U.S. Appeals Court: CONSENT DECREETERMINATION PLEA-Prison Litigation Reform Act.

• Position: Prisoners and prisons - Brief Article

Gilmore v. People of the State of California, 220 F.3d 987 (9th Cir. 2000). A corrections department moved under the Prison Litigation Reform Act to terminate the prospective relief provisions of a consent decree governing certain conditions of confinement for condemned prisoners. The federal district court granted the motion for termination and prisoners under the sentence of death appealed. The appeals court reversed and remanded. The appeals court held that the PLRA termination provision is not a unilateral mandate to courts to unconditionally terminate prospective relief in prison conditions cases and does not unconstitutionally prescribe the rule of decision. The...