The Massachusetts Correctional Institution (M.C.I.) in Concord's Advisory Board filed this lawsuit on behalf of all inmates at M.C.I. Concord under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Massachusetts Department of Corrections in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The plaintiffs asked for declaratory and injunctive relief, arguing that the inmates' constitutional rights were being violated by inadequacies in the areas of medical care, overcrowding, sanitation, rehabilitation, and physical safety. On March 21, 1978 the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Judge Andrew Caffrey) granted partial injunctive relief, holding that the plaintiffs had proven that incarceration of inmates in protective custody cells, awaiting action cells, and institutional holding cells violated the inmates' constitutional rights, but he also held that the plaintiffs had failed to establish that double celling in one area and use of a hospital wardroom for a dormitory violated inmate rights. M.C.I. Concord Advisory Board v. Hall, 447 F.Supp. 398 (D.Mass. 1978).

The plaintiffs then asked the court to award them attorneys' fees. On September 28, 1978, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Judge Caffrey) held that the plaintiffs should be awarded attorneys' fees for the time devoted to the issues on which they prevailed in the lawsuit. M.C.I. Concord Advisory Board v. Hall, 457 F.Supp. 911 (D.Mass. 1978).

Kristen Sagar - 07/29/2007


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