Petition Invoking Florida Statute 16.615(4)(d)

We the undersigned are prisoners incarcerated in the Florida Department of Corrections. As a result, we are forced to represent ourselves as private citizens before the Department of Legal Affair’s Council on the “Social Status of Black Men and Boys” in regards to the discrimination on the basis of our A.D.A. eligibility determination

More importantly, due to the COVID-19 plague, the institution where we are currently housed is on lockdown indefinitely! Therefore, imprisoned and detained people are highly vulnerable to outbreaks of contagious illnesses such as COVID-19. Unfortunately, we are housed in closed quarters whence social distancing is damn near impossible, which only subjects us to poor health conditions.

Likewise, prisons and jails house large numbers of people at extreme risk of serious symptoms, complications, and death from COVID-19. This includes qualified inmates with disabilities, i.e.: people with chronic illnesses, complex medical needs, compromised immune systems, intellectual and physical impairments and last but not least, emotional or mental disorders.

That being the case, we demand the secretary of Florida D.O.C. (Mark Inch) to train his subordinates at each facility to implement additional precautions to prevent illnesses among high-risk populations. To the maximum extent possible, these measures shall include releasing us from custody (Exodus 11:1).

Thus, releasing high-risk populations would reduce the need to provide complex expensive medical care, or transfers to hospitals when staff will be stretched thin. Furthermore, failure to release qualified inmates with disabilities who are medically vulnerable will impose a heightened duty on facilities to ensure we are provided appropriate medical care and Equal Protection from cruel and unusual punishment.

Given these points, unjustified isolation or segregation of qualified inmates with disabilities through institutionalization is a form of disability-based discrimination prohibited by Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). States must avoid disability-based discrimination unless doing so would fundamentally alter the nature of the activities, services, or programs provided by the State of Florida. Under those circumstances, we are respectfully requesting the members of the Council on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys to analyze and evaluate a clinical research study as follows:

“Whether the Florida Department of Corrections’ ineffective policies, procedures, and mechanisms are obsolete for the early identification, evaluation, and treatment of behavior disorders of adult offenders whom come into contact with the correctional system, and if so, how can prisoners be placed in a more effective environment/program better suited for rehabilitation???”

                                                                                                            Sincerely,