Rights Behind Bars
Cases
Rights Behind Bars has won more than a hundred cases in the Federal Circuit Courts. Our briefs are linked on their case pages. If they are helpful to you as an attorney or pro se litigator, please feel welcome to use them.
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Melnik v. Dzurenda
Rights Behind Bars, together with O’Melveny & Myers, represent John Melnik, an individual incarcerated at Nevada Desert State Prison who was denied the opportunity to present documentary evidence in his defense for a disciplinary charge. Because he was denied the opportunity to present this evidence, Melnik is currently facing three years in punitive solitary confinement.
Johnson v. Peterson
Chronic hepatitis C disproportionately affects incarcerated individuals—by recent estimates, HCV is 17 to 23 times more prevalent among prisoners than the general population. Less than 1% of the United States population is incarcerated today, but roughly 30% of all Americans with HCV reside in prison. According to a 2017 meta-analysis, Ohio’s prison population has one of the highest reported rates of HCV infection as measured by antibody prevalence, at a rate of 36% compared to the national average of 18%.
Melnik v. Aranas
Chronic hepatitis C (HCV) kills more Americans than every other infectious disease combined, and even though effective treatments that eliminate HCV in 99% of cases have been available for a number of years, some prison systems deny treatment to most or all of their patients with HCV due simply to the cost of the drugs.
Griffith v. Franklin County
Rights Behind Bars, along with MacArthur Center, represent a coalition of prison rights organizations as amici curiae in support of an eighteen-year old pretrial detainee who experienced severe nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and multiple seizures prior to proper medical intervention in a Kentucky jail.
Mammana v. Barben
Rights Behind Bars, along with Covington & Burling, represent a plaintiff on appeal who was forced to endure torture at the hands of prison staff in retaliation for requesting medical care.
Stark v. Lee County
Rights Behind Bars and the National Association for Public Defense filed a brief as amici for a case brought by a detainee who was left in five-point shackles in the backseat of a deputy sheriff’s cruiser returning to jail from a medical appointment when the sheriff chose to respond to a bank robbery and engage in a high-speed chase, causing the detainee to suffer serious injuries.
Herrera v. Cleveland
Rights Behind Bars is amicus counsel for six formerly-incarcerated attorneys with extensive experience litigating prison conditions cases both inside and outside of prison.
Van Wagner v. Faulks
Chronic hepatitis C (HCV) kills more Americans than every other infectious disease combined, and even though effective treatments that eliminate HCV in 99% of cases have been available for a number of years, some prison systems deny treatment to most or all of their patients with HCV due simply to the cost of the drugs.
Hamilton v. Westchester County
Rights Behind Bars is lead counsel representing a formerly pro se detainee who after a serious knee injury did not receive recreation, an accessible shower, a safe housing unit, or a railing to hold onto while being strip-searched.
Ingram v. Kubik
Rights Behind Bars is amicus counsel on behalf of disability rights groups supporting plaintiff who, in midst of a mental health crisis, was body-slammed by a police officer because the officer found him annoying.
Dickinson v. Cochran
Along with the law firm Wilkinson Walsh, Rights Behind Bars represents Joshua Dickinson who was jailed for three days in the midst of a mental health crisis.
Callahan v. Federal Bureau of Prisons
Rights Behind Bars represents Scott Callahan, a man in a federal prison in Ohio whose artwork was censored in violation of his First Amendment rights.
Vette v. Sanders
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund along with Rights Behind Bars represents Eric Vette, who alleges he was subject to excessive force by the police when even after being restrained by the police he was punched, hit with a dog chain, and bitten by a police dog.
Porretti v. Dzurenda
Rights Behind Bars, along with Makris Legal Services, LLC, represents Wayne Porretti, an incarcerated man who was taken off the antipsychotic medications he needs to function for non-medical reasons.
Crane v. Utah D.O.C.
Rights Behind Bars represents the grandmother of Brock Tucker on her claims under the Eighth Amendment, Utah Constitution, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Brock entered the Utah Department of Corrections when he was seventeen years old.
McCoy v. Alamu
Rights Behind Bars, along with the MacArthur Justice Center, represents Prince McCoy, an incarcerated man in Texas who was sprayed in the face with mace by a prison guard for no reason other than the guard's frustration with a different person.
Williams v. Borrego
Rights Behind Bars, along with the law firm Jones Day, represents Charles Williams, an incarcerated man in Colorado. A devout adherent to Native American religious practices, his prison collectively punished the Native Americans in their prison by prohibiting their use of tobacco for religious pipe ceremonies when a non-Native incarcerated person was caught with unrelated tobacco.
Busby v. Bonner
Rights Behind Bars, along with the MacArthur Justice Center and Janet Goode, represents a coalition of prison rights organizations as amici curiae in support of the pretrial detainees at a Tennessee jail where a COVID-19 outbreak occurred after the jail did not take adequate precautions.
Hoffman v. Preston
Partnering with the law firm Covington and Burling, Rights Behind Bars represents Marcellas Hoffman, who was incarcerated in a California prison when a correctional officer offered to pay other incarcerated people to assault him and spread rumors he hoped would lead to an attack on Hoffman.
Cameron v. Bouchard
Rights Behind Bars represents a coalition of prison rights organizations as amici curiae in support of the detainees at a Michigan jail where a COVID-19 outbreak occurred after the jail did not take adequate precautions.