Our Approach

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Affirmative Litigation

We approach our trial litigation through a movement lawyering framework. This means that litigation is just one tool, among many, that we use to achieve the goals of the clients and movements we serve. We pair innovative trial litigation with public advocacy, education, media and organizing strategies to ensure that our work has a broader and more sustainable scope than what would be achievable through litigation alone.

Featured
Survivors of Sexual Abuse at FCI Dublin

FCI Dublin is facing an avalanche of lawsuits stemming from the systemic staff sexual abuse and misconduct that has long gone unchecked at this facility.

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Savage v. Harris County, Texas, et. al.

Harris County Jail, in Houston Texas, is one of the most violent and deadly jails in the country. Ms. Savage suffered unspeakable violence during the three months she was incarcerated, including a guard assault that resulted in the loss of her pregnancy.

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Jane Doe v. Georgia Department of Correction et al

A transgender woman confined in men's prisons for decades, Ms. Doe has endured the GDC's unwarranted denial of gender-affirming surgery despite receiving recommendations for surgery from multiple GDC psychiatrists.

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Exterior of the Supreme Court of the United States

Appellate Advocacy

Rights Behind Bars tracks conditions litigation and offers representation or other aid to uncounseled clients or small firm lawyers on appeal. Once on appeal, we often partner with pro bono appellate specialists or civil rights groups. Through our intervention, we make the strongest possible case to win on behalf of our immediate clients. Our interventions also establish strong case law that sends the message to prisons and jails that they are not above the law and will ultimately be held accountable for failing to treat incarcerated individuals with the dignity the law requires.

Featured
Brown v. Stapleton, et al

While incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison, Demmerick Brown went to the prison barbershop to get a shave and a haircut. Because of the pandemic, he was wearing a face mask, and the barber told him to remove it for the shave. Mr, Brown did. On this basis, a guard filed a disciplinary charge against Brown, Brown was convicted of a rule violation, and he was fined fifteen dollars.

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Shorter v. United States, et al.

Rights Behind Bars represents Chrissy Shorter, a transgender woman who was sexually assaulted while incarcerated at a federal prison in New Jersey. Shorter brought an 8th Amendment claim pro se against the prison for failing to take preventative actions to protect her from sexual assault even after her request for transfer to a safer institution had been approved.

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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.

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