Shelby County Jail Inmates v. Westlake

• Decision Date: 20 August 1986
• Docket Number: No. 85-2050,85-2050
• Citation: 798 F.2d 1085
• Parties: SHELBY COUNTY JAIL INMATES, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Richard W. WESTLAKE, Individually and as Sheriff of Shelby County, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1085

798 F.2d 1085

SHELBY COUNTY JAIL INMATES, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Richard W. WESTLAKE, Individually and as Sheriff of Shelby

County, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 85-2050.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued May 13, 1986.

Decided August 20, 1986.

Michael K. Sutherlin, Indianapolis, Ind., for plaintiffs-appellants.

J. Lee McNeely, McNeely Sanders & McNeely, Shelbyville, Ind., for defendants-appellees.

Before WOOD, COFFEY and FLAUM, Circuit Judges.

HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Circuit Judge.

The plaintiffs filed the initial complaint in this case on May 29, 1981, seeking damages and equitable relief in their own right and as representatives of a class of inmates in the Shelby County Jail ("SCJ"). Roger Fair, Gary Pool, Harrison E. Wells, Oren Sweet, and Jack Stockton, the named plaintiffs, represented both pretrial detainees and convicted inmates serving a sentence or awaiting transfer to a state correctional facility. The plaintiffs contend that the totality of the conditions and practices at the SCJ violated their constitutional rights. More specifically, plaintiffs contend that the conditions of the SCJ amounted to punishment for pretrial detainees and cruel and unusual punishment for convicted inmates. The final amended complaint named the defendants only in their official capacities: Richard W. Westlake (Sheriff of Shelby County), the Board of Commissioners of Shelby County ("Board"), and the Shelby County Council. ¹ In a bifurcated trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants on the issue of liability. The plaintiffs raise several challenges to the judgment entered by the district court. We affirm.

I.

The plaintiffs brought their respective lawsuits pursuant to the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. Plaintiffs alleged that the conditions and restrictions of the SCJ deprived them of their First, Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Plaintiffs contended that the Board and Sheriff Westlake (as well as his successor Rick Isgrigg) failed to fulfill their statutory duties to oversee the SCJ, thereby depriving the plaintiffs of their constitutional rights. In particular, the plaintiffs presented evidence of the allegedly unconstitutional state of the jail classification system, jail overcrowding, the air ventilation system, the unavailability of fire exits, the lack of a sufficient number of correctional officers, the lack of proper lighting, and the lack of medical care. The plaintiffs sought damages and equitable relief. The defendants presented evidence to demonstrate that none of the problem areas pinpointed by the plaintiffs fell below constitutional requirements.

After each side had presented its case, Judge Barker instructed the jury and submitted the cases for the jury to determine whether the defendants were liable to any of the plaintiffs. ² The jury returned separate verdicts for the defendants in each of the three cases.

The plaintiffs present four issues. First, they argue that the trial court erred by accepting a jury verdict that was contrary to the weight of the evidence. Plaintiffs then argue that the jury verdict forms did not properly define the class membership and thus allowed the jury to consider categories of inmates without reference to their date of incarceration. The plaintiffs contend that the trial court erred by not making its own findings about liability on the equity issues. Finally, plaintiffs argue that the jury instructions, taken as a whole, placed too high a burden on the inmates to establish liability.

II.

The plaintiffs argue that there was insufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict for the defendants. Although the parties contested the numerous factual issues below, on appeal we resolve all conflicting evidence in favor of the jury's verdict, so long as a reasonable basis exists in the record to support the verdict. See Hamilton v. Svatik, 779 F.2d 383, 388 (7th Cir.1985); Spesco v. General Electric Co., 719 F.2d 233, 237 (7th Cir.1983) ("[T]he jury is the trier of fact and is vested with the responsibility of evaluating the evidence presented and assessing the credence of witnesses who testify."). We do not reweigh the evidence or make our own determinations of credibility. Viewing the trial court record from that perspective, we will examine each of the alleged unconstitutional conditions of the SCJ to determine whether the defendants established a reasonable basis for the jury's verdict in their favor.

1. Ventilation

The SCJ inmates argue that they have a right to adequate ventilation and a right to be free from extreme hot and cold temperatures. That is, of course, true. But the Constitution does not give inmates the right to be free from all discomfort. The issue with regards to ventilation is the same as with all alleged constitutional violations--does the condition amount to punishment of pretrial detainees or cruel and unusual punishment of convicted inmates. See Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981); Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979).

Although the plaintiffs presented testimony which, if the jury had believed it, might have established a constitutional violation, the defendants also presented evidence, which the jury apparently believed, to show that the ventilation in SCJ was adequate. For example, William Branson a jail officer who later became the jail commander, testified about the jail staff's efforts to keep the plaintiffs from being subject to uncomfortable heat or cold. The plaintiffs conceded in their own testimony that in the summer months the windows were opened for cross ventilation, fans were placed in the hallways, and the inmates had unlimited access to the showers and ice for cold drinks. Walter Smith, the state's jail inspector who testified as the plaintiffs' expert, could not recall a single specific complaint from an inmate about the temperature. The defendants also presented evidence that the air movement throughout the jail was adequate, including the State Board of Health certification that the air in the jail was not harmful. The defendants' evidence clearly established a reasonable basis in the record to support the jury's verdict.

2. Lighting

The plaintiffs contend that they proved "that the lighting source was inadequate, caused headaches, eye irritation and was gloomy" prior to the installation of new lights in 1982. The plaintiffs also raise some questions about the appropriateness of the new lighting, but the defendants presented a great deal of evidence from which the jury could have concluded that the new lights were more than adequate. We therefore need to consider closely only the evidence of the lighting conditions prior to the 1982 changes.

The plaintiffs presented as an expert witness Walter Smith, who testified that the lighting in the jail did not meet the minimum requirement of twenty footcandles of illumination. ³ Professor Joseph Cannon testified that his inspection of the jail left him with the impression that the lighting was inadequate, especially in the cells. Several former inmates testified that the lighting gave them headaches, eye irritation, and so forth. ⁴ The plaintiffs presented no evidence of the number of footcandles of illumination in the jail prior to 1982.

The defendants presented Terry Surface, a Peerless Electric Company employee, who thoroughly discredited the plaintiffs' contention that less than twenty footcandles of illumination would be unconstitutional. He took several readings in Judge Barker's courtroom which revealed an intensity of seventeen footcandles in the jury box and eighteen footcandles at the judge's bench. Surface also testified that he had taken a reading of ten footcandles the night before at his kitchen table as he read the evening newspaper--a common reading for most homes. Once the defendants discredited the plaintiffs' theory that a minimum of twenty footcandles was required, the rest of the plaintiffs' evidence fell short of establishing, as a matter of law, that the lighting in the jail was unconstitutional. There was a reasonable basis in the record from which the jury could conclude that the plaintiffs failed to prove the lighting conditions violated the Constitution.

3. Indoor and Outdoor Recreation

The plaintiffs maintain that the inmates did not have a meaningful opportunity to leave their cells to engage in diversionary activities and there was no outdoor or indoor recreation program to provide the inmates with something to do. In French v. Owens, 777 F.2d 1250 (7th Cir.1985), we recognized that "[l]ack of exercise may certainly rise to a constitutional violation." 777 F.2d at 1255. The record reveals, however, that the inmates were provided opportunities for exercise and other diversions.

Two of the plaintiffs testified that they played cards and read books while in the jail, and one of them also testified that the jail staff allowed them board games such as Monopoly. The jail also had two exercise bikes, one in each "bullpen" area. One of the plaintiffs testified that he used the bikes while incarcerated. The staff also provided the inmates with American Medical Association booklets on indoor exercise written specifically for inmates.

Doctor Leroy Getchell, a professor of physical fitness at Ball State University where he is also Director of the Human Performance Library, testified that there was sufficient space and opportunity for the inmates to engage in an adequate exercise program. He testified that, from a fitness point of view, there was no advantage to exercising out-of-doors. Dr. Getchell concluded that the exercise bike coupled with the possibility of calisthenics provided each inmate with the opportunity to maintain the fitness level he or she had acquired prior to incarceration. Michael J. Mahoney, Executive Director of the John Howard Association, a private not-for-profit corrections...