half years in a room no bigger than a parking spot as punishment for a disease that affects millions of Americans: opioid use disorder (OUD). The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting alongside Mr. Cintron to advocate for the ending of solitary confinement—particularly in response to mental and physical health crises—a horrific practice that all but ensures poor, and sometimes deadly, outcomes for incarcerated people.

Scott v. Pennsylvania Board of Parole challenges the constitutionality of life without parole (LWOP) sentences for people convicted of felony-murder under Pennsylvania’s constitutional provision barring cruel punishments. Plaintiffs are seven people sentenced to die in prison even though they did not commit a murder—and some did not even know a murder was committed at all. They...

After spending years locked away in solitary confinement four people brought a class action lawsuit, alleging the practice violated the the North Caroline State Constitution’s ban on cruel or unusual punishment. The MacArthur Justice Center represents amici in the case.