Gates v. Collier

This appeal by the Superintendent of the Mississippi State Penitentiary, members of the Mississippi Penitentiary Board, and the Governor of the State of Mississippi, challenges the nature and extent of the equitable relief granted by the district court which required major physical facility renovations and administrative reforms at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, at Parchman, Mississippi (hereinafter Parchman). The district court made extensive findings of fact and conclusions of law, reported in Gates v. Collier, 349 F. Supp. 881 (N.D.Miss.1972). The decision held that the conditions and practices in the maintenance, operation and administration of Parchman deprived inmates of rights secured by the First, Eighth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments and by 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1994, and granted injunctive and declaratory relief for the plaintiffs.