In 1980, Native American prisoners at the Iowa State Penitentiary filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa against the Iowa Division of Adult Corrections and the Warden, Director of Security, and corrections officers at the Penitentiary. The plaintiffs, who were represented by the Native American Rights Fund, alleged violations of their First, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Specifically, the plaintiffs sought injunctive relief to enjoin the Penitentiary to provide inmates with access to a sweat lodge for religious purposes. One of the plaintiffs also sought the return of certain legal and religious papers, which he alleged the prison had confiscated, and asked for money damages.

On March 13, 1981, the court (Judge W.C. Stewart) approved a consent decree, under which the defendants agreed to find and return the missing legal and religious materials ff and to reimburse the plaintiff for any lost items. The State also agreed to allow a sweat lodge to be constructed on the grounds of the Iowa State Penitentiary. Prison officials, however, retained the authority to schedule visits to the sweat lodge, to decide where the lodge could be built, and to temporarily suspend access to the sweat lodge when necessary.

We do not have the docket in this case and have no information on any subsequent litigation. Presumably the case is over, or at least long dormant.

Rebekah Henn Sullivan - 08/16/2005


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