Walker v. Mintzes
| Decision Date | 22 August 1985 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 82-1865,82-1913,s. 82-1865 |
| Citation | 771 F.2d 920 |
| Parties | Roderick D. WALKER, Amin Habeeb Ullah, a/k/a Franklin Neal, Romando Valerosi, Floyd W. Zeros, Ronald E. Thelen, Marvin Mayberry, Donald Sullivan, Dennis Spaulding, John T. Crown, Jerry Gonyea, David Lytal, Lewis Robinson, Timothy Spytma, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees, Cross-Appellants, v. Barry MINTZES, Perry Johnson, Dale Foltz, Theodore Koehler, individually and in their official capacities, Defendants-Appellants, Cross-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen. of Michigan, Thomas C. Nelson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Corrections Div. Crim. Appeals Section (argued), Lansing, Mich., for defendants-appellants, cross-appellees.
Larry Bennett, Neal Bush, Judith Magid, Mark Grenzotto (argued), William Goodman, Goodman, Eden, Millender & Bedros, Detroit, Mich., for plaintiffs-appellees, cross-appellants.
Before WELLFORD and MILBURN, Circuit Judges, and KINNEARY, * District Judge.
Inmates at three separate Michigan correctional facilities, the Marquette Branch Prison ("Marquette"), the State Prison of Southern Michigan at Jackson ("Jackson"), and the Michigan Reformatory at Ionia ("Ionia") instituted this action against prison officials, alleging various violations of their first, eighth and fourteenth amendment rights. The district court agreed with many of the inmates' claims and granted much of their requested relief. See 544 F.Supp. 345 (E.D.Mich.1982). Both the inmates and prison officials have appealed the district court's judgment.
Essentially, the inmates' complaints arise from actions taken by prison officials in response to a series of uprisings that occurred at each of the named prisons. On May 22, 1981, members of the Michigan Corrections Officers Association (the prison guards) attempted to "lock down" inmates at the Jackson facility. This was done against the orders of the prison warden, and precipitated a riot in the Central Complex (a maximum security facility). Likewise, inmates of the Jackson Northside Complex (a medium security facility) joined in the disturbance. On Friday evening, May 22, 1981, rioting spread to Ionia, where the inmates had learned of the Jackson uprising. By the following day, both facilities were secured. On May 25, 1981, rioting once again broke out at the Jackson facility, with burning and looting occurring in both the Northside and Central complexes. The following day the rioting spread to both Ionia and Marquette, resulting in significant property damage to each facility.
By May 27, 1981, the prisons were once again secured. As a result of the riots, however, prison officials at all three prisons were required to implement an emergency lockdown, including drastic reductions in the inmates' privileges. Prison officials were also forced to reconsider the security measures at all three facilities. These actions resulted in a substantial change in general prison policy. Included within the changes were reductions in "yard time" (the amount of outdoor time allowed inmates for recreation and exercise), reductions in the number of showers allowed each inmate per week, restrictions on access to the prison law libraries, restrictions on organized religious services, and reductions in work and recreational programs. Also, inmates at Marquette were no longer allowed to wear clothing when walking to the showers. 1
The inmates challenge most of these changes under the eighth amendment, as constituting cruel and unusual punishment. Further, they claim that the restrictions on access to organized religious services violate their first amendment rights, and that the restrictions on their library privileges impede their right of access to the courts. Finally, the inmates at the various institutions claim that a new policy implemented in relation to administrative segregation deprives them of liberty without due process of law.
The district court found that prison officials were acting in violation of the eighth amendment by unduly limiting the yard time afforded the inmates. Also, the court concluded that the prison officials were violating the first amendment by restricting organized religious meetings. Further, the court granted part of the inmates requested relief in relation to the alleged due process violations. The court rejected the inmates' claim that the restricted number of showers violated the eighth amendment, at least in two of the three prisons. Finally, the court held that inmates could not be required to walk naked to the showers, as had become the practice at Marquette.
We are first called upon to address the decision of the district court in relation to its various findings of violations of the eighth amendment. The inmates do not challenge the prison officials' decision to initiate lockdowns following the riots. What the inmates challenge is the "new normal" that has been implemented following the lifting of the lockdowns. At the time of trial, prison officials at Jackson and Ionia testified that the emergency had lifted, while officials of Marquette testified that they still considered themselves in the midst of emergency conditions. In all three cases, however, it is undisputed that the officials do not plan again to implement pre-riot policies.
The Supreme Court has addressed prison overcrowding in Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981), a suit brought to enjoin prison officials from placing two inmates in each jail cell, in which this court affirmed a district court finding that "double celling" violated the eighth amendment. The Supreme Court, however, reversed, finding no eighth amendment violation, and concluding that no "static test" could be employed:
Today the Eighth Amendment prohibits punishments which, although not physically barbarous, "involve the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain," or one grossly disproportionate to the severity of the crime. Among "unnecessary and wanton" inflictions of pain are those that are "totally without penological justification."
Id. at 346, 101 S.Ct. at 2399 (citations omitted).
The Rhodes Court concluded that prisoners could not constitutionally be deprived the "minimal civilized measure of life's necessities." Id. at 347, 101 S.Ct. at 2399. In relation to the facts before it, the Court found that "double celling" was not such a violation. The practice did not deprive prisoners of "essential food, medical care or sanitation." Id. at 348, 101 S.Ct. at 2400. 2 The Court emphasized that even though the practice in question was undesirable, this was not grounds for holding the practice unconstitutional:
[We] cannot assume that state legislatures and prison officials are insensitive to the requirements of the Constitution or to the perplexing sociological problems of how best to achieve the goals of the penal function in the criminal justice system: to punish justly, to deter future crime, and to return imprisoned persons to society with an improved chance of being useful, law-abiding citizens.
Id. at 352, 101 S.Ct. at 2402. Further, the courts' function is not to decide "how best to operate a detention facility," id. at 351, 101 S.Ct. at 2401, especially in light of the fact that "a prison's internal security is peculiarly a matter normally left to the discretion of prison administrators." Id. at 349, n. 14, 101 S.Ct. at 2400, n. 14.
The inmates argue that in addressing an eighth amendment claim in a prison condition context, the court must consider the "totality of the circumstances," and order relief accordingly, citing a Rhodes statement that prison conditions may violate the eighth amendment, considered either "alone or in combination." Id. at 347, 101 S.Ct. at 2399; see also id. at 363 n. 10, 101 S.Ct. at 2407 n. 10 (Brennan, J., concurring) (). The inmates urge this court to adopt the approach taken in Doe v. District of Columbia, 701 F.2d 948 (D.C.Cir.1983). There, the court expressed the view that even though no specific prison condition contravened the eighth amendment, "exposure to the cumulative effect of prison conditions may subject inmates to cruel and unusual punishment." Id. at 957 (citation omitted). Thus, the inmates argue that a court may, under the eighth amendment, order prisons to correct certain conditions even though those conditions in and of themselves are not unconstitutional.
We are unwilling to adopt this Doe analysis, and instead interpret Rhodes to require consideration of all the prison's conditions and circumstances, rather than isolated conditions and events, when addressing eighth amendment claims. In certain extreme circumstances the totality itself may amount to an eighth amendment violation, but there still must exist a specific condition on which to base the eighth amendment claim. We believe such conditions, "considered alone or in combination [with other conditions]," Rhodes, 452 U.S. at 347, 101 S.Ct. at 2399, must amount to a deprivation of "life's necessities," id., before a violation of the eighth amendment can be found.
Several circuits concur in this analysis. In Hoptowit v. Ray, 682 F.2d 1237, 1246-47 (9th Cir.1982), the court stated:
Courts may not find Eighth Amendment violations based on the "totality of conditions" at a prison. There is no Eighth Amendment violation if each of these basic needs [food, clothing, shelter, sanitation, medical care, and personal safety] is separately met.... A number of conditions, each of which satisfy Eighth Amendment requirements, cannot in combination amount to an Eighth Amendment violation.
See also Union County Jail Inmates v. DiBuono, 713 F.2d 984, 999 (3d Cir.1983); Smith v. Fairman, 690 F.2d 122, 125 (7th Cir.1982) (...
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