Abdul-Akbar v. Watson
| Decision Date | 11 August 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 92-7571,92-7572,A,ABDUL-AKBA,No. 92-7572,Nos. 92-7571,92-7571,s. 92-7571 |
| Citation | 4 F.3d 195 |
| Parties | Debro S.ppellant in, v. Robert J. WATSON; Walter W. Redman; Hank Risley; Donald Davis; Bruce Hobler; DE Dept. of Corrections, Robert J. Watson, Walter W. Redman, Bruce Hobler and Henry Risley, Appellants in |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Brian J. Bartley (argued), Wilmington, DE, for cross-appellant in No. 92-7571 and appellee in No. 92-7572.
Stuart B. Drowos (argued), Deputy Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Wilmington, DE, for cross-appellees in No. 92-7571 and appellants in No. 92-7572 Robert J. Watson, Walter W. Redman, Hank Risley and Bruce Hobler.
Before: SCIRICA, COWEN and GARTH, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff Debro Siddiq Abdul-Akbar ("Abdul-Akbar"), charging that the library and the legal resource facilities at the Maximum Security Unit ("MSU") where he was incarcerated were constitutionally inadequate to afford him a right of access to the courts, brought a section 1983 action in his own name only against several officials of the Delaware Department of Corrections. He sought only monetary damages. The district court ruled in favor of Abdul-Akbar and imposed compensatory and punitive damages against the officials. It also affirmatively ordered the officials to devise a new Legal Access Plan for the MSU at the Delaware Correctional Center ("DCC").
On appeal, both parties have focused on the question of whether the officials were entitled to qualified immunity and, therefore, were shielded from liability for damages in the first instance. Because we hold that the officials were, indeed, entitled to qualified immunity, we will vacate the district court's order awarding both compensatory and punitive damages.
Moreover, our independent review of the record discloses that Abdul-Akbar had been released from the MSU more than five months prior to the commencement of trial and more than eight months prior to the entry of the district court's order, which, as stated, had directed the officials to devise and implement a new Legal Access Plan for the MSU. Because that injunctive order could provide no relief to Abdul-Akbar, who was no longer confined in the MSU, we conclude that the district court issued its injunction in the absence of a live case or controversy amenable to such an injunctive remedy. We must, therefore, vacate that part of the district court's order that had directed the officials to formulate a new Legal Access Plan.
In January, 1989, Abdul-Akbar filed a pro se complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging that the legal resources provided to inmates of the MSU at the DCC were constitutionally inadequate under Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 828, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 1498, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977). Abdul-Akbar had been confined to the MSU for a period of three-and-a-half years, commencing on July 1, 1987. 1 On February 1, 1991, Abdul-Akbar was released from the MSU. The MSU houses inmates who present particularly dangerous behavioral problems--violent prisoners who have great difficulty conforming to prison rules and regulations, who have assaulted the staff, or who pose an extreme danger to the outside community and, therefore, require the stringent security afforded by Maximum Security confinement. (A. 458). To that end, the DCC's Maximum Security Unit is comprised of a discrete facility, located outside the fence surrounding the other DCC buildings, and within which special rules and regulations provide for control over inmates' conduct and ensure the safety of the prison staff.
Abdul-Akbar's complaint named defendants Robert J. Watson, Commissioner of the Delaware Department of Corrections; Hank Risley, Bureau Chief of the Bureau of Prisons; Walter A. Redman, Warden of the DCC; and Bruce Hobler, Education Director for the Delaware Department of Corrections. 2 On October 19, 1990, while Abdul-Akbar was still incarcerated in the MSU, then Magistrate Judge (now District Court Judge) Sue L. Robinson, after having analyzed the constitutional requirements of Bounds v. Smith, supra, its Third Circuit progeny, and the library and legal resources available at the MSU, recommended that the defendants' motion for summary judgment be granted. 3 Despite the magistrate judge's analysis and recommendation, the district court denied the officials' motion for summary judgment on April 15, 1991 and ordered the case to proceed to trial.
In June 1991, about four months after his release from the MSU, Abdul-Akbar obtained the pro bono services of an attorney who has continued to represent him on this appeal. The three-day trial commenced on July 16, 1991, five-and-a-half months after Abdul-Akbar's release from the MSU, and concluded with orders entered in favor of Abdul-Akbar on October 7, 1991 and September 16, 1992.
The District Court's Findings of Fact
The district court found at the conclusion of the trial that, during Abdul-Akbar's imprisonment at the MSU, Commissioner Watson's duty was to oversee all aspects of the operations of the Delaware Department of Corrections; Bureau Chief Risley's duty was to oversee all aspects of prison operations; Redman served as Warden of the DCC; and Hobler served as Education Director for the Department of Corrections, supervising law libraries, as well as legal and paralegal assistance to inmates.
MSU inmates were not permitted physical access to the DCC's main law library, but instead were provided with three types of legal resources and services: (1) a satellite law library; (2) a "paging system" through which photocopies of materials available at the DCC's main law library--such as cases, motions, briefs, etc.--could be obtained free of charge; and (3) varying degrees of legal assistance provided by paralegals and an attorney.
(1)
Based on personal observation of the satellite library, the district court described it as a small oblong room with one wall of chain link fencing, a single desk, three small bookcases with two shelves each, 4 and a rack for legal forms. At the time of the trial, the MSU drainage system was such that the library occasionally flooded to a depth of eighteen inches, precluding the storage of books below that level. The library space also was used on occasion as a barber shop for inmates' haircuts.
The original satellite library inventory was prescribed in a consent decree entered in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware in Hearn v. Redman, C.A. No. 83-794 (D.Del.1985). That decree required that all of the treatises, forms and rules specified in the consent order be made available to MSU inmates as supplements to the then-existing library. It also provided that replacement to these volumes was to be made at the option of the Department of Corrections subject to availability of funds. The terms and conditions of access were specified in the consent decree, as was the employment of a librarian and a part-time paralegal (subject to adequate funding). On December 31, 1985, the consent decree was approved and entered by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Schwartz. 5
In compliance with the terms of the Hearn v. Redman consent decree, the MSU satellite library was open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Although the Hearn decree provided that "[o]ne inmate at a time shall be permitted access to the [MSU] law library on a first-come, first-serve basis, for a period of thirty minutes," (A. 557), DCC official policy permitted inmates to visit the MSU for one hour per day. The consent decree provided further that restrictions on the number of inmates permitted in the MSU library, as well as the duration of each visit, was "subject to the building staff lieutenant's determination that access will not cause substantial interference with building security." (A. 557). Although the district court found that for "some period of time between July, 1987 and late 1989, inmates were not permitted to visit the MSU law library at all," Abdul-Akbar, 775 F.Supp. at 740, the district court made no findings specifying the dates on which that period either commenced or ended. 6
(2)
The district court found that, due to limited resources, 7 an inmate was permitted five photocopied cases per week through the MSU paging system. 8 Official policy provided an exemption from that limitation where an inmate demonstrated an imminent court filing deadline. In order to obtain photocopied cases, citations were required. While generalized requests for materials, such as statutes by popular name (i.e. "Institutionalized Persons Act," "Administrative Procedures Act"), were denied, inmates were permitted to request cases from several subject matter files (i.e., rape) without citation.
(3)
The district court found that, during the period of Abdul-Akbar's incarceration in the MSU, the DCC employed two staff paralegals in addition to Francene M. Kobus, Inmate Legal Services Administrator for the Delaware Department of Corrections, whom the district court found to be "a credible witness, and a diligent and professional worker." Abdul-Akbar, 775 F.Supp. at 739. The district court found that all three paralegals had been certified, but that they lacked legal work experience in criminal and civil rights law. 9 The DCC also provided the services of several inmate librarians. Except for a period extending from July 24, 1989 to October 12, 1989, when a paralegal was assigned to work with MSU inmates twenty hours per week, appointments with paralegals were made upon written request and were scheduled within the six hours per week during which paralegal assistance was available to MSU inmates. This policy...
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