On September 29, 1971, former and present inmates of the Mississippi County (Arkansas) Penal Farm filed a class action lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, alleging that the county had violated their constitutional rights by requiring them to work in unsafe conditions, providing them inadequate medical care and clothing, maintaining unsanitary showering and kitchen facilities at the jail, and failing to protect them from assaults by other inmates. Plaintiffs alleged that the institution forced those sentenced for misdemeanors to work on public works projects for no pay.

On May 11, 1973, the District Court (Judge Garnett T. Eisele) denied the plaintiffs' constitutional claims and requests for declaratory and injunctive relief, dismissing the case. Howerton v. Mississippi County, 361 F. Supp. 356 (E.D.Ark. 1973). The court further held that working of misdemeanants without compensation on public projects was not unconstitutional and that a statute permitting contracts between counties to incarcerate and work convicts from other counties did not violate the Thirteenth Amendment. We have no further information on this case besides this published opinion.

David Terry - 04/25/2006


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