Austin v. Harris

• Decision Date: 06 February 1964
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 14411-4.
• Parties: Richard Stuart AUSTIN, Petitioner, v. Dr. J. D. HARRIS, Warden, Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, Springfield, Missouri, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri

226 F. Supp. 304

Richard Stuart AUSTIN, Petitioner, v. Dr. J. D. HARRIS, Warden, Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, Springfield, Missouri, Respondent.

Civ. A. No. 14411-4.

United States District Court W. D. Missouri, W. D.

February 6, 1964.

Richard Stuart Austin, pro se.

F. Russell Millin, U. S. Atty., by Herbert W. Titus, Sp. Asst. U. S. Atty., Kansas City, Mo., for respondent.

BECKER, District Judge.

This is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by Richard Stuart Austin, presently imprisoned in the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri, pursuant to a three year sentence imposed on February 19, 1962, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan after petitioner pleaded guilty to a charge of mailing obscene matter.

Upon receipt of the habeas corpus petition, an order to show cause was issued. A return to the order was filed by respondent. Subsequently this Court entered an order directing petitioner to file a detailed statement of the facts allegedly supporting certain enumerated claims in his petition. Petitioner filed a response to this order, and the respondent filed a traverse of the response.

Considering all of petitioner's communications with this Court as a part of his petition, his claims may be summarized as follows:

1. He is presently sane and should be transferred to a "proper institution";

2. Officials of the Medical Center have illegally interfered with his mailing privileges;

3. He has been punished for composing a legal petition to his committing court in his cell and for exhibiting it to another inmate;

4. He has been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment;

5. His account has been charged with a fictitious legal fee;

6. He was not represented by counsel in the criminal proceedings before the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan which culminated in the three year sentence which he is now serving.

Petitioner's claims will be considered in order.

Petitioner's first claim is that he is presently sane and is therefore improperly and illegally confined in the Medical Center. The response to the order to show cause filed on behalf of the respondent denies that petitioner has been restored to sanity or health.

The Court finds it unnecessary to resolve the issue of petitioner's sanity. The allegation that petitioner is sane and that he is confined in the Medical Center does not, in itself, state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

Title 18 U.S.C.A. § 4082, states:

"Persons convicted of an offense against the United States shall be committed * * * to the custody of the Attorney General of the United States or his authorized representative, who shall designate the places of confinement where the sentences shall be served.

"The Attorney General may designate any available, suitable, and appropriate institutions * * *

"The Attorney General may order any inmate transferred from one institution to another."

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has consistently held that whether a convicted prisoner is properly in the Medical Center is not a question for judicial determination. In Rosheisen v. Steele, 8 Cir., 193 F.2d 273, l. c. 275, that Court stated:

"Congress has confided to the Attorney General and the prison authorities, and not to the courts, the duty and responsibility of determining whether a federal prisoner is a suitable subject for confinement, care and treatment at the Medical Center, and what sort of medical care he needs. The administrative determination of such questions is not, in our opinion, subject to review in habeas corpus proceedings.

"It is to be noted that the Medical Center at Springfield, Missouri, is not exclusively an institution for the insane or for mentally defective federal prisoners. As the Act providing for it shows, Act of May 13, 1930, 46 Stat. 270, the institution was to be available to the Attorney General as a hospital for the care and treatment of federal prisoners `who at the time of their conviction or during the time of their detention and/or confinement are or shall become insane, afflicted with an incurable or chronic degenerative disease, or so defective mentally or physically so as to require special medical care and treatment not available in an existing Federal institution.'"

Again in Garcia v. Steele, 8 Cir., 193 F.2d 276, l. c. 278, that Court stated:

"Whether a federal prisoner is a suitable subject for hospitalization at the Medical Center is, in our opinion, a question for the Attorney General and the prison authorities, and not for the courts. It is not conceivable to us that every inmate of the Medical Center who considers himself to be sane and ineligible for confinement in that institution, can, by asserting that to be the fact, require the District Court to conduct a hearing and investigation to determine whether the prisoner should be in the Medical Center or in some penitentiary or correctional institution."

The imprisonment of an allegedly sane convict in the Medical Center is treated from the viewpoint of cruel and unusual punishment under petitioner's fourth claim, infra.

Petitioner's second claim is that officials of the Medical Center have interfered with his mailing privileges. In response to the order of this Court that he file a detailed statement of the facts constituting interference with his mailing privileges referred to in his petition, petitioner stated:

"The refusal of allowing petitioner to answer the American Bar Association, which was returned to petitioner * * *. A letter mailed to William A. Wear, Atty., was returned to petitioner, marked Exhibit 2, and of which was removed by someone at this institution from a letter to this Honorable Court, and mailed to William A. Wear, Atty. Petitioner received an answer from Mr. Wear stating that he had received said letter * * *. Also, petitioner hasn't received any answers from the following Court correspondence to YOU * * * Bill of Information * * * answer to Respondent's Reply to Show Cause Order * * * Summary Judgment on Rule 56(58) * * * Summary Judgment on Rule 56(58) * * * inquiry on above * * * request of foreman of Grand Jury * * * inquiry on above mail to Commissioner * * * answer to `Change of Respondent' Order." Petitioner concludes that since he received no return mail from the Court in response to the aforementioned correspondence the correspondence was intercepted by officials of the Medical Center and never received by the Court.

In his original petition the petitioner stated that the letter written to the American Bar Association was returned to him by the officials of the Medical Center marked "Not Special Purpose Mail!" Federal penal institutions have the right to adopt regulations governing various classes of correspondence of convicts. And it is well established that under ordinary circumstances uniformly applied rules regulating the mailing privileges of inmates of federal penal institutions which are necessary to the orderly conduct of the institution do not violate any constitutional rights of the convicts. United States ex rel. Thompson v. Fay (S.D.N.Y.) 197 F.Supp. 855, l. c. 856; Petition of Smigelski (D.N.J.) 185 F. Supp. 283, l. c. 286-287; see also Price v. Johnston, 334 U.S. 266, l. c. 285, 68 S.Ct. 1049, at pages 1059-1060, 92 L.Ed. 1356. Despite repeated requests that petitioner file a detailed written statement of facts claimed to show unlawful interference with petitioner's mail, no facts have been stated which show the regulations in question to be invalid or their application to petitioner to be unlawful.

The letter to William A. Wear, Esquire, which petitioner contends was removed from his petition for writ of habeas corpus addressed to this Court and forwarded to Mr. Wear by officials of the Medical Center, is in fact attached as "Exhibit 2" to the original petition on file in this cause. Therefore the record conclusively shows that petitioner's claim in respect to this letter is unfounded.

The enumerated correspondence to this Court which petitioner contends was not received by the Court because he did not receive replies thereto from the Court was received by this Court and is now in the file in this cause. Therefore it conclusively appears from the file in this cause that petitioner's claim in respect to the correspondence with this Court is unfounded.

Petitioner's third claim is that he has been punished for doing legal work in his cell and for exhibiting the same to other inmates. This claim is not denied in the response to the order to show cause. Rather the response states that the regulations of the Medical Center preclude preparation of petitions, motions and other documents in legal form in the inmates' living quarters except in the case of prisoners confined to their cells. These same regulations also preclude inmates from serving each other as attorneys or assisting each other in the preparation of legal documents. The respondent contends that such regulations, a copy of which is attached to the response as Exhibit No. 2, are reasonable and not in violation of any Constitutional rights of the inmates. In this contention respondent is correct. Except in exceptional circumstances not here present the Courts will not interfere with uniformly applied institutional regulations governing the times and places for preparing legal papers or governing inter-inmate traffic in legal information or materials. See Price v. Johnston, 334 U. S. 266, l. c. 285, 68 S.Ct. 1049, at pages 1059-1060, 92 L.Ed. 1356; Tabor v. Hardwick (C.A.7) 224 F.2d 526; Siegel v. Ragen (C.A.7) 180 F.2d 785. No exceptional circumstances are alleged, therefore this claim is unfounded in law and in fact.

Petitioner's fourth claim is that he is being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. In response to the order of this Court that he file a detailed statement of the facts constituting the cruel and unusual punishment referred...