Carver v. Knox County, Tenn., Civ. 3-86-299.

• Decision Date: 25 January 1989
• Docket Number: No. Civ. 3-86-299.,Civ. 3-86-299.
• Parties: Wayne Dillard CARVER, Plaintiff, v. KNOX COUNTY, TENNESSEE, et al., Defendants/Third-Party Plaintiffs, v. Ned McWHERTER, et al., Third-Party Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee

753 F. Supp. 1370

Wayne Dillard CARVER, Plaintiff, v. KNOX COUNTY, TENNESSEE, et al., Defendants/Third-Party Plaintiffs, v. Ned McWHERTER, et al., Third-Party Defendants.

No. Civ. 3-86-299.

United States District Court, E.D. Tennessee, N.D.

January 25, 1989.

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John E. Eldridge, Dean Rivkin, University of Tennessee Legal Clinic, Knoxville, Tenn., for plaintiff.

Richard T. Beeler, Knox County Law Director, Robert H. Watson, Sr., John Duffey, Knoxville, Tenn., for defendants/third-party plaintiffs.

David Himmelreich, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, Tenn., for third-party defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JARVIS, District Judge.

I. PRELIMINARY AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

This is a class action, certified as such under Rule 23(b)(2), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, on behalf of the following class of persons who seek declaratory and injunctive relief and, in some cases, monetary damages, concerning the conditions of confinement at the Knox County Jail:

All persons who have been or are confined in the Knox County Jail, Knoxville, Tennessee, a sub-class consisting of present and future pre-trial detainees in said jail, and a sub-class consisting of all Tennessee Department of Correction sentenced inmates awaiting transfer to the penitentiary.

See Doc. 103. Generally, this class action seeks injunctive and declaratory relief to address "the deprivation, under color of State law, of the class's rights under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution." See Doc. 104. Specifically, this class action seeks "to eliminate overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, lack of adequate medical, dental and mental health care, lack of exercise and recreation opportunities and facilities, and living conditions which constitute a hazard to the class's mental health, as well as a serious danger to their personal safety." See id.. The court would also note that the class was granted leave to amend their complaint to add the issue of lack of access to a law library before trial. See Doc. 121.

The defendants fall into two categories: (1) Knox County, Tennessee and its sheriff, Joe C. Fowler, ("county defendants"); and (2) the Governor of Tennessee and other state officials in their official capacities ("state defendants"). The county defendants have filed a third-party complaint against the state defendants in which they too seek declaratory and injunctive relief. Essentially, the county defendants contend that the failure of the State of Tennessee to receive inmates who were supposed to be in the State Department of Correction has resulted in the increasing number of prisoners located and housed in the Knox County facilities. Doc. 16. Thus, the county defendants contend that if any of plaintiffs' constitutional rights have been violated in the Knox County facilities, these violations are the proximate result of the state defendants' failure to meet their duties and responsibilities in reference to the state penal system. See id.. It is undisputed that the state-sentenced inmates are presently housed in the Knox County facilities (as well as in other counties' facilities) because of a federal court order issued by Judge Thomas A. Higgins in December, 1985. That order limited the number of inmates who could be accommodated in the Tennessee state prison system. Subsequently, the Tennessee Department of Correction ("TDOC") reduced the number of state-sentenced inmates to be received from all counties in Tennessee. According to undisputed statistics and testimony at the time of trial, approximately 2100 out of 7800 TDOC prisoners are incarcerated in local county jails. In Knox County at the time of trial, there are approximately 120 inmates who should be in the custody of the TDOC.

This matter was tried without intervention of a jury on August 10, 12 and 15, 1988 only as to the issue of the constitutionality of the conditions of confinement in the Knox County jail facilities. The issues regarding alleged damages and proposed injunctive relief were bifurcated by previous order of the court. See Doc. 103. After consideration of the pleadings, testimony and exhibits introduced at trial, the parties' briefs and applicable law, the court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law. Rule 52(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

II. FINDINGS OF FACT

A. General

Defendant Knox County, Tennessee operates three penal facilities: (1) the Knox County Jail ("Jail"), which is the main facility located in the basement area of the City-County Building in Knoxville, Tennessee; (2) the Knox County Jail Intake Center ("Intake Center"), which is located in the Knoxville Safety Building; and (3) the Knox County Jail Annex ("Annex"), which is part of the Knox County Penal Farm located on Maloneyville Road in Knox County, Tennessee, specifically consisting of four cell blocks, which the Knox County Sheriff's Department leases from the County Highway Department. It is important to note that the state-sentenced inmates are housed at all three facilities.

B. Physical Description

1. The Jail

At the time the Jail was completed in 1979, it complied with all guidelines required by the State of Tennessee. See Trial Exh. 10. Because the Jail is designed as a short term holding facility, i.e., for holding inmates for one year or less, it does not offer outside space for recreation or exercise because proper security cannot be maintained. See id.. The Jail has thirteen separate living units, commonly referred to as "tanks", as well as an additional holding cell. See Trial Exhibit 1. One of the tanks is supposed to be exclusively for female inmates; another tank is supposed to be exclusively for mentally unstable inmates; and another tank is supposed to be exclusively for drunk inmates. Most of the tanks have beds for 20 inmates. A typical 20-person tank has 10 two-person small cells in which the inmates sleep. These individual cells have two bunks, a sink and toilet. These two-person cells then open up into a corridor or hallway which, in turn, leads to a larger day room, which is approximately 24 feet by 36 feet. While in the day room, inmates have access to two toilets and two showers. The dayroom also offers a television set, a telephone, and five steel tables with four built-in steel seats around each table. As noted earlier, since there is no access to the outdoors for recreation and indoor recreation is very limited, the tables provide one of the few areas for recreation, primarily in the form of card games. The day room is open from 6:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m.; therefore, it is the area in which most inmates spend most of their time.

The drunk tank is a small cell approximately 20 feet by 27 feet. It is undisputed that the drunk tank was designed for the incarceration of intoxicated persons on a temporary basis, i.e., 24 to 48 hours. There are no beds in the drunk tank since the Tennessee Corrections Institute ("TCI")¹ does not allow steel bunks in any drunk tank because of the potential for intoxicated inmates to injure themselves on them. The drunk tank offers three toilets, a shower and a bare concrete floor.

2. The Intake Center

The Intake Center was built in 1967 and is designed as a short-term intake center for processing and temporarily housing arrestees. The Intake Center has several sizes of cells, varying from providing three beds to 12 beds. Most of the cells are adjacent to a dayroom, which is open from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. The dayroom areas for the Intake Center, however, are not as large as those in the Jail. Moreover, no cell at the Intake Center offers any place to sit other than on a bed. Although all of the cells have a sink and toilet, some of them do not provide showers. There are also no windows in this facility.

Also like the Jail, the Intake Center contains a drunk tank, which like the drunk tank at the Jail is a cell with a bare concrete floor. It also offers showers and toilets. Like the drunk tank at the Jail, it is only designed to accommodate intoxicated persons for short periods of time, i.e., 24 to 48 hours.

3. The Annex

As noted earlier, the Annex consists of four cell blocks which the Knox County Sheriff leases from the County Highway Department. These cell blocks offer 20 beds each, arranged in dormitory fashion. The Annex offers showers and toilets in each cell. Unlike the other two facilities, the Annex offers two outside exercise areas. One of these provides a basketball goal and the other contains a horseshoe pit. Inmates at the Annex have access to these outdoor exercise areas for an hour and a half per day, five days per week, weather permitting.

C. Overcrowding

1. The Jail

The Jail has a serious problem with overcrowding as a direct result of Judge Higgins' Order. As of January 6, 1988, the TCI-rated capacity² for the Jail was 212. See Trial Exh. 24. This maximum rated capacity is based on a minimum of 25 square feet of clear floor space per inmate according to the testimony of plaintiffs' expert witness, Gordon Kamka. The TCI-rated capacity was recalculated on July 6, 1988 and increased to 228 to include inmates who sleep in the Jail's laundry room. See Trial Exh. 25. Nevertheless, the credible evidence at trial indicates that the number of inmates has greatly exceeded 228 for extended periods of time.

TCI inspector Michael H. Jenkins inspected the Jail several times during the last two years. His July, 1986 inspection indicated that there were approximately 270 inmates at the Jail. Subsequently, Jenkins cited the Knox County Sheriff for being out of compliance with TCI standards, primarily due to this overcrowding, and notified him that he had until a specified date in August, 1986 to reduce the population. Jenkins then returned on that specified date and found that the Jail was in compliance with the rated capacity...