This is one of a collection of § 1983 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 an effort to avoid inconsistent decrees, in Hamilton v. Morial, 644 F.2d 351 (5th Cir. 1981) [See JC-LA-3 of this collection] the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that all federal litigation against state, parish or local prison facilities, relating to population issues, be consolidated in the District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. Thereafter, many Louisiana state, parish, and city facilities entered into consent decrees which specified inmate population limits and officer-to-inmate ratios. Since 1981, those facilities were under the judicial oversight of District Judge Frank J. Polozola of the Middle District of Louisiana. Over the years Judge Polozola revised the decrees to adjust population caps and officer-to-prisoner ratios as necessary.

In this case, the original Consent Decree was approved and entered by the District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana on September 22, 1982 and the case was closed. The Decree set limits for the maximum number of people housed in the St. John Parish Detention Center and the St. John Parish Law Enforcement District.

On August 4, 1994, District Judge Polozola ordered that all cases involving population caps for parish prisons be reopened and reconsidered.

A revised Consent Decree was approved and entered by District Judge Polozola on January 24, 1997

On December 23, 1997, the case was again closed. The PACER docket notes no further activity.

Dan Dalton - 02/09/2007


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