On July 27, 1984, inmates at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center 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 plaintiffs alleged that their constitutional rights had been violated by overcrowding and lack of medical care.

On June 13, 1986, the parties entered into a consent decree, which stated that the corrections officials were to set aside sixteen single-occupancy cells within the prison's general population housing, and that they were also to provide for a nurse to be on duty at all times.

In 1990, the plaintiffs asked the court to enforce the consent decree, alleging that the defendants had not "continuously set aside sixteen single cells." The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (Judge Stephen Limbaugh) held that the defendants had shown sufficiently changed circumstances to allow them to modify the consent decree. The plaintiffs appealed.

On August 3, 1992, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (Judge Morris Arnold, Judge Gerald Heaney, and Judge Frank Magill) issued a per curiam decision affirming the district court's ruling. Green v. Moore, 1992 WL 181425 (8th Cir.(Mo.) Aug. 3, 1992).

On May 30, 1997, the defendants asked the court to terminate the consent decree and close the case pursuant to the Prison Litigation Reform Act. On July 3, 1997, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (Judge Limbaugh) granted the defendants' request to terminate the consent decree and close the case. The plaintiffs appealed.

On June 25, 1998, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (Judge Theodore McMillian, Judge James Loken, and Judge Diana Murphy) denied the appeal. Green v. Caspari, 1998 WL 390406 (8th Cir.(Mo.) June 25, 1998).

Kristen Sagar - 04/04/2006


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