Plaintiffs brought this civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, claiming unconstitutional conditions of confinement at the Indiana state prison at Michigan Cit (ISP). Plaintiffs specifically challenged the adequacy of medical care, physical plant conditions, violence and security, the amount of time prisoners must spend locked down in cells and the totality of the prison conditions. The case consisted of three consolidated actions (cause numbers S 76-187, S 77-35 and S 79-32), wherein the plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief on behalf of all inmates at ISP and individual damages.

The District Court (Judge Sharp) certified the matter as a class action. Following a bench trial, Judge Sharp issued a lengthy Memorandum Opinion, Findings of Fact, Conclusions Of Law, and Order on October 21, 1981, wherein he details the testimony an evidence presented at trial. The Court found unconstitutional overcrowding, which subjected inmates in inadequately sized cells to inadequate recreation time out of cells. The Court, however, did not find that the totality of the conditions at the prison or the general level of health care provided to inmates violated the Eighth Amendment. Several individual plaintiffs were awarded money damages, in amounts of $500 and $1000 dollars. Hendrix v. Faulkner, 525 F.Supp. 435 (1981). The inmates appealed. Prison official cross-appealed the damage award.

On August 9, 1983, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit (Circuit Judge Cudahy) affirmed in part, and vacated and remanded in part the District Court's order. The Appeals Court found that (1) medical care at prison was constitutionally inadequate; and (2) prison was unconstitutionally overcrowded. It vacated the monetary damage award and remanded the case for consideration of whether the plaintiffs established at trial the requisite personal liability of defendants. The District Court's denial of damages to plaintiffs who did not establish the personal liability of defendants was affirmed. Wellman v. Falkner, 715 F.2d 269 (1983).

The Inmates' Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit was denied. Hendrix v. Faulkner, 104 S.Ct. 3587 (1984).

We have no further information on this case.

Dan Dalton - 03/01/2007


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