Fort Wayne Prison Officials Under Attack by LDF

Document text

The following text has been generated automatically during the document scanning process. It may contain errors, omissions, or incorrect formatting. Please refer to the PDF document if this text is not usable.

Download

By downloading, publishing, or reusing the Materials outside of the Website, you hereby confirm and attest that you have read and agree to the LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use linked below. We draw your attention to the following:

For those Materials owned by LDF, your use of the Material outside the Site is solely for one or more of the following (the “Permitted Purposes”):

Non-commercial research and private study;
Teaching, scholarship and instruction (including distance learning);
Non-commercial print and non-commercial online use;
Criticism, comment or news reporting; or
For people with visual disabilities (See Section 121 of the Copyright Act).
For those Materials not owned by LDF you understand that:
- It is your responsibility to determine whether the way you plan to use the materials falls within the copyright exception of Fair Use.
- For any use outside of Fair Use, it is your responsibility to seek and obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders.

LDF hereby grants you the right to use LDF owned Materials for the Permitted Purposes without seeking further permission from LDF.

If you publish or redistribute any Materials (including excerpts and quotes), you must include a credit line and/or proper citation to the source of the Material. However, you may not use the name of LDF in any manner which creates any false association between you and LDF or that incorrectly implies any sponsorship or endorsement of you by LDF.

NOTICE: Uses that do not comply with these Terms or that do not fall under Fair Use (or another exception) may make you liable for copyright infringement.

Read the full LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use Here.

I agree to the terms and conditions for use of this content.

If you would like to use this content in other ways, contact us at

Collection
- Press Releases
Creator
- LDF
Taxonomy
Identifier
- e5569470-ba92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

Cite this item

Press Releases, Volume 6. Fort Wayne Prison Officials Under Attack by LDF, 1971. e5569470-ba92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/c10ec675-cfb8-4ab3-af9e-171c8900fa03/fort-wayne-prison-officials-under-attack-by-ldf. Accessed October 09, 2025.

Copied!

egal | efense

April 2, 1971
For Immediate Release

FORT WAYNE PRISON OFFICIALS UNDER ATTACK BY LDF

In a lawsuit filed yesterday (4/1) in a U.S. District Court in

Ft, Wayne, Indiana by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund,

Inc. (LDF) and by Legal Aid of Ft. Wayne, Inc., Allen County Jail

officials were charged with resorting to bribery and intimidation

ef inmates and lawyers in an attempt to forestall legal action

against alleged unconstitutional conditions and unfair treatment of

prisoners at the Ft. Wayne jail.

According to affidavits filed by local attorneys Hugo Martz

and Edward Bearse, and by Isaac Parsley, an inmate of the Allen

County Jail whe :hesimckugetbersummmvicted of any crime, jail

officials had denied attorneys reasonable access to their clients,

and had placed prisoners’in isolation cells in order to discourage

complaints against conditions at the jail. One affidavit also stated

that Allen County sheriff Robert Bender told attorney Bearse that his

clients would be released from isolation if the attorney would not

file the suit on jail conditions and treatment. Bearse's affidavit

states that he allowed bender to believe the suit would be dropped,

in order to give his clients some relief from isolation -- where one

had already attempted suicide.

Bearse's affidavit further states that he now fears for the

welfare of the jail's population, and has asked the federal judge to

issue an order restraining prison officials from bringing reprisals

against inmates for the legal action they have taken.

Complaints against conditions at the jail include charges that

the jail (about Q years old) has grossly inadequate ventilation

and heating, plumbing, bathing and toilet facilities; that the food

is ill-prepared and nutritionally insufficient; that the cells are

grossly overcrowded; that mail, including correspondence to and from

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. | 10 Columbus Circle | New York, N.Y. 10019 | (212) 586-8397

William T. Coleman; Jr. - President Jack Greenberg - Director-Counsel

FORT WAYNE JAIL Page 2

attorneys, is arbitrarily censored; that many phone calls, even

those to and from counsel, are monitored; that telephone, mail and

visiting privileges are granted or withdrawn arbitrarily and in-

consistently; that prison officials, who lump together both hardened

criminals and minor offenders, oftentimes juveniles, only segregate

prisoners by race; and that the use of isolation cells is arbitrary;

that inmates are never given hearings to determine the fairness of

isolation confinement; that prisoners are often unaware of what they

have done to warrent isolation; and that the duration of a prisoner's

confinement in isolation is at the complete whim of the jailer.

Plaintiffs' attorneys have relied, in part, upon grand jury

reports which were filed yearly since 1962, all of which have

urged that funds be appropriated for a new jail. For this reason,

members of the Allen County Council and Allen County Commissioners

ee named as defendants. The Commissioners hold responsibility

for issuing orders for repairs recommended by the grand jury, and

the Council hold the power of fixing tax rates for the county.

=30=

For further information contact: Stanley Bass or
Sandy O'Gorman
212-586-8397

Copyright notice

This collection and the tools to navigate it (the “Collection”) are available to the public for general educational and research purposes, as well as to preserve and contextualize the history of the content and materials it contains (the “Materials”). Like other archival collections, such as those found in libraries, LDF owns the physical source Materials that have been digitized for the Collection; however, LDF does not own the underlying copyright or other rights in all items and there are limits on how you can use the Materials. By accessing and using the Material, you acknowledge your agreement to the Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Materials.

Additional info

To the extent that LDF includes information about the Materials’ origins or ownership or provides summaries or transcripts of original source Materials, LDF does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of such information, transcripts or summaries, and shall not be responsible for any inaccuracies.

Fort Wayne Prison Officials Under Attack by LDF

Collection

Creator

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in