Two former employees of the Hall County Sheriff’s Department in Georgia, U.S.A. have been ordered into mandatory mediation with three former inmates who accuse the Sheriff’s Department of violating their civil rights during a 2010 incident at the county jail.  The former inmates were being transferred from another jail in Fulton County and allege that the employees violated their Constitutional rights: Their right under the First Amendment to express their concerns about their treatment, their right of protection from “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment, and their right of protection against excessive force and mistreatment based on race under the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Sheriff’s department has delayed trial on the matter for years by insisting the suit has no merit, but a Federal Judge has denied their motions for dismissal and ordered all parties into mandatory mediation by April 30^th, 2014.  If the mediation does not result in a settlement, then discovery can proceed and a trial will be scheduled.

The suit originally named the former Jail Captain as well, but the court has terminated him as a plaintiff because it could not be determined that his actions as recorded were in violation of jail policy as it stood in 2010.

Both of the existing plaintiffs in the suit are no longer employees of the jail.  Both have been involved in other complaints regarding prisoner’s rights in prior employment with the county jail and other correctional institutions, although none of those prior incidents are part of this lawsuit.