Case: Cooper v. Gwinn

15153 | West Virginia state trial court

Filed Date: 1981

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Case Summary

Sometime before 1981, inmates at the West Virginia State Prison for Women filed an original action for mandamus in the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia seeking a writ of mandamus compelling prison officials to provide them with meaningful educational and rehabilitative programs and to allow for daily exercise as instructed under West Virginia state law and the substantive due process mandate of the West Virginia Constitution. The inmates, represented by private counsel, specifically alleged that prison officials routinely denied them daily outdoor exercise, transferred the only two teachers on the prison payroll to administrative and corrections positions, and that the work-release program, which placed inmates in dishwashing and serving positions at a local restaurant, did not offer enough positions to accommodate all of the inmates that qualified nor offered adequate opportunity for the inmates to gain marketable skills. The West Virginia chapter of NOW filed an amicus brief on behalf of the inmates.

On December 8, 1981, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals (Judge Warren McGraw) found that the current prison policies did violate the inmates' constitutional rights and that a writ of mandamus should be issued to prison officials. Cooper v. Gwinn, 298 S.E.2d 781 (W.Va. 1981). Finding it lacked sufficient details on the case, the court transferred it to the state's thirteenth circuit court (Judge Ronald Wilson) to develop an appropriate remedy. We do not have any further information on the case and therefore have no information on the specific remedy ordered.

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Summary Authors

Emilee Baker (5/15/2006)