This is one of a collection of § 1983 inmate cases filed in Louisiana federal courts to challenge the operation and conditions of confinement in the Louisiana prison system and in parish and city jails through Louisiana. These cases have worked their way through the federal courts for three decades.

In this case, a civil rights class action complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, alleging unconstitutional conditions of confinement in the Vernon Parish Jail. The lawsuit came on the heels of a 1978 FBI investigation of the Vernon Parish Jail which uncovered a clear pattern and practice of cell assignment on the basis of race. We do not have a copy of the complaint, so the precise nature of the plaintiff's allegations are unknown.

The PACER Docket reflects that a Consent Decree was entered by the District Court (Judge Nauman S. Scott) on October 6, 1982. A Joint Stipulation and Judgment was filed on February 18, 1982, followed by the entry of an Amended Judgment on April 18, 1983.

Thereafter, the case was reopened and closed several times, but it does not appear that any substantive action took place. The last PACER docket entry notes that the case was closed on April 1, 1991.

Dan Dalton - 02/09/2007


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