Litigation

While incarcerated at a prison in Northern California, Mr. Simms received nasal surgery at a nearby hospital. Although he was lethargic and disoriented following the surgery, two prison officers rushed Mr. Simms back to the prison—ignoring his complaints that he was having difficulty breathing, coughing up blood and experiencing severe pain—so that they could get off work on time.

Civil plaintiffs have an absolute right to voluntarily withdraw their cases. Yet, when Edward Spencer, an incarcerated plaintiff, did so, a federal district court later punished him by deeming that withdrawal a “strike” under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). That was wrong.

People incarcerated at Algoa Correctional Center in Missouri – a nearly 100-year-old prison without air conditioning – are forced to suffer through inhumane and dangerously hot conditions every summer in violation of their constitutional rights. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting for the health and safety of our clients by demanding that Missouri Department of Corrections maintain safe and humane conditions for people confined at Algoa.

Darrin Bass had his mattress removed for a month for a dismissed misconduct charge. Without his mattress, he was forced to sleep on a concrete slab with large metal screws sticking out of it. The MacArthur Justice Center took on his case to fight against these inhumane conditions. Officials in Michigan’s Department of Corrections took...

In 2008, Mr. Bowe was convicted of a gun charge under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) and was sentenced to a mandatory consecutive term of ten years in federal prison. That conviction depended on Section 924(c)’s definition of a “crime of violence.” In 2019, the Supreme Court invalidated a key component of Section 924(c)’s definition, known as the “residual clause,” as unconstitutionally vague.

During July of 2024, medical staff at Marquette Branch Prison gave Mr. Taylor and another man at the prison the wrong medication, causing the other man to overdose and die. When Mr. Taylor sought to report what had happened, officers retaliated against him, and soon after a prison doctor sexually assaulted him while he was handcuffed during a teeth cleaning. Mr. Taylor brought a lawsuit in federal court, seeking relief for these abuses.

Within a two-month period, Defendants Andrew Reidy and Albert Piña subjected Marcus Lee Luster to two clear violations of his constitutional rights while he was detained before trial at the Pima County Adult Detention Center.

Gabriel Bassford, proceeding pro se, sued police officers for arresting him simply for filming the police as they conducted an investigation at a gas station. The district court concluded that the officer arrested Mr. Bassford in retaliation for him exercising his First Amendment right to film the police.

Samuel Smalls, an incarcerated individual in Maryland, was held in solitary confinement for almost a year without access to any out-of-cell exercise or outdoor recreation whatsoever.

Joseph Vidal sued New York prison officials for violating his procedural due process rights after he was unable to introduce key witness testimony during the disciplinary hearing that resulted in his placement in solitary confinement for nearly nine months.