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| Delaware Seeks End of Prison Lawsuit |
| By News Journal |
| Published: 03/24/2003 |
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Lawyers for the state Department of Correction have asked a federal judge to end a lawsuit brought by a group of inmates who claim crowded conditions at Gander Hill prison in Wilmington violated their constitutional rights. U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson is weighing that request, plus a request from attorneys for the inmates who want part of the case decided in their favor before a trial. Inmate Gregory Hubbard filed the lawsuit in May 2000 on behalf of himself and 36 other inmates against the Department of Correction, its Commissioner Stanley Taylor and Gander Hill Warden Raphael Williams. The court appointed Wilmington attorney Paul E. Crawford to represent the inmates in November 2001. Hubbard now is serving a sentence for robbery at Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna. Crawford argued March 11 that previous decisions from federal courts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which are in the same federal appeals circuit as Delaware, found prison conditions similar to those at Gander Hill were unconstitutional. He wants Robinson to make that finding in the local case before a trial happens. If Crawford prevails, he still would have a second portion of his case to prove at trial: that conditions also violated disabled inmates' rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But Deputy Attorney General Richard W. Hubbard, no relation to the inmate who filed the suit, has asked Robinson to decide the entire case in the prison system's favor and end the need for a trial. Every U.S. District judge in Delaware who has entertained similar arguments has ruled it is not unconstitutional for Gander Hill inmates to sleep on mattresses on the floor, he said. The New Jersey and Pennsylvania cases Crawford cited, the defense attorney added, involved situations in which prison officials could have made sleeping conditions better. One facility had cots but did not use them, he said. Robinson did not say when she would rule. Gander Hill prison had 1,444 inmates as of March 11, a spokeswoman said. The operating capacity is 1,180. |
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