Toussaint v. Yockey

• Decision Date: 05 January 1984
• Docket Number: Nos. 83-1678,83-1775,s. 83-1678
• Citation: 722 F.2d 1490
• Parties: Joseph TOUSSAINT, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Samuel YOCKEY, Acting Director of Corrections, Reginald Pulley, Warden, San Quentin Prison; Robert Rees, Superintendent, Deuel Vocational Institution, Alan Stagner, Superintendent, Correctional Training Facility (Soledad), Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1490

722 F.2d 1490

Joseph TOUSSAINT, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Samuel YOCKEY, Acting Director of Corrections, Reginald

Pulley, Warden, San Quentin Prison; Robert Rees,

Superintendent, Deuel Vocational Institution, Alan Stagner,

Superintendent, Correctional Training Facility (Soledad),

Defendants-Appellants.

Nos. 83-1678, 83-1775.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted July 14, 1983.

Decided Jan. 5, 1984.

Sanford Jay Rosen, Rosen & Remcho, San Francisco, Cal., James Smith, Smith, Snedeker & Comiskey, Sacramento, Cal., Bernard Zimmerman, Sarah Flanagan, Mark Chavez, Andrea Resnick, Sidney M. Wolinsky, Morris J. Baller, David Lew, San Francisco, Cal., Michael Satris, San Quentin, Cal., for plaintiffs-appellees.

William D. Stein, Karl Mayer, John Van de Kamp, San Francisco, Cal., for defendants-appellants.

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

Before TRASK, and CANBY, Circuit Judges, and SOLOMON ^*, District Judge.

CANBY, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs are a class of approximately 2,000 prisoners confined in administrative segregation in four California State Prisons: Deuel Vocational Institution, Folsom Prison, San Quentin Prison, and Soledad Correctional Training Facility. Defendants are the wardens of the four prisons and the California Director of Corrections. Plaintiffs sought relief on two claims. In Wright v. Enomoto, 462 F.Supp. 397 (N.D.Cal.1976), aff'd, 434 U.S. 1052, 98 S.Ct. 1223, 55 L.Ed.2d 756 (1978) ("Wright I"), a three-judge panel convened pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2281, now repealed, granted relief on the first claim. The court concluded that the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment required certain procedures before a prisoner could be placed in administrative segregation.

This appeal involves the second claim for relief, based on the eighth amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. A prior preliminary injunction, issued on November 3, 1980, was vacated by this court in Wright v. Rushen, 642 F.2d 1129 (9th Cir.1981) ("Wright II"). In Wright II we held that the district court erred in relying on a "totality of conditions" approach in analyzing the constitutionality of prison conditions.

On remand the district court entered detailed findings of fact and concluded that even when analyzed individually, many of the current conditions in administrative segregation at three of the institutions ¹ are probably unconstitutional. Determining that plaintiffs had demonstrated a probability of success on the merits and that the balance of hardships tipped sharply in their favor, the court entered a new preliminary injunction. Defendants challenge the district court's conclusions on several grounds, each of which will be discussed in turn. We affirm all of the preliminary injunction except the provision relating to food services.

I. Double Celling

The district court found that prisoners who are confined in administrative segregation live in cells which in general are approximately six feet wide and eight to nine feet long. Each cell is furnished with a bed of some sort, a thin mattress, a pillow, a blanket, a coverless toilet and a sink. Each inmate is supplied a cardboard box in which to keep his personal belongings. Shelf space is minimal or in some cases non-existent. Many of the cells have no windows. ² The district court found that double celling exacerbated the already bad conditions existing in these cells and engendered violence, tension and psychiatric problems. It therefore concluded that the practice of double-celling inmates in the housing units challenged in this action could not withstand constitutional scrutiny. In its preliminary injunction the court prohibited involuntary double celling for more than thirty days in any twelve-month period. It also limited double celling to cells larger than fifty square feet, in which a second bed, cot or bunk is provided.

In Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981), the Supreme Court held that in and of itself double-celling is not unconstitutional. The institution involved in Rhodes was described as "a top-flight, first-class facility." The cells averaged 63 square feet and contained a cabinet-type night stand, a cabinet, shelf and radio built into one of the walls, a wall-mounted sink with hot and cold running water and a toilet that the inmate could flush from inside the cell. All of the cells had a heating and air circulation vent near the ceiling and more than half of them had a window that the inmates could open and close. All cells used to house two inmates were supplied with two-tiered bunk beds.

As found by the district court, conditions in the units at issue in this case are very different. The facts already set forth make clear that the differences are substantial. One is particularly crucial. In Rhodes the district court found that there was no evidence that double celling caused greater violence. 452 U.S. at 343, 101 S.Ct. at 2397. In contrast, the district court in this case found that double-celling engenders violence, tension and psychiatric problems. That finding, along with others regarding cell conditions, clearly supports the double celling portion of the preliminary injunction. See id. at 349 n. 14, 101 S.Ct. at 2400 n. 14. ³

II. Exercise

The district court found that many of the inmates were confined to their cells for as much as 23 1/2 hours a day. It concluded that the state's failure to provide sufficient exercise raised serious constitutional issues. In its preliminary injunction the court required the state to provide each prisoner with outdoor exercise. In Spain v. Procunier, 600 F.2d 189, 199-200 (9th Cir.1979), we held that, on the facts presented, the denial of outdoor exercise constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Several factors present in Spain combined to make outdoor exercise necessary. The prisoners were in continuous segregation, spending virtually all their time in their cells; their contact with other persons was minimal; they lived in an atmosphere of fear and apprehension; and they were confined under degrading conditions without affirmative Similar findings were made in this case. Although the length of confinement in segregation varies, almost 1,000 inmates have been assigned to administrative segregation for over one year. Given those findings, the district court did not err in concluding that the denial of outside exercise raised a substantial constitutional question and that plaintiffs would probably succeed on the merits of that issue.

programs of training or rehabilitation. Id. We deemed it important that the inmates in question were not temporarily in segregation: they had already been there over four years. Id. at 200.

Defendants argue that the district court erred in requiring them to afford exercise beyond that required by their own regulations without holding those regulations unconstitutional. The state regulation governing inmate exercise requires less exercise than the preliminary injunction and permits indoor exercise. Cal.Admin.Code Tit. 15 Sec. 3343(h). Defendants' argument misses the point. The district court did not invalidate the state regulation; it merely held that, given the circumstances of this case, the denial of outdoor exercise was probably unconstitutional. See Wright v. Rushen, 642 F.2d 1129, 1133 (9th Cir.1981) (comparing Spain v. Procunier, which required outdoor exercise where prisoners were otherwise confined in small cells twenty-four hours a day, with Clay v. Miller, 626 F.2d 345, 347 (4th Cir.1980), which did not require outdoor exercise where prisoners had access to dayroom eighteen hours a day).

III. Food Service

The preliminary injunction provides that: "The types and quantities of food served shall be the same as that which is provided for general population inmates except that a sack lunch is permitted. All food shall be prepared, stored, and served under sanitary conditions." Defendants correctly point out that there is no factual support in the district court's findings for that portion of the injunction. That portion of the court's order is vacated.

IV. Procedural Safeguards

The district court found that despite the court's holding in Wright I, plaintiffs continue to be arbitrarily placed and retained in segregated housing. The court found that defendants were violating the Wright I court's injunction in various ways. Specifically, the court found that:

(1) prisoners continue to be placed in administrative segregation without any written reason for days well beyond the 48-hour requirement specified [in the state's] regulations ⁴; (2) written explanation for placement in administrative segregation is often vague and conclusory in terms; (3) counsel-substitute (staff assistant) to aid in the preparation of the prisoners cases is often denied, even when assistance is clearly warranted; (4) access to investigating employees is often denied to prisoners; (5) investigating reports may be inadequate or not be received until after the hearing; and (6) explanations of reasons for the decision reached and references to the evidence in support of the decision are inadequate.

The court also found that the hearings which were provided were defective in various respects:

(1) the ten-day time limitation within which the prisoner must have his hearing, as mandated by [state] regulations, is often disregarded; (2) requests by inmates for witnesses are often denied without reason; (3) confidential information may be admitted without a showing as to its reliability beyond conclusory representations by officials, and (4) the prisoner may be involuntarily absent from the hearing or, as in one reported case, there may not even be a hearing.

In Part III of the injunction the district court imposed various procedural requirements to correct these practices. The court required every prisoner to be released from administrative...