Finney v. Arkansas Bd. of Correction

• Decision Date: 04 November 1974
• Docket Number: 74-1205,Nos. 73-1745,74-1406,74-1330,74-1642 and 74-8102,74-1369,74-1202,s. 73-1745
• Citation: 505 F.2d 194
• Parties: Robert FINNEY et al., Appellants, v. ARKANSAS BOARD OF CORRECTION and Terrell Don Hutto et al., Appellees. James C. ELLINGBURG, Appellant, v. Douglas NOLAN, Individually and as an Employee of the Cummins Unit, Arkansas Department of Correction, Appellee. James C. ELLINGBURG, Appellant, v. Kenneth G. TAYLOR, Individually and as a Correctional Officer, Arkansas Board of Correction, et al., Appellees. James C. ELLINGBURG, Appellant, v. Dan SEWELL, Individually and as a Police Captain, Texarkana, Arkansas, Police Department, et al., Appellees. James C. ELLINGBURG, Appellant, v. Terrell Don HUTTO, Commissioner of Correction, State of Arkansas, et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 194

505 F.2d 194

Robert FINNEY et al., Appellants, v. ARKANSAS BOARD OF CORRECTION and Terrell Don Hutto et al.,

Appellees.

James C. ELLINGBURG, Appellant, v. Douglas NOLAN, Individually and as an Employee of the

Cummins Unit, Arkansas Department of Correction, Appellee.

James C. ELLINGBURG, Appellant, v. Kenneth G. TAYLOR, Individually and as a Correctional

Officer, Arkansas Board of Correction, et al., Appellees.

James C. ELLINGBURG, Appellant, v. Dan SEWELL, Individually and as a Police Captain, Texarkana, Arkansas, Police Department, et al., Appellees.

James C. ELLINGBURG, Appellant, v. Terrell Don HUTTO, Commissioner of Correction, State of

Arkansas, et al., Appellees.

Nos. 73-1745, 74-1202, 74-1205, 74-1330, 74-1369, 74-1406,

74-1642 and 74-8102.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted June 10, 1974.

Decided Oct. 10, 1974, Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc

Denied Nov. 4, 1974.

Philip E. Kaplan, Little Rock, Ark., for appellants in No. 73-1745.

O. H. Hargraves, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, Ark., for appellee in No. 73-1745.

Before LAY and HEANEY, Circuit Judges, and DEVITT, District Judge. ^*

LAY, Circuit Judge.

In August 1973, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas rendered its decision in this class action brought by Arkansas prisoners against the members of the Arkansas State Board of Correction, Terrell Don Hutto, the Arkansas Commissioner of Correction, and other prison officials. The petitioners are inmates at the Cummins Prison Farm and the Rucker Intermediate Reformatory. The petitions challenge the Arkansas prison system as a constitutional system of correction. Seven of the petitioners have appealed. ^** They assert error in the district court's findings. We reverse in part and remand the case to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

This case had its origin in prior litigation. In 1969 the district court generally reviewed prison conditions in Arkansas and requested prison officials to suggest possible remedial measures. Holt v. Sarver, 300 F.Supp. 825 (E.D.Ark.1969) (Holt I). In 1970, after extensive hearings concerning Cummins and Tucker, the district court found that conditions and practices at both institutions were such that confinement in either constituted cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Holt v. Sarver, 309 F.Supp. 362 (E.D.Ark.1970) (Holt II).

In Holt II, the district court recognized that not all of the reforms directed could be accomplished overnight. It emphasized that removal of the unconstitutional conditions and practices would be required in a matter of months, not years. It stated:

The obligation of the Respondents to eliminate existing unconstitutionalities does not depend upon what the Legislature may do, or upon what the Governor may do, or, indeed, upon what Respondents may actually be able to accomplish. If Arkansas is going to operate a Penitentiary System, it is going to have to be a system that is countenanced by the Constitution of the United States.

309 F.Supp. at 385.

This court affirmed Holt II. We directed the district court to retain jurisdiction for a period no longer 'than necessary to provide reasonable assurance that incarceration therein will not constitute cruel and inhuman punishment . . .' and to require an up-to-date report on the progress made in eliminating the constitutional violations. Holt v. Sarver, 442 F.2d 304, 309 (8th Cir. 1971).

The district court received a progress report on July 19, 1971. It held additional hearings in November and December of that year. On December 30, 1971, it ruled that 'great progress' had been made but that many problem areas remained, so it retained jurisdiction. In September of 1972 the district court observed that it was continuing to receive 'a constant stream of complaints' from the inmates at Cummins indicating that the defendants were still violating the court's initial and supplemental decrees. ¹ The court ordered a further evidentiary hearing. Lengthy hearings were conducted in December, 1972, and January, 1973. More than 30 inmates testified. Numerous defense witnesses also testified. The court denied individual relief, but granted petitioners a second supplemental decree enjoining certain practices of the Department of Correction. The district court also determined that it was no longer necessary to retain jurisdiction of the case. It is from this decree that the petitioners have appealed.

Practice and Procedure Under 1983

We recognize that the district court has received literally hundreds of complaints from Cummins prisoners and that until prison conditions change, the steady stream of prisoner complaints will continue. We are mindful as well of the administrative burden placed upon the Arkansas prison officials who must respond to individual grievances. We further realize that the judicial process often fails to provide needed relief promptly. Surely prisoners are also aware of the slowness of the judicial process, but until conditions change, prisoners have no recourse but to take their constitutional complaints to the courts. ² By now state correctional authorities should have provided facilities and programs consistent with constitutional standards. As the respondents urge, there is no such thing as a 'perfect' prison system, but this does not relieve respondents of their duty to make their system a constitutional one in which the human dignity of each individual inmate is respected. ³

Substantive Review

We turn now to a consideration of the district court's decree and its supporting memorandum opinion. It has been said many times that the courts possess no expertise in the conduct and management of correctional institutions. This court has long recognized that it is only in the exceptional case where the internal administration of prisons justifies judicial supervision. On the other hand, courts need not be apologetic in requiring state officials to meet constitutional standards in the operation of prisons.

The district court found that significant progress and improvements had been made at both the Cummins and Tucker institutions since Holt II. It noted a 'changing attitude and effort' on the part of the Arkansas Legislature, the present governor of Arkansas, his predecessor, the Board of Correction, the Commissioner and many employees of the institutions. The court found that those practices complained of in Holt II were now not officially approved or sanctioned. The district court did acknowledge that some constitutional deficiencies still existed and on that basis granted the class certain additional injunctive relief. However, the court found no need to retain jurisdiction of the case.

This court recognizes the difficult issues the district court has passed upon since the commencement of this litigation in 1969. We are nevertheless compelled to find on the basis of the overall record that there exists a continuing failure by the correctional authorities to provide a constitutional and, in some respects, even a humane environment within their institutions. As will be discussed, we find major constitutional deficiencies particularly at Cummins in housing, lack of medical care, infliction of physical and mental brutality and torture upon individual prisoners, racial discrimination, abuses of solitary confinement, continuing use of trusty guards, abuse of mail regulations, arbitrary work classifications, arbitrary disciplinary procedures, inadequate distribution of food and clothing, and total lack of rehabilitative programs. We are therefore convinced that present prison conditions, now almost five years after Holt I, require the retention of federal jurisdiction and the granting of further relief.

Physical Facilities

In Holt II, the district court set forth a detailed description of 'life in the barracks' at the Cummins and Tucker Farms:

A barracks is nothing more than a large dormitory surrounded by bars; the barracks are separated from each other by wide hallways, and the complex of hallways is referred to as the 'yard.' At the present time the barracks house more than 100 men each assigned without regard to anything but rank and race.

309 F.Supp. at 376.

The court also described the total absence of personal safety and security. It observed that if the State of Arkansas chose to confine penitentiary inmates in barracks, some means had to be provided to protect those inmates from assault and physical harm by other inmates. At the trial of that case, then-Commissioner Sarver 'frankly admitted that the physical facilities at both units were inadequate and in a total state of disrepair that could only be described as deplorable.' 442 F.2d at 308.

In the report submitted to the court in 1971, Commissioner Hutto expressed a realization of the problem he had inherited when he said: 'The Board of Correction and this Administration feel strongly that the greatest problem in the so-called barracks is the problem of overcrowding.' Despite this realization, however, and the passage of more than 1 1/2 years, there is continued use of the barracks and continued overcrowding without adequate supervision. Approximately 125 to 135 men are still confined in each of the various barracks despite Mr. Hutto's concession that the barracks cannot be successfully operated with more than 60 to 80 inmates.

Some major improvements have been undertaken. A minimum security unit is under construction at the Cummins facility. It will provide individual rooms for each of 248 inmates. Many of the trusties will be housed there. The new unit will reduce overcrowding in the barracks. In addition a new maximum security unit has been built to house 80 to 90 inmates.

While these improvements were necessary to comply with the decree in Holt II, the record indicates that serious overcrowding has not been eliminated and that inmate...