Nolan v. Fitzpatrick

Citation326 F. Supp. 209
Decision Date03 May 1971
Docket NumberCiv. A. No. 71-555.
PartiesDaniel NOLAN and Richard Lefebvre, on behalf of themselves and all other inmates of the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Walpole, and the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Bridgewater, v. John FITZPATRICK, Commissioner of Correction of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts et al.
CourtU.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

Michael B. Keating, John D. Leubsdorf, and Foley, Hoag & Eliot, Boston, Mass., for plaintiffs.

Charles E. Chase, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Massachusetts, Robert H. Quinn, Atty. Gen., Boston, Mass., for defendants.

Max D. Stern and John T. Williams, amici curiae, in support of plaintiffs.

OPINION

WYZANSKI, Chief Judge.

This case presents the issue whether state prison authorities violate the rights of their prisoners under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution when the authorities refuse to allow the prisoners to send to representatives of the news media unsealed grievance letters which the authorities have inspected and which they do not claim involve any security risk.

Nolan1 is confined in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Walpole, as a prisoner under a state sentence. Defendant Fitzpatrick is the Commissioner of Correction of the Commonwealth and has general authority over communications to and from prisoners in state correctional institutions. Defendant Moore is Superintendent of Walpole; defendant Sullivan is the Institutional Mail Censor of Walpole; and defendant Butterfield is a correction officer at Walpole. Collectively defendants are here referred to as "the prison authorities" or "the authorities."

In January and February 1971 Nolan wrote and deposited in the prison mail box seven unsealed letters: two to the editor of The Boston Record American, two to different reporters at The Boston Globe, one to the editor of a weekly newspaper, The Phoenix, one to a person, apparently engaged in broadcasting, at radio station WBZ, and one to a person, apparently also a broadcaster at WGBH-TV. None of those letters contained contraband, or plans for escape, or material violating any of the prison rules. Those letters commented on the media's news reports with respect to conditions, and especially a recent strike, at Walpole, and invited the addressee to correspond with Nolan or to communicate with Nolan's lawyer. In writing to Mrs. Goodman at The Boston Globe Nolan also suggested that the reporter "come into this prison and sit down with us and the administration and help us to resolve" grievances. This was the only direct solicitation of a visit or interview by an addressee.

Defendants returned those letters to Nolan, sometimes with a written comment "not allowed," and in each instance "pursuant to the policy of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections prohibiting inmates at Walpole * * * from corresponding with representatives of the news media on matters concerning prison management, treatment of offenders, and personal grievances." See Stipulation, paragraph 3.

In adopting and applying the aforesaid policy defendants were implementing the following parts of "Inmate Rules and Regulations of the Massachusetts Correctional Institution approved by the Governor and Council October 26, 1961":

"CORRESPONDENCE AND MAIL
Your officer will supply you with a form on which you should list the names and addresses of all those with whom you intend to correspond. This form should be sent to the mail censor for checking and approval. You may not thereafter correspond with anybody whose name is not on this list, unless you have received the prior permission of the mail censor. If it becomes evident at any time that correspondence does not meet approved standards names may be deleted from the correspondence list.
You are permitted to write as many letters as you desire * * * Mail may be deposited in the mail box in your Block at any time. Collections are made by the mail censor after the lines have gone to breakfast. Incoming and outgoing mail is censored in accordance with the authorization form which you have signed. Therefore, you should not seal your letters. * * *
Letters to the Governor, the Commissioner of Correction, the Parole Board, the Superintendent and members of The General Court are not subject to censorship and may be sealed and placed in the boxes provided for that purpose in the corridors.
Letters addressed within this country must be written in English. You may not solicit via mail, though favors may be asked of the immediate family. No letters may be addressed c/o General Delivery.
Letters addressed to business firms will bear the Institutional censor stamp to properly distinguish them from Institutional mail.
Any attempt to get mail of any kind in or out of the Institution except through the regular Institution procedure is a major offense.
Letters will be returned to you or the sender if the Censor feels they do not conform to the standards. * * *"

Nolan wrote twice to the Walpole mail censor, defendant Sullivan, and Nolan's counsel wrote once to defendant Commissioner Fitzpatrick to protest the return of Nolan's letters addressed to the news media. No reply was made to either Nolan or his counsel. There is no administrative remedy provided by Massachusetts law which was available to Nolan to carry his protest further.

Then Nolan and another prisoner at Walpole, LeFebvre, brought on their own behalf and on behalf of each inmate at Walpole, against the defendants heretofore named, this action, pursuant to the substantive civil rights provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and the jurisdictional provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1343, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against defendants' policy of not allowing inmates to mail letters to newspapers, magazines, radio or television stations, other news media, or persons representing such such media.

There is no doubt that this case is properly before this court. The claim falls within 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1343, and the plaintiffs have exhausted such administrative remedies as they may have under state law. Sostre v. McGinnis, 442 F.2d 178 (2nd Cir. 1971); Fortune Society v. McGinnis, 319 F.Supp. 901 (S.D.N.Y.1970); Carothers v. Follette, 314 F.Supp. 1014, 1018-1019 (S. D.N.Y.1970).

After taking jurisdiction the court received from the parties a stipulation of facts, exhibits, and affidavits of defendant Commissioner Fitzpatrick and of Lloyd E. Ohlin, professor of criminology at the Harvard Law School. The parties agreed the affidavits should be treated as the equivalent of testimony. In response to the court's inquiries, the parties after a fortnight's recess declared that they had no other evidence to offer. The class aspect of the action was ignored.

In his affidavit, defendant Fitzpatrick stated that "The Massachusetts Department of Correction fully agrees with the concept that the public has a right to know what goes on in correctional institutions." As ways in which the concept has been realized at Walpole, the Commissioner referred to those who had visited Walpole and to the rights of a prisoner (1) to seek relief in state and federal courts by petitions available to the news media, (2) pursuant to a policy adopted by the Commissioner on April 9, 1971, to dispatch an outgoing letter to a "specific attorney of record in a sealed envelope, not to be opened by any personnel," and (3) in accordance with Mass.G.L. c. 127 § 87 to "write letters to the governor, a member of the general court, the commissioner, parole board and the superintendent, master or keeper of the institution." Commissioner Fitzpatrick did not address himself directly to the question whether there was any special reason why a prisoner should not be allowed to send a letter to a news medium. However he did state that it was his judgment "that inmates should not be automatically permitted an interview with any interested member of the news media." This judgment he rested on general considerations of "security, discipline, good order of the institution and * * * the entire correctional structure."

In his affidavit, Professor Ohlin, who had served as Associate Director of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, and who had, before coming to Harvard, taught as a Professor of Sociology at the Columbia University School of Social Work, stated that:

"2. So far as I know, no research has been performed on the effects of permitting or forbidding prisoners to correspond with the press. There is no published body of scholarly or professional opinion on whether such correspondence would be a good or a bad thing from the penological viewpoint.
3. When prisoners riot or go on strike, one of their demands is almost always access to reporters. Prisoners often feel that, in ordinary circumstances, they have no effective way of bringing their grievances to public attention. Costly and destructive prison riots are primarily designed to call public attention to felt abuses, rather than to bring about escape. Over the years, despite the good intentions of prison personnel, public concern and newspaper publicity have tended to be indispensable factors in bringing about prison reform, and these in turn have often resulted from prison disorders. Although one can never be sure, I think there is a good chance that letting prisoners correspond with newspapers and broadcasters would facilitate prison discipline by providing prisoners with a nonviolent and effective outlet for their grievances. In general, I think that the development of more effective correctional practices would be helped by greater ventilation of prison problems.
4. To the extent that correspondence with the press actually brought about reforms making prisons more effective and humane, it would, of course, favor the rehabilitation of prisoners. Being allowed to write to the press might itself help to rehabilitate some prisoners by
...

To continue reading

Request your trial
7 cases
  • Goodwin v. Oswald
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit
    • June 19, 1972
    ...on any legal questions and issues intended to obtain redress for alleged unconstitutional rules or actions. 7 Nolan v. Fitzpatrick, 326 F.Supp. 209, 214-217 (D.Mass.1971). Cf. Edwards v. South Carolina, 372 U.S. 229, 231, 83 S.Ct. 680, 9 L.Ed.2d 697 (1963); Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. ......
  • Worley v. Bounds
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Western District of North Carolina
    • February 23, 1973
    ...Society v. McGinnis, 319 F.Supp. 901 (S.D.N.Y.1970); Sostre v. McGinnis, 442 F.2d 178 (2nd Cir. 1971). See also, Nolan v. Fitzpatrick, 326 F.Supp. 209 (D.Mass.1971). 3. Denial of Privilege of Reading the Book "SOUL ON In the summer of 1969, after returning to the Shelby prison camp, Worley ......
  • Jordan, In re
    • United States
    • California Supreme Court
    • September 15, 1972
    ...329 F.Supp. 196); Maine (Smith v. Robbins (D.Me.1971) 328 F.Supp. 162 (affirmed 1 Cir., 454 F.2d 696)); Massachusetts (Nolan v. Fitzpatrick (D.Mass.1971) 326 F.Supp. 209); New Hampshire (Conklin v. Hancock (D.N.H.1971) 334 F.Supp. 1119); New York (N.Y. Dept. of Correctional Services Memo AD......
  • Hillery v. Procunier
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
    • January 7, 1974
    ...Seale v. Manson, supra, 326 F.Supp. at 1379), particularly where the prisoner's First Amendment rights are imperiled. Nolan v. Fitzpatrick, 326 F.Supp. 209 (D.Mass.1971), reversed on other grounds, 451 F.2d 545 (1st Cir. 1971), Burnham v. Oswald, 342 F.Supp. 880 (W.D.N.Y.1972), Washington P......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT