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Kellie Rehanna, a transgender woman who was brutally raped while in the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ custody, has been blocked from vindicating her rights after the Bureau failed to protect her and threatened her into silence. The MacArthur Justice Center is dedicated to ensuring erroneous interpretations of state law do not prevent prisoners from holding prison officials accountable for their egregious actions.

After a correctional officer filed a retaliatory false report against Jory Strizich that placed him in solitary confinement for eight months, Mr. Strizich attempted to get relief but was unable to access the prison’s convoluted grievance process. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting for prisoners like Mr. Strizich, who are prevented from getting their day in court because of erroneous interpretations of the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s exhaustion provision.

After lights out at an Oklahoma jail, Officer Byers – the only jailer on duty – ordered 19-year-old Savanaha Works to leave her cell and go to the laundry room. There, he directed her to pull down her pants. Feeling powerless to resist the orders of an officer, Ms. Works complied, and Officer Byers sexually...

While housed in the men’s unit in the El Paso Jail in Colorado as a pretrial detainee, Darlene Griffith, a transgender woman, was subjected to sexual harassment and assault, misgendering, and denial of access to commissary items like women’s underwear and lipstick. The MacArthur Justice Center joins Ms. Griffith’s fight in an effort to hold jails and prisons accountable for how they treat transgender people in their custody.

Prison officials prevented Danyale Tubbs from accessing a rehabilitative self-help book authored by his sister because of a sweeping, unreasonable application of a prison censorship policy. MJC is fighting to ensure sweeping prison policies do not violate prisoners’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to receive reading materials that are not harmful or threatening.

The district court dismissed Anthony McGowan's claims, keeping him from being able to hold jail officials accountable in court after they failed to protect him from a brutal, foreseeable, and preventable attack. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting to provide a check against cursory dismissal of meritorious prisoner lawsuits at the screening stage, which results in less accountability for egregious misconduct by jail and prison officials.