On December 13, 1993, the National Prison Project ("NPP") of the American Civil Liberties Union ("ACLU") brought an action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Vermont Department of Corrections in United States District Court for the District of Vermont alleging violations of First, Fourth, ...
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On December 13, 1993, the National Prison Project ("NPP") of the American Civil Liberties Union ("ACLU") brought an action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Vermont Department of Corrections in United States District Court for the District of Vermont alleging violations of First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments rights of persons confined in Vermont prisons. Plaintiffs sought injunctive and declaratory relief.
Plaintiffs specifically alleged that the conditions at Vermont's prison facilities fell below contemporary standards of human decency. Plaintiffs also sought relief from the policies and practices of the defendants in connection with two programs: the Vermont Treatment Program for Sexual Aggressors and the Violent Offender Program. These programs allegedly involved unreasonable intrusions on plaintiffs' bodily integrity and mental processes, inflicted needless pain and suffering, and threaten plaintiffs' physical and mental well-being. Plaintiffs also alleged that access to physicians in Vermont's prisons was severely limited, and that the Department of Correction routinely failed to provide emergency medical services to inmates.
On March 9, 1994, the plaintiff class was certified as "persons who are now or who will in the future be confined in Vermont prisons and all persons who are now or will in the future be subject to the policies and practices of the Vermont Department of Corrections and the Vermont Parole Board with respect to the Vermont Treatment Program for Sexual Aggressors and the Violent Offender Program."
On April 4, 1996, the parties signed a Settlement Agreement which addressed the above issues and called for the appointment of several impartial experts to monitor compliance for a period of 24 months. Between April 18, 1996 and June 10, 1996 the District Court (Magistrate Judge Jerome J. Niedermeier) received objections by class members to the proposed settlement.
On June 11, 1996 the District Court approved the settlement and dismissed the case without prejudice, except for plaintiffs' claims regarding independent medical care providers, which were dismissed with prejudice. The PACER docket ends at that point and we have no further information on this case.
Emilee Baker - 11/03/2006
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