Chapman v. Rhodes

• Decision Date: 29 June 1977
• Docket Number: No. C-1-75-251.,C-1-75-251.
• Citation: 434 F. Supp. 1007
• Parties: Kelly CHAPMAN, # 122531, Lucasville, Ohio, and Richard Jaworski, # 140-021, Lucasville, Ohio, Plaintiffs, v. James A. RHODES, Governor, George F. Denton, Director of Rehabilitation and Corrections, and A. R. Jago, Warden, SOCF, Lucasville, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

434 F. Supp. 1007

Kelly CHAPMAN, # 122531, Lucasville, Ohio, and Richard Jaworski, # 140-021, Lucasville, Ohio, Plaintiffs, v. James A. RHODES, Governor, George F. Denton, Director of Rehabilitation and Corrections, and A. R. Jago, Warden, SOCF, Lucasville, Defendants.

No. C-1-75-251.

United States District Court, S. D. Ohio, W. D.

June 29, 1977.

Christopher D. Stanley, Cleveland, Ohio, Robert P. App, American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, R. Raymond Twohig, Jr., Louis A. Jacobs, Ohio State U. College of Law, Howard J. Rosenberg, Bruce Friedman, Jan C. Leventer, and Edward Clark Barrows, Columbus, Ohio, for plaintiffs.

Allen P. Adler, Leo J. Conway, Asst. Attys. Gen., Columbus, Ohio, for defendants.

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

HOGAN, Chief Judge.

Introductory

The basic question in this case is whether or not the prisoners at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility for Ohio state prisoners at Lucasville, Ohio, are presently being subjected to "cruel and unusual punishment" or are being "deprived of life or liberty without due process of law" by reason of the "double celling"—and its concomitants—which is now and has been for some time in effect at that institution.

The claim was made in this case, filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, by two inmates who had then recently been double celled. The federal rights claimed denied are those assured under the eighth and fourteenth amendments and this Court has basic jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343(3). The action was first filed as a purported class action by the two inmates pro se and in forma pauperis. Certification as a class action was originally denied on the ground that the asserted representatives were not qualified to represent the claimed class. Thereafter, competent counsel entered appearances on behalf of the plaintiffs and thereupon the case was certified as a class action.

The plaintiffs have proceeded from the start of this case through the evidentiary hearing in forma pauperis. Shortly before the trial a request was made for approximately 35 writs of habeas corpus ad testificandum and, in addition, plaintiffs moved for two writs of habeas corpus ad prosequendum. Seven of the writs were granted. The applications for the remainder were denied. It was and remains the opinion of this Court (a) that a substantial number of individuals resident of this District (including former inmates released since the practice of double celling began, former employees no longer in the employ of any of the Divisions of the State of Ohio — both of the professional and non-professional type) existed and were within the compulsion of subpoena; (b) that the plaintiffs were free to subpoena any such; and (c) because of that available pool, the availability of seven inmates for testimonial purposes was sufficient under all of the circumstances. No limitation was placed on the plaintiffs and every subpoena requested by the plaintiffs was issued without the prepayment of costs and at the eventual expense of the United States, and, in fact, a number of witnesses from the pool were subpoenaed and did testify at the trial of this case.

The five inmates who were produced at the trial pursuant to the writs of habeas corpus ad testificandum did in fact each testify. The two inmates who were present throughout the entire trial pursuant to the writs of habeas corpus ad prosequendum sat at counsel table and aided counsel throughout the trial of this case, which consumed a week. Neither of them was put on the stand, which fairly well indicates that the writs granted were sufficient. The plaintiffs' class, throughout the entire controversy in this Court, has been fully and adequately and capably represented by counsel and the class, as such, was given adequate membership representation of its own selection.

While the plaintiffs come close to it,¹ they do not claim that double celling is per se unconstitutional. The assertion is that under all the circumstances of this case the practice is per accidens unconstitutional. The circumstances asserted to cumulatively bring about that result are as follows:

a) That violence and terror, to an impermissible degree, result from such.

b) That the guard and staff level has not been increased, is inadequate to serve the present population and that the inadequacy has fostered lawlessness and violence.

c) The feeding facilities are overtaxed to the point that the prison population is not properly fed.

d) The overcrowding has unduly burdened access to the courts.

e) The heating and ventilation systems have been overtaxed to the point of rendering cell blocks intolerable.

f) Available medical services are overtaxed.

g) Job opportunities have not kept pace with the population, reducing the rehabilitation process and the same is true of the school and schooling facilities.

These findings and conclusions will be directed to those areas as the relevant ones, since the State has put at issue each of the claims.

FINDINGS OF FACT

I. The Facility

The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is located near the Village of Lucasville, Ohio. The immediate area is rural. It is approximately 100 miles east of Cincinnati and approximately 10 miles north of Portsmouth, Ohio. It is Ohio's only maximum security penitentiary. It was built in the early 1970's at a cost of some $32 million. It was designed to replace the ancient Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. It is on a huge acreage tract. The structures themselves, i.e., the facility proper, occupies more than 20 acres and is under "one" contiguous roof. Looking at it from a brick and mortar viewpoint, it is unquestionably a top-flight, first-class facility. It has been in use only a relatively few years.

One of the controversial issues in this case is the question of how many prisoners it was designed to house. "Designed to house" is a rather nebulous term in this field. Nationally, during the five or six years before Lucasville opened, the prison population in the United States had dropped some eleven plus percent. Nationally, in the four years or so since it has opened, the trend has been reversed and the prison population has gone up almost forty percent. There is no controversy with this: As built, the facility contained some 1,660 cells and, for our present purposes, each cell was designed to and did contain one bed. It was therefore the contemplation of officialdom that the facility would, during its useful life, not be called on to house more than 1,600 or 1,700 people and that would be in single cells.

The institution is probably best described as three prisons, K block, L block, and J block, which share common support facilities. K block and L block are virtually identical and each consists of a long, spine-like corridor with eight cell blocks off the corridor, a gymnasium at one end of the corridor, and access to the rest of the facility at the other end of the corridor. The cell blocks are numbered consecutively K-1 through K-8 and L-1 through L-8 and each cell block has two upper and two lower cell ranges with twenty cells to a range. Some of the cell blocks have inner cell ranges in which the outer wall of the cell block is not used as a wall of the cells in the range. The rest of the cell blocks have outer cell ranges in which the outer wall of the cell block does constitute a wall of the cells in the range. In such cell blocks, each cell has a window that can be opened or closed by the occupants of the cell. A guard's console with controls for automatically closing and opening all the cells or any combination of them is located just inside the door from the corridor to the cell block. At the end of each cell range closest to the guard console is located a shower stall.

K block and L block corridors intersect each other at a 90° angle. A third corridor near this intersection leads to J block, a smaller and more secure version of K and L blocks. J block corridor only has four cell blocks off of it (J-1 through J-4) and at the end of the corridor is a visiting room rather than a gymnasium. J block is used to house inmates on death row (who are single celled) and inmates who have been placed in long-term administrative isolation for various serious disciplinary violations (some of whom are double celled). Each of the four cell blocks has four cell ranges as described above.

Located near the intersection of J, K, and L blocks are the library and the school facilities. The library is a modern, well-lit room, stocked with some 25,000 volumes. Included is a law library.² Nearly every expert witness who testified in this case found the library to be superior in quality and quantity. The school facilities are located above the library and at the time of trial consisted of eight classrooms which were being remodeled to add additional classroom and office space.

A corridor from the intersection of J, K, and L blocks leads to the rest of the facilities. Along this corridor are located two chapels for holding religious services, the commissary, a barber shop, the dining rooms and kitchen and workshops. The workshops contain the prison laundry, a machine shop, a shoe factory, a sheet metal shop, print shop, sign shop, and small engine repair shop.

Finally, another corridor leads to the entrance of the institution. Located off this corridor are the administrative offices and staff dining room, a large visiting room, the medical and dental facilities, including a hospital ward with twenty single isolation cells and two ten-bed wards and the so-called merit block (D-2) where inmates who have achieved honor status are housed. The merit block has eighty cells and is presently single celled.

This complex is surrounded by two twelve-foot high, barbed wire topped, chain link fences and eight guard towers. Also, inside the fence are an outdoor recreation field, outdoor visitation area, and tomato garden. On the outside of the fence is a patrol road and also located outside the fence is a power...