Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
Juvenile Inmates Solitary Confinement Class Action Lawsuit Overview:
- Who: A federal judge allowed a class action lawsuit lodged against the Florida Department of Justice on behalf of juvenile inmates to proceed.
- Why: Plaintiffs claimed the Florida DOJ violated their constitutional rights by placing juvenile inmates — including ones with disabilities — in solitary confinement; a Class that was certified by the judge.
- Where: The class action lawsuit is pending in Florida federal court.
Thousands of juvenile inmates who have been placed in solitary confinement in Florida detention centers can now join a class action lawsuit against the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DOJ).
The class action lawsuit was originally filed in 2019 on behalf of individual juvenile inmates — including ones with disabilities — who were placed in solitary confinement while housed at Florida detention centers.
US District Judge Robert Hinkle, who certified the Class this week, says data shows that thousands of minors housed in juvenile detention centers were placed in solitary confinement between 2014 and 2020, reports CBS Miami.
Juvenile Inmates Claim Solitary Confinement Policy Violated Rights in Class Action
Plaintiffs claim the Florida DOJ violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the federal Rehabilitation Act.
Hinkle clarified that his certification did not prove the plaintiffs claims, but stressed the impacts a potential ruling could have on juvenile defendants going forward, reports CBS Miami.
“If the plaintiffs’ view of constitutional law ultimately wins out — it might or might not — the department’s method for deciding whether to place a child in solitary confinement will change for all these thousands of children, as will the conditions of their confinement,” said Hinkle.
The DOJ has maintained that it is within its constitutional rights to use “behavioral confinement” and stressed its use was done on an individual, case-by-case basis, reports CBS Miami.
“The decision to confine each youth is made on an individualized, case-by-case basis,” the DOJ said in May. “The constellation of variables that go into a decision to place a youth in confinement and what a certain youth experiences while in confinement make it impossible to have a class.”
Hinkle, meanwhile, wrote plaintiffs aren’t challenging solitary confinement on an individual basis, but rather the allegedly widespread procedure in its entirety, reports CBS Miami.
A settlement agreement was reached earlier this month between the Louisiana Department of Corrections and death row prisoners who argued their constitutional rights were violated by being forced to spend 23 hours a day in solitary confinement.
Citizens taken into custody and/or detained by the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center on or after Oct. 14, 2015, may be eligible to claim compensation thanks to an $11 million class action settlement reached this year in the Middle District of Tennessee.
Stay on top of important legal news by signing up for Top Class Actions free weekly newsletter!
Don’t Miss Out!
Check out our list of Class Action Lawsuits and Class Action Settlements you may qualify to join!
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
- Settlement Grants More Out-of-Cell Time For Death Row Prisoners at Louisiana Penitentiary
- Do You Qualify: Boys & Girls Clubs of America Sexual Abuse Class Action Lawsuit InvestigationReplace link text
- Adults Who Were Sexually Abused in Childhood in California Seek Their Day in Court
- Mormon Sex Abuse Lawsuits Allege Church is More Concerned with Financial Standing
2 thoughts onJuvenile Inmates Placed in Solitary Confinement by Florida DOJ Get Cert in Class Action
My son was in juvenile detention center when he was a minor. They separated him from all the others. Now he is in prison. In a cell almost 24 hrs a day. Only allowed out for 10 minutes, 3 times a week for a shower. I understand prison is not supposed to be easy. And everybody makes mistakes. Some more dire than others. He was a good boy that made a mistake as a minor. And now he is a good man that was in a situation that has led him there. It didn’t happen in Florida. Apparently it happens in other places, but people like did not know that something could be done about letting the world know about things like this. Punishment is fine, but being g inhumane toward prisoners is not. Thank You for letting me know that I am not the only person that does not feel some of the things in juvenile detention centers and prisons are not okay.
I actually been in Orlando’s juvenile detention and they also force you to spray Lysol on your hair and pubic area just as a procedure for the problem of lice, but then turn around and give you a comb once a week that everybody shares. At that it was overcrowded 3to 4 people in a two man cell. I been to juvenile detention in Phoenix Az also Seattle Washington so this was so Bazar and definitely needs to be looked into