Aikens v. Lash

• Decision Date: 23 January 1974
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 72 S 129.
• Citation: 371 F. Supp. 482
• Parties: Marvin Lee AIKENS et al., Plaintiffs, v. Russell E. LASH, Individually and as the Warden of the Indiana State Prison, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

371 F. Supp. 482

Marvin Lee AIKENS et al., Plaintiffs, v. Russell E. LASH, Individually and as the Warden of the Indiana State Prison, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 72 S 129.

United States District Court, N. D. Indiana, South Bend Division.

January 23, 1974.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Harold R. Berk and Russell E. Lovell, II, Legal Services Organization of Indianapolis, Inc., Indianapolis, Ind., for plaintiffs.

Theodore L. Sendak, Atty. Gen., Robert F. Hassett, and Lon E. Mullins, Deputy Attys. Gen., State of Indiana, Indianapolis, Ind., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM and OPINION

GRANT, District Judge.

This civil rights action, seeking injunctive and declaratory relief, was brought in forma pauperis under Title 42, § 1983 et seq., by nine (9) plaintiffs, all of whom were then inmates of the Indiana State Prison who had been transferred to that Prison from the Indiana Reformatory. Defendants Lash, Moore and Devero are the Warden, the Assistant Warden and the Director of Classification, respectively, of the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City, Indiana. Defendant Phend is the Superintendent, and Defendant Schroeder, the Assistant Superintendent of the Indiana Reformatory at Pendleton. Defendant Heyne is the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections of the State of Indiana.

The Court ordered that the action should be maintained as a Rule 23(a)(1) class action and appropriate notices were posted throughout the prison and provision made for adequate communication thereof to all inmates who were separately segregated from the general prison population.

The members of the classes similarly situated are the inmates of the Indiana State Prison who have been transferred for disciplinary reasons from the Indiana Reformatory and who were incarcerated in I.D.U. or another seclusion unit upon and after their arrival; the inmates of the Indiana State Prison who have been in the past, are in the present, or may be in the future, incarcerated in I.D.U. or D.O. Seclusion within the Indiana State Prison; and all the inmates of the Indiana State Prison who have or will communicate by mail with their attorneys.

As the date for the trial of this case approached, this Court was presented by plaintiffs with a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus Ad Testificandum to produce the incarcerated plaintiffs together with some twenty-two other incarcerated State Prison inmates, all of whom plaintiffs planned to call as necessary witnesses "during the course of the trial". Plaintiffs requested that each and all of the above should be transported here to the St. Joseph County (Indiana) jail (which has been duly approved for use by the U. S. Marshal) to remain here in the proximity of the South Bend Federal Courtroom (some 35 miles distant from the State Prison) for the duration of the trial. Confronted with the demands of security and countless other problems that came to mind as we contemplated this mass movement of prisoners, we concluded that we must move the site of the trial to the area where all the parties and witnesses were incarcerated (which is within the South Bend Division).

An exploratory trip to the State Prison revealed the existence of a Visitors' Lounge in the Administration Building at the entrance to the Prison, a room sufficiently large to adapt itself to conversion into a courtroom, and arrangements for the changeover immediately began. Thereupon, for the convenience of parties and witnesses, and in the interest of justice, and pursuant to the provisions of Title 28, § 1404(c), the Court entered an Order transferring the site of the trial to "the Visitors Lounge located on the main floor in the Administration Building at the Indiana State Prison, Michigan City, Indiana". That Order then continued:

The Court has on this date made personal examination of the aforesaid premises and is fully satisfied that they will be converted into an adequate and appropriate courtroom where this cause can be tried at greater convenience to the parties and the witnesses and, further, will make possible any court inspection of any such facilities or proceedings within the Prison that the Court may hereafter deem appropriate.

The announcement of the Court's Order moving the site of this trial inside the Prison's walls was timely released to the news media and received wide circulation in this Division and over the State.

This cause, originally thought to require five days, did, in fact, require ten long days and, we are satisfied, was tried with greater convenience to all concerned than could possibly have been done in our regular courtroom.

This temporary courtroom was inside the first set of electronically-controlled, locked doors that serve the main entrance to the Prison. All attorneys, all witnesses (from outside the Prison), all newsmen and the public who attended, were required to go through the Prison's frisk procedures before being admitted through this set of locked doors.

The plaintiffs, as well as the many other witnesses from within the prison, were escorted to the courtroom from their respective areas of confinement within the prison. All of this was accomplished very smoothly through the cooperation of prison officials who also made available three of their small counsellors' offices for the use of counsel on each side and as a makeshift chambers for the Judge. The change of place of the trial of this cause proceeded without the objection of any counsel or any party.

It is unusual, to say the least, for a United States District Court to move its deliberations inside a State Prison wall and there to inquire into the practices and proceedings of the institution. In addition to the considerable convenience to the parties and the witnesses, it also served to underscore the very important fact that every citizen — including the incarcerated felon — has an unfettered access to the courts.

Mention should also be made of the fact that our presence there made possible an unannounced inspection trip through the two segregation units involved in this controversy. With the prior knowledge and approval of all counsel and flanked only by a law clerk and one prison guide, it was possible for the Judge to walk the "range" on both floors of both units, located in separate buildings a short walk from the courtroom.

These two segregation units are commonly referred to as I.D.U. and D.O. I.D.U. is "I" Cellhouse Detention Unit. It is located on the second and third floors of a building which is actually a wing of the Administration Building and was intended for use as a "punitive" segregation unit. However, since N.S.B. (New Cellhouse Unit) was damaged in a Labor Day disturbance at the Prison, prisoners in "administrative" segregation who were formerly detained in N.S.B. are now detained in I.D.U. along with those who are in punitive segregation.

D.O. is Deputy's Office Segregation Unit. It is located in a separate building, perhaps 200 yards inside the prison walls, and gets its name from the fact that the office of the Deputy Warden is located at its front entrance. Confinement in D.O. seclusion is the most severe and harshest type of confinement at the State Prison. This two-story building is the maximum security unit of all the areas within the prison and, on its second floor, contains the solitary detention cells that were long used as "death row" for prisoners who, in earlier years, were awaiting death by electrocution.

N.S.B., referred to above, is New Cell House Detention Unit and, unlike both I.D.U. and D.O., is connected to a secure exercise area for the recreation of those detained therein. As noted above, N.S. B. has remained empty for the past four months. N.S.B. is not the basis of any challenge in this proceeding.

The amended complaint, upon which this cause proceeded to trial, raised four issues:

(1) — Plaintiffs contend that they were deprived of due process of law by their transfer from the Indiana Reformatory to the Indiana State Prison for disciplinary reasons, where, upon arrival, they were confined in I.D.U. for at least thirty (30) days without a prior hearing concerning the proposed transfer or a hearing concerning the transfer or the underlying reasons for the transfer, which did not provide them with the following rights: to advance written notice of charges, the opportunity to be present and to testify at the hearing, the opportunity to present witnesses at the hearing to testify on the prisoner's behalf, to confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses, to have the assistance of a representative and advocate who can assist the prisoner in conducting the hearing and preparing the prisoner's case before the hearing, and to have the impartial hearing body make written findings and conclusions based solely on the evidence presented to it at the hearing.

(2) — Plaintiffs contend that they are deprived of rights under the Fourteenth, Eighth, Fourth, First, Ninth, and Thirteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States by the practices of keeping prisoners incarcerated for more than sixty (60) continuous days in I.D. U., not allowing them out of I.D.U. cells for exercise and recreation, not providing prompt access to adequate medical services while in I.D.U., not providing opportunity and equipment for proper personal and environmental cleanliness, not providing special diets to prisoners in I.D.U., not providing sanitary and nutritional food to I.D.U. prisoners, not providing access to an adequate law library for I.D.U. prisoners, and preventing prisoners in I.D.U. from receiving literature that does not pose a clear and present danger to prison security.

(3) — The plaintiffs contend in their third cause of action that they are deprived of rights under the Fourteenth, Eighth, Fourth, First, Ninth, and Thirteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution by the following practices imposed on prisoners in D.O. Seclusion: keeping prisoners incarcerated there for more than thirty (30)...