On June 13, 1984, three prisoners at the Butte County Jail filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of California for the County of Butte against the County Board of Supervisors, challenging the constitutionality of their conditions of confinement. The plaintiffs, represented by the Prisoner Rights Union and private counsel, alleged, among other things, that prisoners were not being provided with meaningful access to the courts.

The parties reached a settlement and the Court issued a consent decree. While the full content of the decree is unknown to us, one of its provisions required that the jail maintain a law library that is staffed by legal research assistants. The register of actions indicates that the consent decree was modified at various points, starting in 1989, and extended at various points, starting in 1994. The decree is still in force as of the time of this writing.

Christopher Schad - 08/13/2012


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