Two federal judges have told 58 prisoners in the Pulaski County jail that they must correctly file lawsuits complaining about staffing problems at the jail or the cases will be dismissed.
On Aug. 21, 23 of the inmates joined together to file a handwritten civil-rights lawsuit against Sheriff Doc Holladay and various jail officials. They filed the case pro se -- without an attorney -- alleging they are being kept locked in their individual cells too much, stifling their ability to make phone calls, watch television, exercise and participate in other activities.
They contend their freedom in the jail has been unfairly curtailed because of a shortage of jailers to supervise them, and are seeking monetary damages.
On Aug. 29, a second group of Pulaski County prisoners filed a similar suit on behalf of 35 additional inmates.
Both groups asserted that they wanted the cases to proceed as class-action cases, in which one or more of the plaintiffs would represent the group as a whole.
But in a three-page order Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Tom Ray told the first group of inmates that their case has been split into 23 different cases, with each of the named inmates acting as separate plaintiffs. He provided a list of rules every proposed plaintiff must follow in order to proceed, noting that not only must each inmate pursue his own case, but each suit must be accompanied by either a $400 filing fee or a motion to proceed as a pauper.
Similarly, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Volpe entered an order Aug. 30 giving each of the 35 inmates who signed on to the second lawsuit a chance to refile the suit correctly or see it dismissed.
Volpe said each plaintiff must submit the filing fee, as required by law, or "a properly completed Application to Proceed Without Prepayment of Fees and Affidavit, with the required calculation sheet signed by an authorized official of the detention center at which he or she is confined, within 30 days."
Volpe's order notes that even prisoners allowed to proceed as paupers must pay a $350 filing fee, sometimes in the form of installments that are collected from the prisoner's inmate trust account.
"If the prisoner's case is subsequently dismissed for any reason, including a determination that it is frivolous, malicious, fails to state a claim, or seeks monetary relief against a defendant who is immune from such relief, the full amount of the $350 filing fee will be collected, and no portion of this filing fee will be refunded to the prisoner," the order states, with those words emphasized in bold.
A sheriff's office spokesman didn't respond to a reporter's request for comment about the lawsuits shortly after they were filed.
Nearly a year ago, however, the sheriff's office acknowledged one of the issues raised in the lawsuits -- that many areas outside the inmates' housing blocks aren't covered by cameras. The Quorum Court approved the sheriff's office's request for $400,000 from a reserve fund to replace nonworking cameras and add others.
The inmates complained that when only one jailer is available to oversee up to 150 inmates at a time, especially when the lack of cameras creates "blind spots" in the facility, there is an increased risk of jailers not noticing violent or sexual acts, which endangers the inmates.
Metro on 09/13/2018