Spain v. Procunier, C-73-1293 AJZ.

• Citation: 408 F. Supp. 534
• Decision Date: 10 February 1976
• Docket Number: No. C-73-1293 AJZ.,C-73-1293 AJZ.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
• Parties: Johnny L. SPAIN et al., Plaintiffs, v. Raymond K. PROCUNIER et al., Defendants.

408 F. Supp. 534

Johnny L. SPAIN et al., Plaintiffs, v. Raymond K. PROCUNIER et al., Defendants.

No. C-73-1293 AJZ.

United States District Court, N. D. California.

January 14, 1976.

As Modified February 10, 1976.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Mark E. Merin, Sacramento, Cal., Fred J. Hiestand, Oakland, Cal., for plaintiffs.

Evelle J. Younger, Atty. Gen., Sanford Svetcov, Deputy Atty. Gen., San Francisco, Cal., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ZIRPOLI, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Federal jurisdiction is invoked in this case under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. section 1343(3) and 42 U.S.C. section 1983. This action effectively began on December 28, 1973, with the filing of an amended complaint wherein plaintiffs, inmates at the Adjustment Center (hereinafter referred to as "AC"), at the California State Prison at San Quentin alleged that their constitutional rights under the First, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States have been and continue to be violated.¹ The complaint named as defendants Director of Corrections Raymond K. Procunier, San Quentin Warden Louis Nelson, Associate Warden John Doe Jacobs, and Correctional Officers Campbell, Palmer, and K. E. Thomas. Prior to submission of the case and pursuant to Rule 25(d), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the present Director of Corrections, J. J. Enomoto, and the present Warden at San Quentin, R. M. Rees, were added as defendants solely for purposes of injunctive relief. The case was dismissed as to defendants Jacobs and Campbell and as to K. W. Britt, who was named as a defendant while temporarily acting as Warden at San Quentin. The court now dismisses the case as to defendant Palmer since the evidence fails to disclose any activity on his part which justifies his further retention in the case.

Plaintiffs challenge the length and conditions of their confinement and treatment at the AC as well as certain practices of the defendants which allegedly impermissibly interfere with their visitor and mailing privileges and with their rights of access to effective assistance of counsel, access to the courts, and access to the media. Additionally they complain of lack of adequate medical care and attention, lack of an adequate and wholesome diet and other allegedly repressive measures to their physical and emotional detriment.

Following the denial of two motions to dismiss, a motion for summary judgment and a motion to refer the case to a three-judge federal court, all of which were found to be without merit, the parties agreed to defer trial of the damages claims until the conclusion of the trial of the equitable issues. That trial consumed 29 trial days. After briefing of the issues, the case was then submitted to the court.

At the conclusion of the hearing and before briefing, the court indicated that there appeared to be merit in plaintiffs' Eighth Amendment claims of cruel and unusual punishment as they relate to the length and conditions of plaintiffs' segregated confinement and treatment on the first tier of the AC, with its consequent denial of outdoor exercise, and as they relate to the impermissible and dehumanizing restraints applied to plaintiffs for all out-of-cell movements. Thereafter the defendants submitted a plan of outdoor exercise for inmates at the AC and indicated that the entire subject of out-of-cell movements and visiting privileges was under review. They agreed to submit progress reports on each of these two matters every 30 days. Eight such reports have been received by the court. On analysis the court finds that these reports not only fail to indicate any improvements in the conditions of confinement and treatment of plaintiffs but also fail to overcome the Eighth Amendment complaints of plaintiffs applicable to all inmates on the first tier of the AC.

It is unfortunate that these issues must be resolved by federal court intervention since the problems presented encompass basic responsibilities in the administration of state prisons which the state legislature, the governor, and duly appointed executive officials of the state are better able and equipped to resolve, given their expertise, their broad and unrestricted powers of inquiry, and their ability through their power of the purse to initiate affirmative action programs. It is obvious that any meaningful and effective resolution of the problems presented will require the appropriation and expenditure of adequate funds for the construction of such new facilities (or the remodeling of such old facilities) and the employment of such added personnel as may be needed not only to meet any constitutional deficiencies in the confinement and treatment of prisoners at the AC at San Quentin but also any that may exist in other facilities throughout the state prison system.²

When the state fails to meet its responsibility to make the required "mutual accommodation between institutional needs and objectives and the provisions of the Constitution that are of general application," Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 556, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2975, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974), that responsibility becomes the responsibility of a federal district court when proper recourse thereto is made.³

With this required mutual accommodation in mind, the court reluctantly, but of necessity, must undertake the formidable task of balancing institutional needs and objectives against the applicable constitutional provisions. In so doing the court must be ever mindful that it is dealing with a "closed, tightly controlled environment peopled by those who have chosen to violate the criminal law and who have been lawfully incarcerated for doing so," an environment where "guards and inmates co-exist in direct and intimate contact," where "tension between them is unremitting," and where "frustration, resentment, and despair are commonplace." Wolff, supra 418 U.S. at 561, 562, 94 S.Ct. at 2977. It is against this background that the length and conditions of confinement and treatment, disciplinary proceedings, and rules relating to access to counsel, access to the media, mail, visitor, recreational, and other privileges must be structured by prison authorities and evaluated by the court in the accommodation process. The court must be mindful, too, that though the rights of prisoners "may be diminished by the needs and exigencies of the institutional environment, a prisoner is not wholly stripped of constitutional protections. . . . There is no iron curtain drawn between the Constitution and the prisons in this country." Wolff, supra 418 U.S. at 555-56, 94 S.Ct. at 2974. With these considerations in mind the court now examines the relevant history of plaintiffs, the length and conditions of their confinement and treatment and their rights and privileges at the AC.

THE EVIDENTIARY HEARINGS

Testifying in support of their entitlement to relief, plaintiffs described how they got to the AC, how they have been treated there, and the effect which such treatment has had on them. Physicians, including the Medical Director of the San Francisco County Jail and the Director of the Security Ward at San Francisco General Hospital, testified in support of plaintiffs' allegations that their health had been adversely affected by the conditions of their confinement.

Two ex-guards who used to work in the AC testified in support of plaintiffs' allegations that guards have beaten, threatened, and harassed plaintiffs and other first tier AC prisoners, that prison reports are at times altered, and that the AC guards have a stereotyped view of plaintiffs and treat them in a dehumanizing fashion.

A professor of pharmacology at Stanford University who is a tear gas expert described the nature and effects of tear gas. A prisoner who had been incarcerated in every portion of San Quentin testified that incarceration in the AC was the most debilitating. Mothers of two of the plaintiffs and two of plaintiffs' lawyers described the visiting difficulties and the effects visiting problems had on plaintiffs, their visitors, and their access to the courts.

Psychiatric and psychological experts testified that AC conditions threaten the sanity of and dehumanize plaintiffs and have already damaged plaintiffs in a way that will only be fully known after they are released.

Through former Director of Corrections Procunier, Wardens Nelson and Britt, correctional officers and staff personnel, physicians and psychiatrists, defendants offered testimony on almost every phase of prison life at the AC, particularly focusing on life on the first tier where plaintiffs have been and continue to be confined. This testimony covered the physical plant of the AC and its cells, noise levels, heating and ventilating, exercise, discipline, use of tear gas, use of restraints, medical care and attention, diet, clothing, hygiene, access to counsel, access to the media, and visitor and mail privileges and procedures. On the Eighth Amendment issues on which the court had expressed particular concern they gave their reasons for the continued confinement of plaintiffs on the first tier of the AC and the use of the heavy restraint equipment employed for all of plaintiffs' out-of-cell movements.

Additionally it should be noted that the court made an unannounced visit and inspection of San Quentin on the eve of the trial. This tour of inspection lasted four hours, with most of the court's time devoted to the AC.

THE PLAINTIFFS

With the exception of plaintiff Tate, who has been paroled and is presently on bail in the sum of $100,000, the remaining plaintiffs are presently housed in maximum security segregation on the first and most restrictive tier of the AC. They are being confined there pending completion of a trial on an indictment in Marin County Superior Court in which all plaintiffs, including Tate, are charged with first degree murder and other felony offenses.⁴ They have been confined on this tier in excess of four years with no indication of...