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.
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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.
Being made to “sit in his own excrement”???
Further attrocities and acts of war!
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.