Edward Allen Mead v. Jacob J. Parker, Warden

Mead and 26 others, all inmates of the Federal Penitentiary at McNeil Island, Washington, appeal from the dismissal of their action. We reverse.

The appellants’ petition is labelled a petition for writ of habeas corpus or, in the alternative, for declaratory and injunctive relief. It purports to be a class action, filed on behalf of either all inmates of the institution (over 1,000), or alternatively, the 500 inmates to whom permits to use the “writ room” have been issued. In essence, the allegations are that each of the 27 named petitioners is seeking relief of various sorts in various courts, state and federal, that each is acting in pro. per. in so doing, being without funds to employ counsel or to buy law books or other needed legal materials, and that the supply of law books at the prison is so inadequate as to make it impossible for them to prosecute their legal proceedings. There is in the petition a list of the law books available, and, if the allegation is true, it clearly shows that the library is even more deficient than the one found to be insufficient in Gilmore v. Lynch, N.D. Cal., 1970, 319 F.Supp. 105 , aff’d sub nom. Younger v. Gilmore, 1971, 404 U.S. 15 , 92…