Male inmates confined in the Washington County Jail in Hillsboro, Oregon, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon against the county under 42 U.S.C. §1983 requesting that the county provide them with adequate and private space in which they could confer with their attorneys at the jail. The District Court (Judge James A. Redden) entered a consent decree on January 3, 1984, stating that in addition to the then-existing attorney interview booths, the county was required to set aside two hours daily in the jail law library for the purposes of attorney/client interviews. Also, depending on the law library's use by inmates for legal research, the library should be made available, upon request, at other times of the day for attorney/client interviews, and if the law library is not available for attorney/client interviews, then jail officials, upon request, are required to make reasonable efforts to attempt to secure other areas within the Washington County Jail for confidential attorney/client interviews.

The docket in this case was not available from PACER. All the information on the case that we have gathered is from a reported opinion in the related case Steinke v. Washington County (JC-OR-003) (regarding criminal defense attorneys' right to confidential interviews with their clients, inmates at the Washington County Jail). Steinke v. Washington County, 857 F.Supp. 55 (D.Or. 1994).

Tom Madison - 03/14/2006


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