Holt V. Sarver, E.D.Ark., 300 F.Supp
309 F.Supp. 362 (1970) Lawrence J. HOLT et al., Petitioners, v. Robert SARVER, Commissioner of Corrections, State of Arkansas; John Haley, Payton Kolb, Marshall Rush, W. L. Currie, and William Lytle, Individually and in their capacities as Members of the Board of Corrections of the State of Arkansas, Respondents. Travis Eugene FIELDS, Petitioner, v. Robert SARVER, Commissioner of Corrections, et al., Respondents. George W. OVERTON, Petitioner, v. Robert SARVER, Commissioner of Corrections, et al., Respondents. Stanley W. BROOKS et al., Petitioners, v. Robert SARVER, Commissioner of Corrections, et al., Respondents. Jack Allen BARBER, Petitioner, v. Robert SARVER, Commissioner of Corrections, et al., Respondents. Jerry DENHAM, Petitioner, v. Robert SARVER, Commissioner of Corrections, et al., Respondents. Carlton J. CARNEY et al., Petitioners, v. Robert SARVER, Commissioner of Corrections, et al., Respondents. Thomas Mitchell HILDERBRANDT, Petitioner, v. Robert SARVER, Commissioner of Corrections, et al., Respondents. Nos. PB-69-C-24, 25, 29, 71, 75, 76, 80 and 91. United States District Court, E. D. Arkansas, Pine Bluff Division. February 18, 1970. 363*363 Jack Holt, Jr., Philip Kaplan, Little Rock, Ark., for petitioners. 364*364 Don Langston and Mike Wilson, Asst. Attys. Gen., State of Arkansas, for respondents. Memorandum Opinion HENLEY, Chief Judge. These eight class actions have been brought by inmates of the Cummins Farm Unit of the Arkansas State Penitentiary System and the Tucker Intermediate Reformatory which is a part of that System against the members of the Arkansas State Board of Corrections and the State Commissioner of Corrections who administer the system. Plaintiffs contend on behalf of themselves and on behalf of other inmates and on behalf of other persons who may in the future be confined at Cummins or at Tucker that the forced, uncompensated farm labor exacted from Arkansas convicts for the benefit of the State is violative of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
[Show full text]