On December 4, 1989, a class action lawsuit was filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, on behalf of all present and future prisoners of the Nevada County Jail and Nevada County Detention Center against Nevada County in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. Plaintiff prisoners alleged violations of their First, Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. In particular, prisoners alleged that they were deprived of beds, seating at meals, clothing, medical, dental, and mental health care, safety, access to attorneys, reasonable visitation, prompt determination of probable cause for detention, and prompt bail determinations. The prisoners were represented by several counsel, including the Prisoner Rights Union in Sacramento, California.

Declarations filed in the case indicated that prisoners were eating and sleeping on the hallway floors at the Nevada County Jail, and on March 6, 1990, the parties agreed to a stipulated injunction which was submitted to the District Court (Judge John Moulds). The District Court (Judge Moulds) entered the injunction on October 31, 1990. The injunction imposed a strict population cap on the county jails and required the County to remove all beds from the hallways, to provide each prisoner with a bed, to provide dental care according to accepted community standards, and to provide prompt judicial probable cause hearings. Prisoners' attorneys were also allowed unlimited and unannounced access for the purpose of monitoring compliance.

In March 1992, prisoners of the Nevada County jails were moved to a new facility, and the County sought to dismiss the prisoners' action. The District Court dismissed the action on February 26, 1993.

There was a subsequent dispute regarding the District Court's award of attorney's fees. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Judge Herbert Young Cho Choy) ultimately vacated the award and remanded the case to the District Court to calculate a reasonable fee. McGrath v. Cnty. of Nevada, 67 F.3d 248 (9th Cir. 1995). The parties subsequently agreed to settle the issue of attorney's fees.

Megan Raynor - 02/05/2006
Kathryn DeLong - 10/02/2014


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