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As punishment for mental illness and self-harm, William Melendez was subjected to solitary confinement for almost seven years. The MacArthur Justice Center (MJC) is fighting to hold the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) – and departments of corrections across the country – accountable for its widespread use of solitary confinement as a punitive and cruel response to mental illness.

The MacArthur Justice Center and the National Center for Youth Law have filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights claiming Title VI violations based on Rockford Public Schools’ (“RPS”) discriminatory referrals of Black students to police.

Andrew Finch, a 28-year-old father of two young children, was shot to death with a sniper rifle by Wichita Police Officer Justin Rapp less than 10 seconds after Andrew stepped out on his front porch. Andrew had committed no crime. He was not armed. He had not threated the officers or anyone else. In fact,...

The Chicago Police Department's continued use of untrustworthy data from ShotSpotter, a surveillance technology placed in predominantly Black and Hispanic communities in Chicago, led to multiple instances of wrongful detainment and unfounded charges. MJC's class action lawsuit takes the City of Chicago to task for its continued usage of a technology that garners discriminatory policing practices.

A class action lawsuit resulting in a consent decree that requires the Police Department to end incommunicado detention by providing every arrestee or person in custody with access to communicate with an attorney, installing telephones and signage in every interrogation room and creating private and confidential rooms for arrestees to consult with an attorney.

The family of Nicolas Morales have filed a federal lawsuit in Fort Myers, Florida against the three Collier County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) officers responsible for the fatal shooting and K-9 dog mauling of Mr. Morales in 2020. Mr. Morales was a 37- year old Immokalee resident, farmworker and loving father. His young son, Nick Jr., has been left an orphan.

Daniel Taylor was convicted of a brutal homicide that he did not commit. Arrested at age 17, Mr. Taylor spent more than 20 years in prison before he was ultimately exonerated. Mr. Taylor was in police custody on a disorderly conduct charge at the time of the murder and did not bond out until well...

The MacArthur Justice Center formed a coalition of attorneys, community organizations and individuals to file a historic class action lawsuit seeking federal court oversight of the Chicago Police Department's (CPD) operations on behalf of thousands of individuals, predominately Blacks and Latinx, who have been subjected to the CPD's policy and practice of using excessive force, sometimes in racially discriminatory and brutal ways.

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the nation, Cook County Jail officials in Chicago failed to test, mask, and care for medically vulnerable people in their custody. The MacArthur Justice Center is combatting the profoundly cruel and dehumanizing pattern of medical neglect behind bars that has only worsened in the throes of a deadly global pandemic.

The MacArthur Justice Center partnered with Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd. and Civil Rights Corps to file a federal class action targeting Cook County’s unconstitutional pay-for-release cash bail system, which results in the pre-trial detention of legally innocent men and women who cannot afford to pay the court-imposed bail amount in their cases. The case, recently dismissed on technical, procedural grounds, helped to catalyze important reforms in Cook County.