Christopher Markos

Mr. Markos subsequently became a Legal Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, specializing in free speech, privacy, due process and police misconduct. He successfully litigated cases involving the waiver or mitigation of old debts (both legitimate and alleged) incurred during the prosecution of criminal cases, and defended the privacy rights of public high school students whose participation in sports programs and extracurricular activities were being challenged and denied.

Along with colleagues Beth Cole and Gerald Williams, Mr. Markos was honored by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s Prisoner Civil Rights Panel for service to hundreds of prisoners injured as a result of unconstitutional conditions in the Philadelphia Prison System.

In presenting the award, The Honorable Judge M. Faith Angell noted that, between 2011 and 2014, the attorneys accepted judicial appointments to represent more than 900 former pro se plaintiffs and resolved the vast majority of the cases, with more than 500 resulting in individual settlements with the city and private medical providers.

Mr. Markos had an opinion piece printed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “What the Pope Can Expect in Jail,” regarding Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to the city and to the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility.

The Guardian, Britian’s national daily newspaper, contacted Mr. Markos for an interview in the article “Pope Francis’s Philadelphia Prison Visit highlights Crisis in U.S. Justice System” highlighting the overcrowded facility and pretrial detention.