Gates v. Collier, 75-3686

• Decision Date: 18 March 1977
• Docket Number: No. 75-3686,75-3686
• Parties: Nazareth GATES et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor-Appellant, v. John COLLIER et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1241

548 F.2d 1241

Nazareth GATES et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor-Appellant, v. John COLLIER et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 75-3686.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

March 18, 1977.

Rehearing Denied April 14, 1977.

Roy S. Haber, Boulder, Colo., Ronald R. Welch, Herman Wilson, David M. Lipman, Jackson, Miss., H. M. Ray, U. S. Atty., John R. Hailman, Asst. U. S. Atty., Oxford, Miss., Brian K. Landsberg, Judy E. Wolf, Dept. of Justice, Appellate Section Civil Division, Washington, D.C., for plaintiffs-appellants.

A. F. Summer, Atty. Gen., Paul Roger Googe, Jr., James M. Ward, Asst. Attys. Gen., Jackson, Miss., for defendants-appellees.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Before TUTTLE, AINSWORTH and CLARK, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

This appeal was argued and submitted to the Court on May 10, 1976. It arises from an order of the trial court which granted substantial relief at the behest of the individual parties and of the United States as intervenor with respect to the operation of the prison system of the State of Mississippi. The appeal was based upon a complaint that the trial court's orders that had been entered in August and October, 1975 while properly finding existing conditions violated the constitutional rights of the individual plaintiffs and the class they represented, failed to grant fully adequate relief.

The delay in disposing of this appeal results from the fact that the trial court retained jurisdiction over the cause, which was fully in accord with proper procedures in a case of this kind, in order that the plaintiffs might move for further or faster relief at any time under the supervision of the district court. The extent of the challenges to the method of operating the state prison system and the judge's extensive findings in support of many of these allegations were first spread upon the record in Gates v. Collier, 349 F.Supp. 881 (D.C.1972). The judgment of the trial court was affirmed by this Court in Gates v. Collier, 501 F.2d 1291 (5th Cir. 1974).

Following a motion by private plaintiffs seeking further relief on December 13, 1974, the trial court issued a further opinion which is reported at 390 F.Supp. 482 (D.C.1975). There, the court found that: "(d)espite continuing progress at Parchman in certain areas, serious problems remain in others, often with constitutional significance."

Thereafter, the trial court entered an order requiring the defendants within 60 days to submit a plan for the reduction of the inmate population and the elimination of residential camps unfit for human habitation. See appendix 1 to the court's memorandum opinion, 390 F.Supp. at 490. Following the submission of the required plans, the private plaintiffs objected and an evidentiary hearing was held on August 6 and 7, 1975. The United States, as intervenor, participated in the hearings. By order of August 7, the court ordered that the two worst camps be closed by July 1, 1976; that two be closed by January 1, 1977; that two more be closed by July 1, 1977. The court also prescribed maximum...