Gates v. Cook

• Decision Date: 28 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-60529.,03-60529.
• Citation: 376 F.3d 323
• Parties: Nazareth GATES, etc., et al., Plaintiffs, v. Thomas D. COOK, etc., et al., Defendants. Willie Russell, etc., et al., Plaintiffs, Willie Russell, on his own behalf and on behalf of those similarly situated; Sherwood Brown, on his own behalf and on behalf of those similarly situated; Kevin Jordan, on his own behalf and on behalf of those similarly situated; John Nixon, on his own behalf and on behalf of those similarly situated; Paul Woodward, on his own behalf and on behalf of those similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Robert L. Johnson, Commissioner, Mississippi Department of Corrections, in his official capacity; Christopher Epps, Deputy Commissioner, Mississippi Department of Corrections, in his official capacity; Emmitt L. Sparkman, Superintendent, Mississippi State Penitentiary, in his official capacity; Jessie Streeter, Warden, Area IV, Mississippi State Penitentiary, in his official capacity; Larry D. Harris, Captain, Unit Administrator, Unit 32, Mississippi State Penitentiary, in his official capacity, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

376 F.3d 323

Nazareth GATES, etc., et al., Plaintiffs, v. Thomas D. COOK, etc., et al., Defendants.

Willie Russell, etc., et al., Plaintiffs, Willie Russell, on his own behalf and on behalf of those similarly situated; Sherwood Brown, on his own behalf and on behalf of those similarly situated; Kevin Jordan, on his own behalf and on behalf of those similarly situated; John Nixon, on his own behalf and on behalf of those similarly situated; Paul Woodward, on his own behalf and on behalf of those similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Robert L. Johnson, Commissioner, Mississippi Department of Corrections, in his official capacity; Christopher Epps, Deputy Commissioner, Mississippi Department of Corrections, in his official capacity; Emmitt L. Sparkman, Superintendent, Mississippi State Penitentiary, in his official capacity; Jessie Streeter, Warden, Area IV, Mississippi State Penitentiary, in his official capacity; Larry D. Harris, Captain, Unit Administrator, Unit 32, Mississippi State Penitentiary, in his official capacity, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 03-60529.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

June 28, 2004.

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Margaret Winter (argued), Amy Fettig, American Civ. Liberties Union Nat. Prison Project, Washington, DC, Robert Bruce McDuff, Jackson, MS, for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

Tom Hunt Cole, Jr. (argued), Forman, Perry, Watkins, Krutz & Tardy, John Lewis Clay, Mary Jo Woods, Jackson, MS, Leonard Charlton Vincent, James Marshall Norris, Miss. Dept. of Corrections Parchman, MS, for Defendants-Appellants.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Before DeMOSS, DENNIS and PRADO, Circuit Judges.

DENNIS, Circuit Judge:

Willie Russell ("Russell") brought suit in the Northern District of Mississippi against officials of the Mississippi Department of Corrections ("MDOC") on behalf of himself and other prisoners confined to Death Row, or Unit 32-C, in the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, Mississippi. Russell alleges that certain conditions of confinement on Death Row violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. By consent of the parties, the case was tried to the magistrate judge, who found several Eighth Amendment violations and entered injunctions designed to alleviate those conditions. MDOC appealed.¹ We affirm in part and vacate in part.²

BACKGROUND

Russell argues that the prisoners housed on Death Row are knowingly and deliberately subjected to profound isolation, lack of exercise, stench and filth, malfunctioning plumbing, high temperatures, uncontrolled mosquito and insect infestations, a lack of sufficient mental health care, and exposure to psychotic inmates in adjoining cells. On May 21, 2003, the trial court issued a "Memorandum Opinion" containing its findings of fact and conclusions of law in which the court found that a number of the conditions alleged by Russell violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. That same day, the court also issued a "Final Judgment" in which it mandated that MDOC comply with injunctive relief designed to alleviate those conditions. MDOC timely appealed. The trial court denied MDOC's motion for a stay pending appeal. MDOC then filed a motion for stay pending appeal with this court; we granted MDOC's motion.

ANALYSIS

Should this case be dismissed because it was not brought in accordance with the Gates v. Collier class action framework?

MDOC first argues that this case should have been brought under the framework for enforcing injunctive relief on the Mississippi prison system provided by Gates v. Collier, 501 F.2d 1291 (5th Cir.1974). MDOC bases this argument on this court's decision in Gillespie v. Crawford, 858 F.2d 1101 (5th Cir1998). The plaintiff in Gillespie attempted to bring suit in federal district court challenging prison conditions in Texas state prison. At that time, a separate district court still retained jurisdiction over Ruiz v. Estelle, 503 F.Supp. 1265 (S.D.Tex.1980), a class action that successfully challenged unconstitutional Texas prison conditions, to monitor the prison system until the injunctions issued in Ruiz had been met. See Gillespie, 858 F.2d at 1102. The Gillespie court stated:

Separate individual suits may not be maintained for equitable relief from allegedly unconstitutional Texas prison conditions. To allow individual suits would interfere with the orderly administration of the class action and risk inconsistent adjudications. Individual members of the class and other prisoners may assert any equitable or declaratory claims they have, but they must do so by urging further action through the class representative and attorney, including contempt proceedings, or by intervention in the class action.

Id. at 1103.

Gates involved alleged constitutional deficiencies in the Mississippi prison system, and in 1998, after twenty-five years of oversight, the District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi finally dismissed the action from its inactive docket as to state-owned, state-operated, and private-company-contracted facilities (not as to county facilities), complimenting the state on its compliance with prior orders. No. GC-71-6. The court stated:

This dismissal shall be without prejudice for the plaintiffs, through counsel, to petition the Court to reopen the case or a portion thereof in order to enforce, amend, or seek additional injunctive relief.... This dismissal shall not apply to any order of the court with respect to the payment of attorneys fees and costs/expenses to plaintiffs' counsel, who shall, post-dismissal, continue to monitor compliance in state-owned, state-operated, and private-company-contracted facilities.... [T]he court finds and concludes that the rule of [Gillespie] will continue to apply in this case with respect to prisoners in state-owned, state-operated, and private-company-contracted facilities, and the court will continue to forward such prisoner petitions to plaintiffs' class counsel.

No. GC-71-6. Thus, in writing this dismissal order for Gates, the court apparently assumed that Gates was the sole vehicle for future prisoner complaints. Although Russell argues that the court only intended Gates as an option for seeking future equitable relief, the court's invoking the rule of Gillespie indicates that it was meant to be the sole vehicle.

But it does not appear that the reasoning of Gillespie is applicable here. The Gillespie court justified its rule as follows:

Permitting multiple courts to entertain equitable claims and issue decrees that might affect the Texas prison system would require other courts to become familiar with the Ruiz decree, the current problems of the Texas prison system, and the possible disruptive effect of the exercise of equitable powers over matters covered by the Ruiz decree. Moreover, if separate suits for equitable relief are filed in other districts than that in which Ruiz is pending, even with respect to problems not encompassed by the relief granted in Ruiz, the court's orders may hobble the effect of the Ruiz court's continuing decree over the Texas prison system and its power both to enforce and to modify that decree.

Id. at 1103. As this passage illustrates, the Gillespie court was concerned with avoiding the inefficiency of a situation in which multiple courts would be forced to familiarize themselves with the problems of the Texas prison system. Similarly, the court was concerned with the increased confusion and decreased effectiveness that would likely arise if multiple district courts were simultaneously exercising equitable powers over the state prison system.

In the present case, the district court judge who was the author of the Gates dismissal order assigned this case to this magistrate judge in light of this magistrate's previous experience with Gates. Thus, we are not here faced with either the problem of a new district court being forced to get up to speed on the factually-intensive problems of the state prison system or with the problem of multiple district courts simultaneously exercising equitable powers over the prison system. Additionally, the magistrate judge purported to consolidate this case with Gates after certifying the death row inmates as a subclass of Gates. MDOC argues that this is not sufficient, citing cases stating that "consolidation does not merge [multiple] suits into a single cause." See, e.g.,Johnson v. Manhattan R. Co., 289 U.S. 479, 53 S.Ct. 721, 77 L.Ed. 1331 (1933). Nevertheless, because of the consolidation and because the same judge has jurisdiction over the present action and Gates, the problems addressed by the Gillespie court are not present here.

MDOC points out that the Gates class counsel and class representative are not being utilized. But MDOC does not articulate what difference that makes, and we find it to be of no import. In fact, this court has already recognized that it may be proper for different counsel to represent a Gates subclass. See Gates v. Cook, 234 F.3d 221, 227-30 (5th Cir.2000) (reversing the district court's denial of a motion for substitution of counsel by a Gates subclass comprised of HIV-positive prisoners in the Mississippi prison system). Because this case was dealt with by the same court and judge who dealt with Gates and was consolidated with Gates, the concerns behind Gillespie are not present here and there is thus not any reason to dismiss this case.

Should this case have been dismissed because of the class members' alleged failure to exhaust administrative remedies?

MDOC argues that the judgment should be vacated and the case dismissed because the trial court did not require all of the inmates who are members of the present class to exhaust their administrative remedies. The plaintiffs respond that the named plaintiff, Russell, did exhaust his administrative remedies, and that no...