In 1976, plaintiff filed a class action suit under section 1983 against the Lubbock County commissioner's court, county commissioners, county judge, county sheriff, and the Texan Commission on Jail Standards. The district court for the Northern District of Texas (Chief Judge Halbert Woodward) consolidated several similar cases and certified plaintiffs' class. Before litigation began, the United States intervened. In 1977, the court held that defendants' actions violated inmates' constitutional rights and granted plaintiffs injunctive relief but denied plaintiffs monetary damages. The injunction addressed food services, security staffing, mail censorship, reading materials, telephone facilities, visitation rights, disciplinary procedures, classification, solitary confinement, and implementation of the injunctive relief. Vest v. Lubbock Co. Comm'r. Ct., 444 F. Supp 824 (N.D. Tex. 1977). According to the original docket, defendants continued to report to the court through 1978. In September of 1980, the court dismissed the case without prejudice due to a lack of activity, but just one month later, the court modified an order from 1977 regarding guard duty. We have the original (non-PACER) docket: it ends in October of 1980 and shows the case as closed.

Lauren Cutson - 05/26/2005


compress summary