Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse

Case: Blake v. Carr

4:20-cv-00807 | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

Filed Date: Aug. 3, 2020

Case Ongoing

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Case Summary

This case concerns the conditions of confinement at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell (hereafter FMC-Carswell), a women’s prison in Fort Worth, Texas. The original plaintiffs included over seventy prisoners who alleged systemic failure to implement proper COVID-19 protocols, unjustified denial of medical care and hygiene products; low-quality food, and emotional abuse by prison staff. These 70+ plaintiffs filed their complaint on August 3, 2020, in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, without counsel, seeking both injunctive relief and damages. The plaintiffs asserted that the prison’s conditions amounted to “deliberate indifference” and “wanton infliction of pain” in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s bar against cruel and unusual punishment. The case was assigned to Judge Mark Pittman.

The plaintiffs sought to bring this suit as a class action. But on August 11, 2020, the Court denied class certification, and then severed the case into seventy different cases, each with its own plaintiff. Many of them decided to proceed in those individual cases, filing motions seeking release. On December 22, 2020, the Court construed these as motions for compassionate release, and denied them all, stating that only the sentencing court had appropriate jurisdiction to release. 2020 WL 7629242. This judgment, entered in 30+ individual cases, explicitly did not decide the plaintiffs’ other claims for monetary and other relief. In the same order, the Court appointed counsel from a private firm as well as the Texas A&M School of Law Civil Clinic, and instructed the appointed attorneys to consider consolidating the remaining plaintiffs' cases, and filing an amended complaint.

On April 23, 2021, counsel duly filed a motion to consolidate 37 cases, and also filed an amended complaint, which included a new cause of action for discrimination on the basis of disability in violation of § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 alongside the plaintiff’s original cause of action for unconstitutional conditions of confinement in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

On June 4, 2021, the court granted the motion to consolidate the cases, with the lead case being Mixon v. Carr, 4:20-CV-854-P.

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Summary Authors

Eric Gripp (6/4/2021)

Nicholas Gillan (11/24/2021)

People

For PACER's information on parties and their attorneys, see: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17433254/parties/blake-v-carr/

Judge(s)

Pittman, Mark Timothy None (Texas)

Attorneys(s) for Plaintiff

Brown, Lindsey Marsh (Texas)

Buffmire, Edwin M (Texas)

Ceckowski, Lauren Kay (Texas)

Garcia, Graciela (Texas)

George, J Paul (Texas)

Watler, Paul C (Texas)

Wieser, Jay K (Texas)

Zang, Lauren Todd (Texas)