Peterkin v. Jeffes
| Citation | 855 F.2d 1021 |
| Decision Date | 23 August 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 87-1312,87-1312 |
| Parties | PETERKIN, Otis H.; Albrecht, Alfred F.; Truesdale, Mack; Maxwell, Frederick; Harris, Richard; Lesko, John; Floyd, Calvin; Morris, James; Logan, Ronald; Crenshaw, Robert; Lee, Charles N.; Colson, Martin; Yarris, Nicholas; Cross, Charles; Smith, Donald; individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Appellants, v. Glen JEFFES, individually and as the Acting Commissioner of the Bureau of Corrections of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and as The Superintendent of the State Correctional Institution at Graterford; Ronald Marks, individually and as the former Commissioner of the Bureau of Corrections; Julius Cuyler, individually and as the former Superintendent of the State Correctional Institution at Graterford; Charles H. Zimmerman, individually and as Superintendent of the State Correctional Institution at Huntingdon; and George Petsock, individually and as Superintendent of the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (3rd Circuit) |
Stefan Presser (argued), American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa., for appellants.
Maria Parisi Vickers (argued), Deputy Atty. Gen., Philadelphia, Pa., for appellees.
Before HIGGINBOTHAM, MANSMANN and WEIS *, Circuit Judges.
Two constitutional issues are raised on appeal in this class action: whether prisoners sentenced to death by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and currently imprisoned at the State Correctional Institutions at Graterford and Huntingdon are confined in conditions constituting cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the eighth amendment, and whether the Commonwealth and its prison officials are providing these prisoners with sufficient legal resources to vindicate their constitutional right of access to the courts. In deciding these issues, we are primarily guided by the Supreme Court's decisions in Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981), applying the eighth amendment to prison conditions, and Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977), holding "that the fundamental constitutional right of access to the courts requires prison authorities to assist inmates in the preparation and filing of meaningful legal papers by providing prisoners with adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law." Id. at 828. The district court found that the prison conditions in Pennsylvania's death rows do not violate the eighth amendment. Peterkin v. Jeffes, 661 F.Supp. 895, 926 (E.D.Pa.1987). We agree that the prisoners have not established that the totality of the conditions of their confinement constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Based on its factual finding that "all of the capital inmates have access to counsel," id. at 928, the district court also held that the Commonwealth provides death-sentenced prisoners constitutionally adequate legal resources. Our view is that certain of the district court's factual findings related to this issue are unsupported by the record. We will affirm the district court's opinion on the plaintiffs' eighth amendment claim, vacate the district court's holding concerning access to the courts, and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania reinstated capital punishment in 1978. 42 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. Sec. 9711 (Purdon 1982). From that time until November, 1982, the state incarcerated prisoners under sentence of death among the general population in the state's maximum security correctional institutions at Graterford, Huntingdon and Pittsburgh. In November, 1982, after the death penalty statute withstood constitutional challenges, the Commissioner of Corrections, Ronald Marks, decided that henceforth all prisoners under sentence of death would be confined in those prisons' Restricted Housing Units (RHU's) in administrative custody. This litigation began in January, 1983, when a group of death-sentenced prisoners, 1 acting pro se, 2 filed a complaint against officials of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and its Bureau of Corrections 3 on behalf of all such prisoners, alleging that the Department of Corrections' decision to segregate them on "death rows" violated their rights to equal protection of the laws and substantive due process under the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution. They also challenged and sought relief from certain rules and conditions of confinement in the RHU's, alleging that these violated the eighth amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, the first amendment's guarantee of the free exercise of religion, and the constitutional right of access to the courts.
In June, 1984, the district court, exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1343 (West Supp.1986), and in response to a motion for summary judgment by the Commonwealth defendants, dismissed the plaintiff-class's 4 fourteenth amendment challenges to the decision by the Bureau of Corrections to segregate death-sentenced prisoners. On the conditions of confinement issues, the district court held a bench trial, including nine days of testimony, two of which took place at Graterford, where death row inmates from both Graterford and Huntingdon testified. The trial judge also visited the RHU at Graterford twice, in June and December, 1986. On May 4, 1987, the district court entered its decision and order granting judgment in favor of Pennsylvania's prison officials on all claims. Peterkin v. Jeffes, 661 F.Supp. 895 (E.D.Pa.1987). The plaintiff-class filed a timely appeal.
For conditions of confinement in prisons to constitute cruel and unusual punishment within the meaning of the eighth amendment of the constitution, 5 the Supreme Court, in Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981), has said that these conditions "must ... involve the wanton and unnecessary infliction of pain, [or] be grossly disproportionate to the severity of the crime warranting imprisonment." Id. at 347, 101 S.Ct. at 2399. The eighth amendment, the Court instructed, " 'must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.' " Id. at 346, 101 S.Ct. at 2399 (quoting Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 101, 78 S.Ct. 590, 598, 2 L.Ed.2d 630 (1958) (plurality opinion)). Today the eighth amendment prohibits the denial of medical care, Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976), "because, in the worst case it can result in physical torture, and, even in less serious cases, it can result in pain without any penological purpose." Rhodes, 452 U.S. at 347, 101 S.Ct. at 2399. The "dark and evil world," Holt v. Sarver, 309 F.Supp. 362, 381 (E.D.Ark.1970) (Holt II ), of the Arkansas prison described in Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. 678, 98 S.Ct. 2565, 57 L.Ed.2d 522 (1978), imposed cruel and unusual punishment on its prisoners, the Supreme Court held, because its conditions "resulted in unquestioned and serious deprivation of basic human needs." Rhodes, 452 U.S. at 347, 101 S.Ct. at 2399.
Although the Supreme Court recognizes there is "no static 'test' ... by which courts [can] determine whether conditions of confinement are cruel and unusual," Rhodes, 452 U.S. at 346, 101 S.Ct. at 2399, the inquiry that courts must conduct in eighth amendment cases is not consequently less exacting. " 'Eighth Amendment judgments,' " the Court teaches, " 'should neither be nor appear to be merely the subjective views' of judges." Rhodes, 452 U.S. at 346, 101 S.Ct. at 2399 (quoting Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U.S. 263, 275, 100 S.Ct. 1133, 1140, 63 L.Ed.2d 382 (1980)). Rather, these judgments " 'should be informed by objective factors to the maximum possible extent.' " Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U.S. at 274-75, 100 S.Ct. at 1139 (quoting Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 592, 97 S.Ct. 2861, 2866, 53 L.Ed.2d 982 (1977) (plurality opinion)), quoted in Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. at 346, 101 S.Ct. at 2399. Impartiality and objectivity, however, do not provide a haven from judicial responsibility. " '[T]he Constitution contemplates that in the end [a court's] own judgment will be brought to bear on the question of the acceptability' of a given punishment." Rhodes, 452 U.S. at 346, 101 S.Ct. at 2399 (quoting Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. at 597, 97 S.Ct. at 2868; citing Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 182, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 2929, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976)).
The district courts bear an especially critical burden of responsibility in eighth amendment cases involving prison conditions, because "[a] reviewing court is generally limited in its perception of a case to the findings of a trial court," Rhodes, 452 U.S. at 365, 101 S.Ct. at 2408 (Brennan, Blackmun and Stevens, JJ., concurring). That this case concerns Pennsylvania's death rows and is a class action on behalf of all the state's death row prisoners, increases the solemn and sensitive nature of the judicial inquiry. The district court's opinion, in our view, reflects an acute awareness of that responsibility and a conscientious and thoughtful effort to discharge it.
We find no flaw in the district court's method of analyzing the eighth amendment issues in this case. In actions challenging a large number of prison conditions, a district court, we agree, must inquire whether "the challenged conditions 'alone or in combination' " violate eighth amendment standards, "recognizing that the totality of the conditions 'may deprive inmates of the minimal civilized measure of life's necessities.' " Peterkin, 661 F.Supp. at 900 (quoting Rhodes, 452 U.S. at 347, 101 S.Ct. at 2399). This approach reflects the Supreme Court's language and analysis in Rhodes and adheres to this Court's articulation of the proper analysis in eighth amendment cases involving multiple...
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