Horn v. Oldham County Consent Decree

Horn v. Oldham County was brought by the 14-year-old brother and the mother of Robbie Horn to end the incarceration of any other children in the jail. At 11:00 p.m. on December 16, 1982, 15-year-old Robbie was ordered held in the Oldham County jail in LaGrange, Kentucky, after having had an argument with his mother. By 11:30 p.m. he was dead: left alone in a cell, he had taken off his shirt, wrapped one sleeve around his neck and the other around the bars of his cell, and hanged himself. Jail records show that Robbie was one of 1,390 children held in the jail between 1979 and 1983, most on minor or ‘status’ offenses. In January 1985, Oldham County officials agreed never to house children in the county jail again, and to pay substantial damages to Robbie Horn’s family.