On September 18, 2014, a number of juvenile prisoners filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Multi-County Juvenile Detention Facility. The plaintiffs, represented by private counsel, asked the court for declaratory relief, injunctive relief, and damages, claiming that the state-run facility used restraint techniques and solitary confinement in a way that violated the 8th Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and the prisoners' 14th Amendment substantive due process rights.

Specifically, the plaintiffs claimed that the facility placed the prisoners in restraint chairs for up to 20 hours at a time, long after any need to restrain them had ended. They also claimed that the facility arbitrarily placed the juvenile prisoners in solitary confinement without adequate clothing or blankets for lengthy periods of time. In the isolation cells, the temperatures regularly dropped to 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on December 10, 2014, another one on January 9, 2015, and a third one on January 30. The parties then entered private mediation. On March 9, the plaintiffs gave notice of voluntarily dismissing three individual county commissioner defendants. The docket indicates the parties progressed toward settlement. On November 17, the parties filed a stipulation of dismissal with prejudice because they had finalized a private settlement, which is not publicly available. The case is now closed.

Andrew Junker - 12/04/2014
Virginia Weeks - 03/25/2018


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