On September 21, 1992, inmates at the Macon County Jail in Tuskegee, Alabama, brought suit under 42 U.S.C. §1983 challenging the conditions of their confinement at the jail. The plaintiffs were represented by the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee and the Southern Center for Human Rights. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama (Judge Ira De Ment) granted the plaintiffs class certification and approved a consent order in September 1994, which required the defendants, county and state officials, to change numerous conditions at the current jail pending construction of a new jail. Judge De Ment appointed Special Master Mike Haley to monitor the defendants' compliance with the consent order.

The plaintiffs subsequently moved for contempt sanctions against the defendants for failing to comply with the terms of the consent order, and on October 24, 1996, Judge De Ment granted the plaintiffs' motion. McCray v. Dawson, 953 F.Supp. 1476 (M.D.Ala. 1996). Judge De Ment held that the defendant's claims of substantial, unforeseen changes in attempting construction of a new jail facility related to decreased county revenue, invalid construction contracts and difficulties housing high security inmates did not warrant modification of the consent order. Judge De Ment found the county's lack of progress in constructing a new jail inexcusable and ordered that for everyday that the defendants are past a deadline on the construction schedule, they were to pay $100.00 per inmate housed in the current jail until that deadline would be met. The money raised by these contempt sanctions was to remain in a fund maintained by the court for the benefit of inmates at the jail. Construction of the new jail commenced on January 15, 1997, and on April 4, 2001, Judge De Ment ordered the termination of the consent order.

Tom Madison - 03/06/2006


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