On July 15, 1977, inmates of the Clark County Jail in Las Vegas, Nevada, filed a class action lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. §1983 against the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Commission in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. The plaintiffs, represented by the federal public defender, ...
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On July 15, 1977, inmates of the Clark County Jail in Las Vegas, Nevada, filed a class action lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. §1983 against the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Commission in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. The plaintiffs, represented by the federal public defender, alleged that their constitutional rights had been violated by confinement in conditions that were oppressive, barbaric, degrading, and dangerous to their lives, health, and safety.
On August 11, 1977, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada (Judge Roger D. Foley) certified two classes of plaintiffs: a class of pretrial detainees and a class of convicted inmates. On February 21, 1978, the district court granted the United States permission to intervene as a party plaintiff in the case. On October 23, 1978, the district court (Judge Foley) issued a consent decree in the case. We have no copy of this consent decree, but we know that it provided for changes in classification procedures.
On February 29, 1980, the plaintiffs asked the district court to order the defendants to lower the population levels at the jail. On August 22, 1980, the district court (Judge Foley) issued an injunction setting the population cap for the jail at 178 inmates. The district court ordered the city to lower the jail population to that level within six months and ordered all Nevada state judges to observe this order. West v. Lamb, 497 F.Supp 989 (D.Nev. 1980).
On June 27, 1987, the district court (Judge Foley) dissolved the consent decree and dismissed the case.
Kristen Sagar - 10/13/2006
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