In 1989, plaintiffs filed suit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from unconstitutional conditions of confinement in the Natrona County Jail. In 1990, the district court for the District of Wyoming (Judge Alan B. Johnson) entered a consent decree, enjoining defendants from violating inmates' rights under the Eighth Amendment with respect to overcrowding, staffing, and recreation. In 1992, plaintiffs filed a motion seeking to hold the county in contempt of the consent decree, which resulted in a settlement. One year later, plaintiffs filed another contempt motion, and plaintiffs prevailed. Litigation concerning plaintiffs' attorney's fees continued in 1994, whereby plaintiffs' counsel, attorneys from the ACLU, were awarded over $40,000 in attorney's fees. Kersh v. Bd. of Co. Comm'rs of Natrona Co., 851 F. Supp. 1541 (D. Wyo. 1994). The docket for this case is not available on PACER, and the only reported decision we have on file concerns attorney's fees rather than the substantive terms of the consent decree.

Lauren Cutson - 05/26/2005


compress summary