Rentfrow v. Carter, Civ. A. No. 12277.

• Decision Date: 05 December 1968
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 12277.
• Citation: 296 F. Supp. 301
• Parties: Conrad H. RENTFROW, Joe Lee Bishop, William T. Ridings, Sam Henley, Sam Wilson, Stanford Morris, Preston Cobb, Marvin Arnold, Richard H. Roberts, Eddie Ellison, Plaintiffs, v. Robert J. CARTER, Director of the Georgia State Board of Corrections, John B. Stanley, Stetson Bennett, Jr., Richard W. Watkins, Jr., Jack T. Rutledge, as members of the Georgia State Board of Corrections, and S. Lamont Smith, Warden of the Georgia State Prison, Reidsville, Georgia, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia

296 F. Supp. 301

Conrad H. RENTFROW, Joe Lee Bishop, William T. Ridings, Sam Henley, Sam Wilson, Stanford Morris, Preston Cobb, Marvin Arnold, Richard H. Roberts, Eddie Ellison, Plaintiffs, v. Robert J. CARTER, Director of the Georgia State Board of Corrections, John B. Stanley, Stetson Bennett, Jr., Richard W. Watkins, Jr., Jack T. Rutledge, as members of the Georgia State Board of Corrections, and S. Lamont Smith, Warden of the Georgia State Prison, Reidsville, Georgia, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 12277.

United States District Court N. D. Georgia, Atlanta Division.

December 5, 1968.

Conrad H. Rentfrow, Joe Lee Bishop, William T. Ridings, Sam Henley, Sam Wilson, Stanford Morris, Preston Cobb, Marvin Arnold, Richard H. Roberts and Eddie Ellison, pro sese.

No appearance for defendant.

ORDER

HENDERSON, District Judge.

Petitioners, ten Georgia state prisoners, five white and five black, seek to file, both for themselves and as representatives of others similarly situated, a "Petition in Forma Pauperis for an Interlocutory Injunction". Jurisdiction is found by the court under 28 U.S.C. § 1343, the action arising under the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U. S.C. §§ 2000a-1, 2000a-3. Let the petition be so filed.

Petitioners seek to enjoin the application of the order of a three judge panel of this court, in Wilson v. Kelley, 294 F.Supp. 1005 (N.D.Ga. June 27, 1968), "to desegregate all penal institutions within the state * * * on or before January 1, 1969 * * *." Petitioners pray that a "strictly voluntary and freedom of choice" be substituted for the mandatory desegregation compelled by the order.

In support of their prayers, petitioners allege that on November 14, 1968, implementation of the integration order began at the Georgia State Prison, at Reidsville, Georgia, by the mass movement of some thirty (30) black inmates from a formerly segregated admission unit to a formerly all-white admission unit. Petitioners speculate that, from this initial implementation of the order, and from subsequent implementation, violence will result from the tension generated by the admixing of the races. They state that this method and, in fact, any other method of desegregation except "freedom of choice * * * should and would be met with violent resistance by the majority of both the white and black inmates". (Petition, para. 11). They raise this spectre in the light of alleged "frequent and violent fights and killings prevalent among the prisoners". (Petition, para. 15). But despite these allegations, and despite the alleged "acute shortage of custodial officers at the Georgia State Prison", (petition, para. 18), "the present administrative and custodial officers * * * are doing a remarkably efficient job of maintaining order and discipline among the white and black prisoners under the present segregated * * * conditions". (petition, para. 16).

It is a long standing policy of the courts not to interfere in prison administration and discipline. See Price v. Johnston, 334 U.S. 266, 68 S.Ct. 1049, 92 L.Ed. 1356 (1947); Tabor v. Hardwick, 224 F.2d 526 (5th Cir. 1955). At least there must be a clear abuse of discretion before the courts will interfere. See Walker v. Blackwell, 360 F.2d 66 (5th Cir. 1966). But, as evidenced by petitioners' tribute to the effectiveness of the prison staff in presently maintaining order, abuse of discretion is not at issue before the court. The gravamen of this complaint is, that through racial violence resulting from the admixture of an unwilling prison population, petitioners may be deprived of their physical well-being, liberty, and possibly their lives, without Due Process of Law.

Acting on the premise that "* * the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment follow prisoners into prison and protect them there from unconstitutional action on the part of prison authorities, carried out under color of state law", the court in Washington v. Lee, 263 F. Supp. 327, 331 (M.D.Ala.1966), aff'd mem., sub. nom. Lee v. Washington, 390 U.S. 333, 88 S.Ct. 994, 19 L.Ed.2d 1212, 1213 (1968), held segregation of Alabama penal institutions unconstitutional and ordered that those institutions be integrated. That decision was described by the Supreme Court of the United States as "unexceptionable", and was followed by the Wilson court, which ordered desegregation in Georgia penal institutions. The tenor of these decisions, demanding integration within the time allotted (in Georgia by January 1, 1969), dictates that this court not interfere by substituting a "freedom of choice plan" for the "desegregation" order of the three judge panel.

The court notes that petitioners make no showing that the recent implementation has created or added to prison violence. To the contrary, they...