Case: Nelson v. Collins

1:77-00116 | U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

Filed Date: Jan. 25, 1977

Closed Date: 1997

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Case Summary

In 1977, prisoners at the Maryland Penitentiary and the Maryland Reception, Diagnostic and Classification Center, represented by the Prisoner Assistance Project, filed a Section 1983 class action suit in federal district court for the District of Maryland against the officials for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The suit alleged that the prison was overcrowded and that defendants' confined mentally ill inmates in isolation without adequate medical assistanc…

In 1978, the District Court (Judge C. Stanley Blair) held that double-celling and the confinement of mentally ill inmates in an isolated confinement section without adequate medical assistance constituted cruel and unusual punishment and ordered that the parties attempt to agree upon a plan to remedy the constitutional deficiencies. Nelson v. Collins, 455 F. Supp. 727 (D. Md. 1978). Defendants appealed and the Court of Appeals, having consolidated this case with Johnson v. Levine (see PC-MD-003), affirmed the lower court judgments, but remanded with instructions to incorporate defendants' new plan for decreasing overcrowding into a new decree. Johnson v. Levine, 588 F.2d 1378 (4th Cir. 1978). In the new decree, defendants were required to eliminate double-celling and limit the capacity of the Maryland House of Corrections.

Defendants were unable to meet the requirements of the new decree due to a large influx of prisoners, resulting in a finding by the District Court that they were in contempt. Defendants appealed. The Court of Appeals consolidated the Johnson and Nelson cases with a third case, Washington v. Keller. The Court of Appeals reversed, finding that defendants had made a ""good faith"" effort and were entitled to a modification of the decree. Nelson v. Collins, 659 F.2d 420 (4th Cir. 1981). In November 1985, the parties entered into a stipulation requiring defendants to limit the capacity and amount of double celling at the Maryland Penitentiary. In response to the construction of a new prison facility litigation renewed in 1995.

In 1997, the District Court (Judge William M. Nickerson) held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act was constitutional and required the immediate termination of the consent decrees and stipulations that had previously been approved by the court. The docket for this case is not available on PACER, and therefore our information ends with the last reported decision in 1997.

Note: this case was consolidated with Johnson v. Levine (PC-MD-003) by the fourth circuit Court of Appeals in 1978. Johnson v. Levine, 588 F.2d 1378 (4th Cir. 1978).

	Document
1:77-00116	Reported Opinion	May 17, 1978	May 17, 1978 Order/Opinion 455 F.Supp. 727
78-06416 78-06419	Reported Opinion Johnson v. Levine U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit	Dec. 13, 1978	Dec. 13, 1978 Order/Opinion 588 F.2d 1378
81-06347 81-06368	Reported Opinion U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit	Sept. 4, 1981	Sept. 4, 1981 Order/Opinion 659 F.2d 420

Case: Nelson v. Collins

1:77-00116 | U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

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