The Florida Justice Institute is a public interest law firm

Law firm

A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other...

 in Miami, Florida

Miami, Florida

Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

. The firm is headquartered at 100 SE 2nd St in the Miami Tower in Downtown Miami

Downtown Miami

Downtown Miami is an urban residential neighborhood, and the central business district of Miami, Miami-Dade County, and South Florida in the United States...

. It was established in 1978 by Randall C. Berg, Jr.

Randall C. Berg, Jr.

Randall Challen Berg Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia to Randall Challen Berg and Margaret Baker Berg. He spent most of his childhood in Jacksonville, FL, graduating from Robert E. Lee High School in 1967. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1971 with a...

. The institute has been dedicated to improving conditions in Florida's prison system and has initiated numerous class action lawsuits toward this end. Randall Berg is past president of the Florida ACLU. Berg also served on Governor Lawton Chiles

Lawton Chiles

Lawton Mainor Chiles, Jr. was an American politician from the US state of Florida. In a career spanning four decades, Chiles, a Democrat who never lost an election, served in the Florida House of Representatives , the Florida State Senate , the United States Senate , and as the 41st Governor of...

' Transition Criminal Justice Task Force and is the past Chairman of the Corrections Committee.

In 2007 the institute settled the Parilla v. Eslinger strip search

Strip search

A strip search is the stripping of a person to check for weapons or other contraband.-Legality of strip searches:...

 class action lawsuit. In 2001 the institute collaborated with the Florida ACLU to protect the voting rights of Florida's poor and disenfranchised. In 1996 the institute advocated for Blacks and Hispanics who were being discriminated against in the housing market. In 2000 the institute was instrumental in eliminating Florida's Amendment 2, which would have enshrined the death penalty in the state's Constitution

Florida Constitution

The Constitution of the State of Florida is the document that establishes and describes the duties, powers, structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of Florida, and establishes the basic law of the state....

. The Florida Justice Institute regularly collaborates with WriteAPrisoner.com

Writeaprisoner.com

WriteAPrisoner.com is an online Florida, based business whose stated goal is to reduce recidivism through a variety of methods that include: 1) positive correspondence with pen-pals on the outside, 2) educational opportunities, 3) job placement avenues, 4) comprehensive resource guides on a...

 and Prison Legal News

Prison Legal News

Prison Legal News is a black-and-white monthly American magazine and on-line periodical published since May 1990. It is a non-profit 501 non-profit organization and it reports on prison legal cases and prison conditions primarily in the United States...

to advocate for prisoners' rights.