By Mark Miller
South County Spotlight Northwest News Partnership
COLUMBIA COUNTY, Ore. — A federal judge ordered Columbia County to pay more than $802,000 over a lawsuit brought by a prisoners’ rights publication over county rules limiting Columbia County Jail inmates’ mail correspondence Monday, March 24.
United States District Judge Michael H. Simon ruled last year that the jail’s policies limiting correspondence to postcards and preventing the delivery of magazines -- including Prison Legal News, the victorious plaintiff in the suit -- violated the U.S. Constitution. He had previously halted the practice with a temporary injunction in May 2012.
“Although society always benefits when constitutional rights are enforced and protected, here other members of the public received a more tangible benefit as a result of PLN’s successful lawsuit,” Simon wrote in his Monday ruling. “This action brought specific injunctive relief not only to PLN but also to all inmates at the Jail and their family and friends and others who wish to correspond with them in ways not otherwise feasible under the Jail’s ‘postcard only’ policy.”
Simon’s court order Monday requires the county to pay 90 percent of the attorney’s fees Prison Legal News calculated as among its expenses in the suit -- or $763,803.45 -- along with other court-related expenses.
The amount the county has been ordered to pay for attorney’s fees and expenses totals $802,176.46. The county previously agreed to pay $15,000 in damages to avoid another trial.
Full story: Columbia County ordered to pay $800k for jail mail restrictions