Litigation

After Christopher Welters suffered permanent injury when Minnesota prison officials refused to loosen his handcuffs for hours, the Minnesota Supreme Court correctly determined that the officials were not entitled to qualified immunity. The MacArthur Justice Center represents Mr. Welters to defend this decision from review in the U.S. Supreme Court and ensure that qualified immunity does not stand in the way of holding prison officials accountable for their abuse.

Before Jackson Maes died by suicide in a jail cell, jail officials saw him repeatedly and violently strike his head against a cell wall and heard him say he was trying to kill himself. They still failed to put him on suicide watch or obtain the mental health treatment he needed. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting to ensure that qualified immunity does not shield jail and prison officials from being held accountable for their often-dangerous indifference toward prisoners’ health and safety.

Prison officials caused Michael Rivera to have an asthma attack when they deployed pepper spray in the process of removing another prisoner from the unit, despite Mr. Rivera’s repeated pleas to be placed out of harm’s way. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting to ensure that erroneous interpretations of the qualified immunity doctrine do not shield prison officials from accountability when they act with deliberate indifference toward the health and safety of incarcerated people.

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.

In a blatant disregard for detainees' safety and humanity, the St. Louis City Justice Center (CJC) jail correctional officers curate fear and control with often indiscriminate, excessive macing and water deprivation. The MacArthur Justice Center is working to hold jails and prisons alike, and the cities that run them, accountable for their torturous use of chemical agents and other human rights violations against those in their custody.

After a Michigan jail official kicked six-month pregnant Jaquetta Coopwood in the stomach, the district court denied Ms. Coopwood the ability to hold the jail official accountable, ruling that she did not “properly” exhaust the jail’s grievance process. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting alongside prisoners with mental illness, like Ms. Coopwood, who are unfairly held responsible for a grievance process made impassable by their untreated and debilitating psychological condition.

When three incarcerated people brought a suit against a California prison asserting claims arising from the same incident in which they were tortured for nine hours, a magistrate judge locked them out of the court by imposing a categorical bar in “multi-plaintiff pro se actions” — but Congress has never imposed such a categorical bar. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting to ensure that prisoners — like any other person filing suit — can file joint lawsuits.

Ashraf Khalil, a devout Muslim, was continuously ordered by prison officials to shave his beard despite it being integral part of his Muslim faith and suffered retaliation – including solitary confinement – for his refusal. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting alongside Mr. Khalil to ensure people of all faiths are able to exercise their First Amendment right and practice their faith fully while incarcerated.

The district court absolved the Illinois Department of Corrections from accountability in their negligent and abhorrent treatment of Michael Johnson, who spent 24 hours a day locked in a hermetically sealed box approximately the size of a parking space and was denied virtually all out-of-cell time for nearly three years. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting alongside incarcerated people like Mr. Johnson, who are subjected to long-term solitary confinement – a cruel and unusual punishment that violates incarcerated people’s Eighth Amendment right.

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.