On August 31, 1984, prisoners at the Missouri Training Center for Men filed a class action lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Missouri Department of Corrections in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The class action was the product of three cases that were ...
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On August 31, 1984, prisoners at the Missouri Training Center for Men filed a class action lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Missouri Department of Corrections in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The class action was the product of three cases that were immediately consolidated. (Capraro v. Morris and Harris v. Morris) The plaintiffs alleged that their constitutional rights had been violated by the use of emergency segregation cells at the prison.
On January 24, 1986, the parties entered into a consent decree, in which the defendants agreed not to use emergency segregation cells. On March 8, 1989, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (Judge Robert Kingsland) found that the defendants had complied with the decree and dismissed the case.
Barry McBride was a prisoner at the Missouri Training Center for Men during the period of time governed by the consent decree, and in August 1987, the defendants housed him in an emergency segregation cell for twelve days. After his release from the prison in 1988, he filed a pro se lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that his rights had been violated by the defendants' actions in violation of the consent decree. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (Judge Richard Webber) denied McBride's claim. He appealed.
On May 16, 1991, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit (Judge Clarence Arlen Beam, Judge Myron Bright, and Judge George Woods) reversed the district court's denial of McBride's claim and remanded the case, ordering the district court to reopen the case and enforce the consent decree. Picon v. Morris, 933 F.2d 660 (8th Cir. 1991).
On January 30, 1992, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (Judge Catherine Perry) denied McBride's motion for contempt, ruling that it was moot. The court further ordered that the order previously dismissing the case would be modified only to the extent that the court would retain jurisdiction solely for the purposes of enforcement of modification of the ongoing consent decree. We have no further information on the proceedings in this case.
Kristen Sagar - 04/04/2006
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