11th Circuit: Civilly Committed still have rights
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, in part, the complaint of an individual civilly committed in the Florida civil commitment center. The plaintiff, who remains confined despite completing his sentence, sued Geo group (contracted by the state to provide transport services) for, among other things, not giving him a bathroom break during a 1200 mile round trip transport to the Santa Rosa County jail for a hearing to see whether he would continue to be confined.
The Court held, “The civilly committed may not be punished merely because they are civilly committed. And under the Fourteenth Amendment, they enjoy a substantive-due-process right to liberty interests in, among other things, safety and freedom from bodily restraint. So though the State may appropriately take measures to protect the public from civilly committed individuals found to be dangerous, it must do so in a way that is consistent with professional judgment about what is necessary.” and finding that allowing no bathroom breaks during the trip and forcing plaintiff to sit in his own excrement for 300 miles, deprived him of those rights.
Civil commitment is on the same platform as the registry. Enacting a “PUNISHMENT” to someone After they have completed their sentences.
This is ALL about money folks. All of these inhumane treatments against us create jobs, funding and make politicians, sheriffs and police chiefs feel empowered and tough on crime for the voters.
This reminds me of the movie with Tom Cruise called “Minority Report” where they arrested people for FUTURE crimes they are likely to commit.
I haven’t forgotten my personal hell experienced during Florida’s kidnapping and trafficking of me last year. I nearly died. By the time I got to Broward County, my feet and lower legs were swollen twice the size and sores had burst open on my shins, I was severely dehydrated, and my blood pressure was 190/140. The idiots at the jail suggested I was faking it or just suffered from hypertension (you can’t fake high blood pressure like that). My normal BP is about 110/60.
I had experienced 6 days on the road on hard seats and nothing but fast food to eat with few bathroom breaks. We had to urinate in bottles because breaks were so few. I was severely sleep deprived, a problem since I already suffer from sleep apnaea. I’ve had chronic tailbone pain that has not stopped since that time and have trouble sitting down.
I now want to sue the prisoner transport industry.
Kudos for the court for taking the time to parse through this lawsuit (botulism?!) and deliver a (imo) fair decision instead of just dismissing it out of hand, as it seems the lower court did since they probably didn’t want to have to deal with ‘Superman.’ A good reminder that even if folks may be difficult to deal with, they are as deserving of humane treatment as everyone else.
And as someone who spent a straight week in ‘the van,’ Superman has my sympathies.
So what? Geo staff members went to prison? Did John L. Burton get a 10 million dollar award for this violation of the Constitution? Did Geo was forced to shut down?
Dear T&S:
Not yet. This case is ongoing. Hence, the remand consistent with the 11th Circuit’s opinion and Order.
I’ve been licensed as an EMT since 1975 and as a nurse since 1988. I have been licensed as a nurse in 6 different states and traveled and worked in a lot of different environments. Except for working in the military police in the army and for a civilian police force in the 80’s, I have always worked as a nurse or EMT, so have decades of experience in the medical field.
I have transported an untold number of psychiatric patients as an EMT and cared for and processed many as a nurse. We never transported any psychiatric patient in leg irons, shackles and a “black box”. Psychiatric patients are transported in soft restraints which are essentially wide leather straps. Two leather straps go around each wrist and are attached to a wide leather belt that goes around the waist. I have never used leg restraints on a patient.
EMT’s are not “armed guards”. I have never transported a prisoner in leg irons and shackles (police don’t transport prisoners over long distances) in my years in law enforcement, though I’ve seen jail staff use leg irons and shackles. I have never seen or used a “black box” but jail guards have explained it to me. It sounds like something very uncomfortable that jail guards use to punish inmates more than to restrain them.
“2 armed guards” and “leg irons, waist chains and a black box”. They are transporting “convicted prisoners” not “patients”. The truth about civilly committing sex offenders exposed!!!
I also worked in a couple of psychiatric facilities. There are no armed guards. You push a code on a key pad to enter and exit. You exit from the patient area into a hallway to an unlocked outer door. There is no razor wire or are guard towers, etc. Let’s call these facilities what they are, prisons.
As Colombo would say, “just one more thing”.
It wasn’t mentioned in the decision but I would bet that he was transported in a locked van like the police or jail guards transporting a prisoner.
Psychiatric patients are transported in an unlocked ambulance and aren’t separated from the EMT’s by a screen or locked door. A psychiatric patient can open the door from the inside unlike a criminal suspect in the back of a police car.
Attorneys are going to have to connect the dots if they are going to be successful in asserting sex offender’s rights. Until then, sex offenders have to settle for 1/2 victories whenever they receive a victory at all.
Reading the ruling above made me sick. This man has to sue for the right to use the freaking bathroom. A man who has served his time but has later been deprived of his basic human rights. “Civilly committed” what a joke.. I’d rather be “humanely committed”, where I’d at least be treated as well as an animal.
Being made to “sit in his own excrement”???
Further attrocities and acts of war!
It’s okay to arrest someone for negligence of another human being; yet it’s okay for the government to do that to people they have false claims against. Nobody should be treated this way and the ones responsible should be held accountable. I believe the world has gone mad.