Cochran v. Rowe, 76 C 4134.

• Citation: 438 F. Supp. 566
• Decision Date: 20 October 1977
• Docket Number: No. 76 C 4134.,76 C 4134.
• Parties: Lawrence COCHRAN, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. Charles ROWE, Individually and as Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, Robert W. Horn, Individually and as Administrative Chaplain of the Illinois Department of Corrections, Thaddeus Pinkney, Individually and as Warden of Pontiac Correctional Center, Errol Grant, Individually and as Senior Chaplain of Pontiac Correctional Center, and Bealey Reynolds, Individually and as Protestant Chaplain of Pontiac Correctional Center, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

438 F. Supp. 566

Lawrence COCHRAN, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. Charles ROWE, Individually and as Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, Robert W. Horn, Individually and as Administrative Chaplain of the Illinois Department of Corrections, Thaddeus Pinkney, Individually and as Warden of Pontiac Correctional Center, Errol Grant, Individually and as Senior Chaplain of Pontiac Correctional Center, and Bealey Reynolds, Individually and as Protestant Chaplain of Pontiac Correctional Center, Defendants.

No. 76 C 4134.

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

October 20, 1977.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Marc O. Beem, Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.

Joseph M. Cotugno, Legal Counsel, Ill. Dept. of Corrections, Chicago, Ill., for defendants.

William J. Scott, Atty. Gen., George C. Sorenson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Chicago, Ill., for defendant Rowe.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Motion to Dismiss

MAROVITZ, District Judge.

Plaintiff, Lawrence Cochran, an inmate of Pontiac Correctional Center ("Pontiac") and resident Minister of the World Community of Islam in the West at Pontiac, brings this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 seeking declaratory, injunctive and monetary relief for the alleged unconstitutional restrictions on and discrimination against the practice of his faith at Pontiac. Plaintiff seeks injunctive relief on behalf of himself and all present and future inmates at Pontiac who desire or will desire to participate in Muslim religious services. He seeks $500 damages from each of the named defendants for past alleged constitutional deprivations on his own behalf only.

The jurisdiction of this Court is invoked pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1343. Pending before the Court are the motions of defendants Thaddeus Pinckney, Errol Grant and Bealey Reynolds and the separate motion of Charles Rowe to dismiss plaintiff's first amended complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Rule 12(b)(6), F.R.Civ.P. For the reasons set forth below, defendants' motions are denied.

This action was originally filed by plaintiff pro se in November, 1976 against defendants Pinkney, Warden of Pontiac; Grant, Senior Chaplain at Pontiac and Reynolds, Protestant Chaplain at Pontiac. We appointed counsel to represent plaintiff in March, 1977 and on April 29, 1977 a First Amended Complaint was filed which, inter alia, added defendants Rowe, Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections and Robert W. Horn, Administrative Chaplain of the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Plaintiff's First Amended Complaint issues from the free exercise clause of the First Amendment and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Plaintiff first claims, inter alia, that defendants unreasonably restricted Islamic activities by: (1) reducing the time for such activities from approximately fifteen hours to one hour per week on Sunday for services; (2) suspending all services from February 25, 1977 to April 17, 1977; (3) suspending services on Friday, a holy day for Muslims; (4) requiring that services be held in the prison chapel in the presence of an outside minister, despite the fact that such ministers frequently are unable to get to Pontiac, that such a requirement is in conflict with the beliefs of the World Community of Islam in the West and that the Muslims at Pontiac have successfully conducted their own services without incident for seven years prior to February, 1977 and (5) precluding Muslim inmates who are assigned to the prison honor farm from attending any religious services whatsoever.

In addition, plaintiff claims that defendants have discriminated between Christian and Muslim inmates by: (1) failing to allocate funds for the compensation of outside Muslim ministers; (2) requiring plaintiff to submit proposals for all Islamic religious activities to the Administrative Chaplain; (3) subjecting inmates desiring to attend Islamic services to a more stringent procedure for obtaining religious service cards; (4) failing to supply Islamic religious materials; (5) failing to allocate a proportionate share of the religious budget to Islamic activities and (6) allowing the defacement of the Islamic mosque.

We note by way of a historical perspective that the "hands-off doctrine," the traditional reluctance of courts to review decisions made by prison officials, began to erode upon the assertion of religious rights by Muslim prisoners. In Sewell v. Pegelow, 291 F.2d 196 (4th Cir. 1961) and Pierce v. LaVallee, 293 F.2d 233 (2d Cir. 1961), federal courts began to recognize that since the freedom to believe is absolute, prison officials do not have the power to interfere with an inmate's belief. Comment, Prisoners' Rights: Restrictions on Religious Practices, 42 U.Colo.L.Rev. 387, 389-390 (1970). See generally, Comment, Black Muslims in Prison, 62 Columbia L.Rev. 1488 (1962). Today, the view that "no romantic or sentimental view of constitutional rights or of religion should induce a court to interfere with the necessary disciplinary regime established by the prison officials," Sostre v. McGinnes, 334 F.2d 906, 908 (2d Cir. 1964), has been soundly discredited.

Furthermore, as plaintiff points out in his original pro se memorandum, courts realize the pragmatic benefits of the free exercise of religion in prison. The court in Barnett v. Rodgers, 132 U.S.App. D.C. 296, 303, 410 F.2d 995, 1002 (1969), for example, stated:

Treatment that degrades the inmate, invades his privacy, and frustrates the ability to choose pursuits through which he can manifest himself and gain self-respect erodes the very foundations upon which he can prepare for a socially useful life. Religion in prison subserves the rehabilitative function by providing an area within which the inmate may reclaim his dignity and reassert his individuality. (Footnotes omitted).

This Court has long shared the opinion that rehabilitation is incident to a prisoner's free pursuit of his or her faith. See, Comment, The Religious Rights of the Incarcerated, 125 U.Pa.L.Rev. 812, 854 (1977).

I.

On a motion to dismiss, we start with the proposition that "a complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief." Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). In making this determination, all allegations are taken to be true. Cruz v. Beto, 405 U.S. 319, 92 S.Ct. 1079, 31 L.Ed.2d 263 (1972). Furthermore, the complaint is to be read, and allegations construed, in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974).

II.

A.

Plaintiff's first claim for relief is that defendants have unreasonably and arbitrarily restricted plaintiff and other Muslims in the practice of their religion by severely curtailing Islamic services and activities at Pontiac. First Amended Complaint ¶ 27. He alleges that Islamic activities were prohibited for 8 weeks; when reinstated they were cut to one hour per week; Friday services were prohibited; outside ministers were required and prisoners assigned to the honor farm were totally precluded from attending services. First Amended Complaint ¶¶ 12, 15, 16, 18-20, 23.

Plaintiff concedes that the exigencies of prison administration permit some constraints on the religious activities of prisoners which would be illegal if imposed on persons who were not incarcerated. Walker v. Blackwell, 411 F.2d 23 (5th Cir. 1969). Defendants argue, however, that plaintiff merely need be afforded reasonable opportunities to exercise religious freedom, citing Cruz v. Beto, supra. Evidently, it is defendants' position that one hour of services per week is reasonable as a matter of law. Defendants also urge that it is within the sole discretion of prison authorities to select the time, place and number of people to attend religious services, citing Cooper v. Pate, 382 F.2d 518, 522 (7th Cir. 1967).

In order to justify an infringement upon a person's First Amendment liberties, the state must show that any restriction serves a compelling state interest. Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 406-09, 83 S.Ct. 1790, 10 L.Ed.2d 965 (1963). This is particularly true where the state infringes upon one's free exercise of religion. Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 214-15, 92 S.Ct. 1526, 32 L.Ed.2d 15 (1972). See Michaelson v. Booth, 437 F.Supp. 439 (D.R.I. 1977).

The Court is aware that a number of different standards have been applied in the past to determine the constitutionality of restrictions upon prisoners' First Amendment rights.¹ 125 U.Pa.L.Rev. 812, 837-857. Compare, e. g., Banks v. Havener, 234 F.Supp. 27, 30 (E.D.Va.1964) ("clear and present danger") with Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396, 413-414, 94 S.Ct. 1800, 40 L.Ed.2d 224 (1974) with Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S. 817, 94 S.Ct. 2800, 41 L.Ed.2d 495 (1974). We agree with one treatise writer that "of the various approaches to free exercise in prison . ., the compelling interest test provides the greatest protection for inmates' rights." Id., at 850. The defendants must therefore show a compelling state interest to justify the alleged restrictions on Islamic activities at Pontiac. Kennedy v. Meacham, 540 F.2d 1057, 1061 (10th Cir. 1976); United States ex rel. Jones v. Rundle, 453 F.2d 147, 150 (3d Cir. 1971). In addition to a compelling state interest, the state must show that the alleged restrictions were the least restrictive means necessary to realize that interest. Cooper v. Pate, supra, at 522.

We therefore hold that plaintiff's allegations of restrictions imposed upon the exercise of his religion, state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

B.

Plaintiff's second and fourth claims for relief (First Amended Complaint ¶¶ 24(a), (f), 29, 30) are...