CHEYENNE -- The state of Wyoming paid $350,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a former prison inmate who claimed he was beaten and sexually assaulted by another inmate at the state penitentiary in Rawlins.

The Wyoming Attorney General's Office and Jackson lawyer Mel Orchard, who represents the former inmate, both declined to release the payment amount, saying they had agreed to keep it confidential.

However, the State Auditor's Office turned over information about the December payment in response to a public records request filed by The Associated Press. The news agency isn't naming the inmate who filed the lawsuit because it has a policy of not naming victims of sexual assault.

Bruce Salzburg, Wyoming attorney general, said this week he could not comment on the payment because his office had agreed not to speak about it.

Orchard, however, said he believes the Wyoming Department of Corrections as well as the entire state government needs to pay attention to the message the settlement sends.

"What the state should learn from this, which I guess is something we all should learn, is that the value of human life is cheapened when we disgrace the people that are in our penitentiaries," Orchard said. "A civilization is judged by the most needy, and sometimes the most vilified members of its society."

In the federal lawsuit filed in 2006, the former inmate claimed he had warned officials at the state penitentiary in Rawlins when he arrived there in August 2004 that he had a conflict with his cousin, who was also an inmate there.

The former inmate told prison officials that he had provided information to prosecutors that had helped send his cousin to prison, the lawsuit stated. The inmate told prison officials he was afraid his cousin might try to kill him.

The lawsuit also claimed prison officials assured the inmate he would never come in contact with his cousin. However, the suit said the two men were later assigned to the same prison cell for seven months

The inmate's cousin subjected him to severe sexual, physical and psychological abuse, according to the lawsuit. Meanwhile, prison officials denied the inmate's repeated pleas for a transfer.

Orchard said he believes those who break the law belong in prison, but the state has a responsibility to treat them humanely.

"Humane treatment of them, and just like the humane treatment of prisoners we're seeing nationally with waterboarding, is an important litmus test about our civilization," Orchard said.

In response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer oversaw operations at the Rawlins prison from 2002 until last year. That lawsuit was prompted by the 1999 beating of inmate Brad Skinner by three other inmates. The ACLU agreed last fall with the state's request to end the federal oversight.

ACLU lawyer Stephen Pevar of Connecticut handled the Skinner lawsuit in Brimmer's court.

Regarding the recent financial settlement obtained by Orchard, Pevar said: "Presumably, this amount covers damages to (the inmate), the costs incurred in the litigation, and attorneys' fees. However, I really can't comment on whether it's a fair amount, although the parties obviously thought so.

"Either way, it's a considerable sum of money, and shows what can happen when prison officials fail to take reasonable measures to protect prisoners from assault," Pevar said.

Bob Lampert, director of the Wyoming Department of Corrections, said last year that the agency had recently instituted a system for keeping track of inmate conflicts. He said the system was under development, but not implemented, at the time Orchard's client claims he was attacked at the Rawlins prison.

"The system itself gives us an additional tool to prevent people who have documented conflicts from being housed together, or being in the same area," Lampert said.

Wyoming currently houses about 644 inmates at the Rawlins prison and about 375 at a private prison in Oklahoma.

The state is building a new prison in Torrington. Officials say they plan to bring all the prisoners back to Wyoming once that prison is completed in 2010.

An investigation last fall by the Wyoming Department of Corrections into the beating of a Wyoming inmate by other inmates at the Oklahoma prison determined that Wyoming had no policies in place to track violence against inmates being housed in out-of-state prisons.

The state probe also found that the inmate beating at the Oklahoma prison was not thoroughly investigated by Corrections Corporation of America, the private company that operates it.

The Associated Press obtained the state investigative report under the state's public records law.

Steve Lindly, deputy director of the Wyoming Corrections Department, said recently that the department is now satisfied the Oklahoma prison now is meeting its obligation to ensure Wyoming inmates are protected from assault.

Orchard, however, said he believes that the investigative report is disturbing. He said it, "highlights the fact that we are still seeing lip service paid to something that is fundamental to our democracy, which is a constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment."