On November 9, 1990, two thirteen-year-old boys and a fifteen-year-old girl confined at the Donald E. Long Home (DELH) in Multnomah County, Oregon filed a class action lawsuit against the chairperson and members of the Board of County Commissioners for Multnomah County. The plaintiffs brought suit by and through Susan F. Mandiberg, professor of law at Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College, and were represented by counsel from Oregon Legal Services, Multnomah County Legal Aid, the Juvenile Rights Project, and the National Center for Youth Law. They complained of unconstitutional conditions at the DELH, including dangerous physical conditions, inadequate medical services, and insufficient provision of meals, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated at the DELH.

On April 23, 1992, the parties entered a consent decree in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. The Court (Judge Helen J. Frye) ordered that the DELH must be closed on October 31, 1993, after which time a replacement facility would be utilized. Prior to closure, the defendants were to comply with a list of fifty provisions, including instituting a fire evacuation plan, providing janitorial services and medical care, and maintaining a comfortable temperature in the DELH. The consent decree provided for a monitor or panel of monitors, to be chosen jointly by the plaintiffs and defendants, in order to conduct on-site inspections of the DELH twice a year. The Court (Judge Frye) granted the parties' motion to dismiss on May 5, 1994, after the terms of the consent decree were fulfilled. The case file was sent to the FRC on March 15, 1995.

Stacey Jensen - 05/22/2006


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