On September 12, 2002, inmates of the Bucks County Correctional Facility [BCCF] filed a class action lawsuit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), challenging their conditions of confinement. Plaintiffs, represented by ...
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On September 12, 2002, inmates of the Bucks County Correctional Facility [BCCF] filed a class action lawsuit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), challenging their conditions of confinement. Plaintiffs, represented by the Institutional Law Project and private attorneys, sought declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as damages. Plaintiffs alleged that their constitutional rights had been violated by denial of necessary medical care and retaliation against sick inmates who seek care; by a lack of a policy for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of communicable disease; by a lack of ventilation and basic sanitation; by a failure to provide medical isolation facilities for inmates with communicable disease; and by the deliberate indifference to inmates' serious medical needs.
The lawsuit followed a widespread exposure of inmates to methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Around the time the lawsuit was initiated, Dr. Veronica Urdaneta of the Pennsylvania Department of Health reviewed approximately 22 inmate medical charts the BCCF relative to the MSRA outbreak. Plaintiffs sought production of her report and defendants objected. On February 26, 2003, the District Court (Magistrate Judge Diane M. Welsh) ordered that the report be produced to the court for an in camera inspection. Inmates of BCCF v. Bucks County, 2003 WL 22204548 (E.D.Pa. Feb. 26, 2003). Following the court's in camera review of Dr. Urdaneta's report, Judge Welsh order that a copy be disclosed to plaintiffs on March 14, 2003.
Discovery proceeded and plaintiffs filed a Second Amended Complaint, on September 8, 2004. Thereafter, plaintiffs moved again for class certification. On December 20, 2004, the District Court (Judge Clifford Scott Green) granted the motion for class certification on behalf of the female
inmates similarly situated in the BCCF. BCCF v. Bucks County, 2004 WL 2958427 (E.D.Pa. Dec. 20, 2004).
Thereafter, discovery and litigation of the case continued. The PACER docket (as of 6/13/2007) shows that the case is still active.
Dan Dalton - 02/12/2007
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