Melendez v. Florida Department of Corrections

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. 

Thousands of people incarcerated across the United States are in solitary confinement. FDC holds more than 10% of its incarcerated population in some form of solitary confinement, compared to the national average of 4.5% in 2018. See Solitary Confinement: Inhumane, Ineffective, and Wasteful, Southern Poverty Law Center 5 (2019), available at www.splcenter.org/20190404/solitary-confinement-inhumane-ineffective-and-wasteful. Confined to their cells for upwards of 22 hours per day, and prevented from any meaningful human interaction, solitary confinement takes an immense physical and psychological toll,  and often exacerbates existing mental health issues. 

Mr. Melendez was first placed in a form of solitary confinement called Close Management in 2016 because he accidentally got blood on correctional officers during a suicide attempt. In Close Management, he was regularly denied showers and out-of-cell time, at one point going over 3.5 years without any out-of-cell recreation. As a result, Mr. Melendez’s mental health deteriorated significantly and his stay in solitary was punctuated by repeated suicide attempts and serious acts of self-harm, resulting in multiple hospitalizations. In addition to these deprivations, prison guards used excessive force on him on multiple occasions.    

Since 2021, MJC has represented Mr. Melendez in his fight to obtain injunctive relief and to hold FDC accountable for the torturous years he spent in solitary confinement instead of getting the treatment he needed. 

Injunctive Relief (2021-2022) 

In September 2021, after a psychiatric crisis, MJC moved for and obtained an emergency preliminary injunction, securing Mr. Melendez’s release from solitary confinement. The judge ordered Mr. Melendez moved out of solitary confinement and into inpatient mental health treatment. However, one month later, FDC transferred him back into solitary confinement.  

MJC took action again, filing a second emergency motion for a preliminary injunction. After a three-day evidentiary hearing in which Mr. Melendez, six correctional witnesses, well-known psychiatrist Dr. Terry Kupers, and correctional expert Dan Pacholke testified on behalf of Mr. Melendez, the judge ordered FDC to again transfer him out of solitary confinement, this time into general population. FDC unsuccessfully appealed both injunctions to the Eleventh Circuit. 

The Prison Litigation Reform Act limits the duration of preliminary injunctions in prison cases to only 90 days. In one of its briefs, FDC represented that it intended to move Mr. Melendez back to solitary confinement as soon as the 90 days ran out on the second injunction, so MJC moved for a permanent injunction. On the eve of the permanent injunction hearing, the Eleventh Circuit denied FDC’s appeals and affirmed Mr. Melendez’s transfer to general population. Consequentially, FDC agreed to follow the terms of the second injunction for the remainder of the litigation. 

 Summary Judgment (2023-2024) 

 In June 2023, following months of discovery, the district court denied the Defendants’ multiple motions for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds. Both FDC and the Individual Officer Defendants appealed. In August 2024, the Eleventh Circuit dismissed the Defendants’ appeals for want of jurisdiction. Specifically, it held that Defendants improperly sought review of evidentiary issues not appealable on an interlocutory basis. The case is now heading to trial.