Prison Study

Report Exposes 

Culture of Abuse,

Violence in Florida Prison

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — (SPLC) -- 12/14/25 -- In today’s climate of mass incarceration and lack of accountability, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released an evidence-based report on the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC), per a Dec. 2 press release. The report highlights the root causes and human toll of prison brutality over a 10-year period, from 2014 to 2024, focusing on violence and abuse at Florida’s Gulf Correctional Institution.
    

    The report focuses on Gulf Correctional as one of the prisons with the highest number of complaints about excessive force and the most failures to protect people from violence. The findings stem from personal testimonies of nearly 100 incarcerated people and thousands of public records. Incarcerated individuals and those who have been released share horrifying accounts of life behind prison walls, emphasizing a code of silence among correctional officers. Examples include officers “sadistically” beating and abusing incarcerated people, even those who had been fully restrained.

    “Our team interviewed 95 incarcerated victims and reviewed 20,000 pages of prison records, identifying over 1,000 incidents of abuse, violence and corruption at Gulf Correctional,” said Tieffa Harper, deputy legal director, SPLC. “The systemic violence in Gulf is predictable given the extreme overcrowding within the Florida Department of Corrections. Florida, with one of the highest incarceration rates in the U.S., should reduce its prison population to reduce the harms inflicted on the incarcerated people and ultimately all Floridians.”

    Those in prison endure or witness severe violence, including head strikes, body slams, chemical agents sprayed at close range, stabbings and repeated kicks and punches almost daily. Officers who engage in these brutal practices are seldom held accountable.

    The report also reveals a troubling correlation between slavery and the behavior of FDC officers. Officers oversee a predominantly Black population of 1,500 incarcerated individuals and resort to tactics reminiscent of enslavers, including violence, degrading punishments and threats.

    Additional findings from the report include: FDC officers subjected people in custody to degrading and torturous punishments, such as forcibly shaving their heads and eyebrows or forcing them to sleep directly on steel bunks in cold weather without clothing. FDC officers avoided accountability by falsifying reports and intimidating and assaulting individuals who reported abuse or sought protection. FDC officers also moved incarcerated people out of camera view before beating them, and then investigators refused to substantiate the beatings because there was no camera evidence. FDC failed to control gang activity and contraband, leading to stabbings, overdoses and homicides due to the failure to protect vulnerable individuals.

    The SPLC identifies overcrowding, particularly low ratios of staff to incarcerated people, as the primary cause of violence within the FDC. Gulf Correctional operates with less than 50% of the staff necessary for ensuring safety. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG), responsible for reviewing all uses of force and referring cases for prosecution or discipline, is also severely understaffed.

Education

ACLU: Dismantling of Core Civil Rights 

and Education Offices is Violation of Laws 

Only Congress Can Change

    WASHINGTON – (ACLU) -- 11/20/2025 -- The U.S. Department of Education announced on Nov. 18 that it will transfer critical work to other federal agencies — an unprecedented move that undermines the department’s core mission and threatens students’ civil rights. This action represents a deliberate attempt to dismantle the agency from within, despite the fact that only Congress has authority over the department.

    “The Trump administration claims core education programs can be carried out elsewhere, yet it has offered no explanation for how agencies like Labor, Interior, Health and Human Services, or State will uphold the education access requirements Congress explicitly entrusted to the Department of Education,” said ReNika Moore, director, ACLU Racial Justice Program. “Federal law requires these programs to remain within the Department of Education, and transferring them through interagency agreements violates that mandate.”

    These offices, staffed by career professionals with deep knowledge of how to best serve students and educators, are responsible for administering K-12 and higher education programs, supporting Native students, and safeguarding the rights of students with disabilities.

    Although the plan calls for Labor to administer K-12 programs that are “better aligned with workforce and college programs,” it is silent concerning the continued administration of congressionally mandated funding programs for school districts to develop high quality curriculum, provide accommodations and services for children with disabilities, help children meet state academic content and performance standards, provide before- and after-school programs, reduce class sizes, improve graduation rates, expand the availability of pre-schools, provide mental health supports, implement language instruction to assist English learners, and provide education to migratory students.

    The removal of these critical offices from the department guts the structure Congress established in 1979 to guarantee that students, regardless of race, national origin, sex, or disability, receive fair and equitable opportunities to learn.

    “Secretary McMahon is violating laws that only Congress can change. By transferring these offices across agencies that lack the expertise to lead education policy, the administration is breaking the law, eliminating academic supports to close education achievement gaps, deliberately weakening civil rights oversight, and putting millions of students at risk,” said Kimberly Conway, ACLU senior policy counsel and former attorney advisor with Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. “Congress must immediately intervene to halt this unlawful restructuring, safeguard the integrity of the department’s civil rights and education offices, and demand that the department comply with the law and keep its central role in ensuring equal educational opportunity for every student."

Education

Ruling Called Major Victory 

for Secular Public Education by FFRF

    (FFRF) -- Nov. 8, 2025 -- The Freedom From Religion Foundation is celebrating a major victory for secular public education after a federal judge in Connecticut ruled that a teacher was not entitled to display a Christian crucifix on her public classroom wall.

    In Arroyo-Castro v. Gasper, U.S. District Judge Sarah F. Russell issued a detailed opinion rejecting claims by longtime teacher Marisol Arroyo-Castro that her free speech and religious exercise rights were violated when she was instructed to remove a nearly foot-high crucifix she prominently displayed on a wall near her desk at DiLoreto Middle School in New Britain, Conn.

    The court correctly found that Arroyo-Castro was acting in her capacity as a government employee when she decorated her classroom, meaning her religious display constituted government speech — not private expression. The judge further ruled that the district acted reasonably to avoid violating the Establishment Clause by preventing a teacher from displaying a Christian symbol to a captive audience of students during instructional time.

    “This decision is a victory for every student’s right to a public education free from religious pressure or indoctrination,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “A public school classroom is a place for learning, not for preaching. Author Ruth Hurmence Green has referred to crosses as ‘Christian torture symbols,’ and this is particularly true of crucifixes depicting a writhing human form. It is not only shocking for a public school teacher to affix such a sectarian symbol on a classroom wall, but it is also highly insensitive.”

    Gaylor also pointed out that the actions of the teacher, who is Catholic, show a clear preference for Roman Catholicism, since crucifixes are the predominant Catholic symbol although some non-Catholic Christians use the crucifix. The vast majority of Connecticut citizens are not Catholic, but even if they were, the constitutional separation between religion and government clearly interdicts such a display in a public classroom.

    The case arose after Arroyo-Castro refused repeated requests from administrators to remove the crucifix, even after being told she could keep it in a private space, such as inside a desk or car. When she defied those directives, the district placed her on paid leave. Assisted by the Christian nationalist legal group First Liberty Institute, Arroyo-Castro sued the district earlier this year.

    The court concluded that allowing the crucifix to remain “runs a substantial risk of incurring a violation of the Establishment Clause.” It clarified that the Supreme Court’s 2022 Kennedy v. Bremerton ruling — which allowed a football coach to pray privately after games on a high school football field — did not apply. As Judge Russell explained, “Unlike the students in Kennedy, who were engaged in other activities while the coach prayed, Ms. Castro’s students received the religious message when they were required to be present in the classroom receiving instruction from Ms. Castro.”

    In September, the district released a report by an independent investigator detailing concerns from students and staff about Arroyo-Castro’s religious conduct in the classroom. According to the report, Arroyo-Castro reprimanded students by saying things like, “I hope papa God helps you with your lies” and “Go find God.” The investigation concluded that her behavior made many students uncomfortable and that her repeated use of religious language in a public school setting created an environment that alienated much of her class.

    FFRF commends the Consolidated School District of New Britain for upholding its constitutional duty despite outside pressure and for providing a model of how public officials should respond to similar state/church violations.

    “This teacher wasn’t punished for being Christian,” Gaylor emphasizes. “She was disciplined for putting her personal faith above the law and her students’ rights. The court rightly reminded her — and all public employees — that no one’s faith gives them permission to violate student rights or blur the wall between church and state.”

    (Original press release date: Nov. 4, 2025)

    The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 42,000 members nationwide, including more than 500 members in Connecticut. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

Law and Order

Court Strikes Down Key 

Part of Trump’s Unlawful 

Voting Executive Order

     WASHINGTON, D.C. (ACLU) —11/6/2025 -- A federal court issued a decisive ruling in League of Women Voters Education Fund v. Trump, Oct. 31, permanently blocking a provision of President Trump’s March voting executive order that sought to add a requirement to show a passport or similar document proving citizenship when registering to vote with the federal voter registration form that would disproportionately impact voters of color. The decision grants summary judgment to the plaintiffs, finding that the President lacks the authority to unilaterally alter election procedures — powers that rest with Congress and the states.

     The ruling makes permanent the preliminary injunction issued in the case in April, and reaffirms a foundational principle of American democracy: no president can violate the separation of powers to change our elections and erect barriers that disenfranchise eligible voters.

    In a joint statement, plaintiffs and counsel, who are a coalition of voting and civil rights organizations, said: “The court’s ruling confirms what we have long argued: the President may not rewrite election law to impose a burdensome show-your-papers rule that would shut out countless Americans from the ballot box. This executive order was an attempted overreach of power, bypassing the Constitution’s clear allocation of authority to Congress and the states to set election rules. Our democracy is strongest when every eligible voter can register and vote free from expensive and unnecessary requirements.” 

    The League of Women Voters Education Fund, League of Women Voters of the United States, League of Women Voters of Arizona, Hispanic Federation, NAACP, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, and Asian and Pacific Islander Vote are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of D.C., Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and LatinoJustice PRLDEF.

    The court’s opinion: https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2025/10/MSJ-Opinion.pdf

    The court’s order: https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2025/10/217-Order-Granting-MSJ.pdf