In the early 1970's, prisoners of the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri filed a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Missouri Department of Corrections in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The case incorporated a large number of cases filed to challenge prisoner transfer and retention in the START program at the facility. Although some of the cases were originally commenced pro se, the plaintiffs were ultimately represented by the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Hawkeye Legal Aid Society, the National Prison Center, the Legal Aid and Defender Society of Greater Kansas, and the Federal Public Defender. They alleged that their constitutional rights had been violated when the prison transferred them without a hearing into an involuntary behavior modification program, which involved major changes in conditions of confinement, particularly in the areas of privacy, disciplinary procedures, association with other prisoners, and religious opportunities.

On July 31, 1974, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri (Judge John Oliver, Jr.) held that the plaintiffs' rights had been violated because they were entitled to an appropriate hearing, and that all other claims in the case were moot because the program in question had been voluntarily discontinued by the prison. Clonce v. Richardson, 379 F.Supp. 338 (W.D.Mo. 1974). We have no further information on the proceedings in this case.

Kristen Sagar - 04/05/2006


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