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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES MORGAN COUNTY, TENNESSEE

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Justice Department today sued an eastern Tennessee county for failing to maintain proper living and health care standards for inmates at its county jail.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, alleges among other things, that the Morgan County Jail, located in Wartburg, Tennessee, violated the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) by failing to provide adequate security, medical and mental health care, fire safety, sanitation, or access to courts. Under CRIPA, which was enacted by Congress in 1980, the Justice Department has the authority to investigate state and local institutions, such as jails and prisons, to determine whether the facilities maintain constitutional living and care standards.

"Despite our efforts to work with county officials, serious problems continue to exist at the jail," said Bill Lann Lee, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "The Department filed this lawsuit in order to ensure that inmates' constitutional rights will be protected adequately."

The Justice Department's investigation into conditions of confinement at the Morgan County Jail, which began in October 1997, found that the jail was unsanitary, dangerously understaffed, and lacked basic medical and mental health care systems. The jail's lack of basic administrative systems, coupled with a lack of staff and staff training, have resulted in escapes, suicide attempts, and sexual assault and harassment of female inmates by jail staff and male inmates.

Today's lawsuit seeks a court order requiring Morgan County to take actions to ensure that constitutional conditions of confinement are provided to inmates at the Morgan County Jail.

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