Espinoza v. Wilson

• Citation: 814 F.2d 1093
• Decision Date: 27 March 1987
• Docket Number: No. 86-5098,86-5098
• Parties: Rick ESPINOZA and Bruce Roller, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. George WILSON, William Seabold and Betty Batts, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1093

814 F.2d 1093

Rick ESPINOZA and Bruce Roller, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. George WILSON, William Seabold and Betty Batts, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 86-5098.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued Dec. 9, 1986.

Decided March 27, 1987.

William M. Radigan, Walker, Radigan and Zeller, Louisville, Ky., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Barbara Jones, Linda Cooper, David Sexton, Frankfort, Ky., G. Edward Henry II (argued), Clem, Henry and Watz, Lexington, Ky., for defendants-appellees.

Before JONES and RYAN, Circuit Judges, and CELEBREZZE, Senior Circuit Judge.

PER CURIAM.

The plaintiffs appeal the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants in this prisoners' civil rights case. This action was commenced by Rick Espinoza and Bruce Roller, two former inmates at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex ("LLCC") located in LaGrange, Kentucky. LLCC is a medium security facility housing 600 inmates. Neither Espinoza nor Roller are presently incarcerated at LLCC; both have been paroled. The two plaintiffs filed a pro se complaint against George Wilson (Secretary of the Kentucky Corrections Cabinet), William Seabold (warden at LLCC), and Betty Batts (mailroom clerk at LLCC), alleging violations of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1982). The complaint alleged that the defendant state officials violated the inmates' civil rights by refusing to allow them to receive certain homosexual publications to which they had subscribed while at LLCC. The complaint sought monetary damages and injunctive relief.

Espinoza and Roller were convicted in Mercer Circuit Court in 1980 following the entry of guilty pleas. Each pled guilty to four counts of using a minor for sexual purposes and four counts of sodomy in the first degree. Each was sentenced to 100 years in prison and confined in the Kentucky State Reformatory on June 12, 1980. Immediately upon their placement there, both Espinoza and Roller received threats from other inmates due to their convictions for sex crimes involving a child and being labeled homosexuals. Both men received threats of rape and assault and were labeled "baby rapers" by their fellow inmates. Both men requested protective custody status and remained in that status at the reformatory until they were transferred to the protective custody unit of the Kentucky State Penitentiary on July 29, 1980. Espinoza remained in protective custody status at the penitentiary until approximately three months prior to his May 19, 1981, transfer to LLCC. Roller remained in protective custody status at the penitentiary for approximately one year and was eventually transferred to LLCC on November 2, 1981. Roller remained at LLCC until September 14, 1984; Espinoza remained there until September 21, 1984.

While they were at LLCC, some materials mailed to them were withheld by the prison administration. The prison officials claim that, with few exceptions, the materials were withheld on the grounds that they posed a threat to the security and order of the institution. The classification of this withheld material as a security threat is the sole issue raised by Espinoza and Roller in this case.

The Kentucky Corrections Cabinet requires the screening of all incoming prisoner mail. Mailroom personnel check letters and parcels to assure that prisoners do not receive contraband or other materials detrimental to discipline, order, security or rehabilitative efforts at the prisons. The mail screening procedures used at LLCC at the time of the complaint were as follows. The mailroom clerk would initially screen incoming mail. If items were considered to be a threat to the security of the institution, they would be forwarded to Steve Adwell, the procedures officer at LLCC, for his review. Each item withheld was judged on its own merits and in its totality to determine whether it would be withheld from plaintiffs. No predetermined list was drawn by Seabold or Adwell setting forth the specific publications that would be withheld from plaintiffs. Instead the officials determined that if a specific publication advocated or legitimized a homosexual lifestyle in totality, then it would be withheld from plaintiffs. The publications that were withheld from plaintiffs were reviewed by Adwell for an individual determination as to whether that publication would pose a threat to the security of the institution. Additionally, from time to time, a literary review committee composed of Seabold, Adwell, and two deputy wardens would review publications that had been withheld to determine if in fact all agreed that the publications would pose such a threat. When a publication was withheld, a rejection notice would be forwarded to the inmate-recipient setting forth the type of publication and the reason for its rejection. ¹

The record reveals that plaintiffs received a great deal of mail. Warden Seabold estimated that on some days plaintiffs would receive ten percent of the total amount of mail received at the institution. There was no policy, either formal or informal, that homosexually-related publications would simply be banned from the institution. Plaintiffs received a great deal of literature that discussed homosexual issues, particularly those of a religious or educational nature and those containing supportive materials or medical information. Plaintiffs were also allowed to receive photographs of nude men. Such photographs were withheld only if they depicted sexual acts. Sexually explicit photographs were withheld under the obscenity section of the policy and procedures of the Corrections Cabinet. Espinoza stated in his deposition that he received gay-related publications and that on an average day he would receive between 10 and 25 pieces of mail. He estimated that approximately ten percent of his mail was withheld and, of the ninety percent of the mail that he received, approximately 50 percent of it was gay material or letters from gay friends.

In his deposition, Warden Seabold stated that his decision to withhold certain homosexual publications from the plaintiffs was made in the interests of inmate safety and institutional order. The plaintiffs contended before the district court that, despite Warden Seabold's fears, they were not mistreated by their fellow inmates while at LLCC, nor were they a cause of disorder within the institution even though they were open about their homosexuality. The plaintiffs also stated that while incarcerated in other Kentucky prison facilities, they were allowed to receive many of the publications withheld at LLCC. They further argued that the receipt of those publications while at LLCC would have caused neither mistreatment nor disorder.

The parties filed opposing motions for summary judgment, and on December 18, 1985, the district court granted the defendants' motion. In its opinion, the court concluded that:

Although [there] is some evidence that the defendants may have overreacted to the censored materials, it does not constitute substantial evidence of overreaction. Nor does the fact that the court might consider some of the publications innocuous outweigh the deference it must accord to Warden Seabold's fifteen years of experience in the Corrections Cabinet. Accordingly, the court defers to Warden Seabold's opinion that the plaintiffs were made safer and that LLCC, an institution with a prisoner population like none other in [Kentucky], was made more secure by holding back certain homosexual publications.

The court notes that not all homosexual oriented publications were withheld from the plaintiffs. Publications providing medical and religious counselling to homosexuals were delivered. The materials that were withheld, however, were characterized by Warden Seabold as condoning homosexuality and ... were prohibited because such materials might provoke violent reactions from other inmates. Because censorship of the plaintiffs' mail was based on an objective concern for their safety, the court finds that withholding of certain homosexual periodicals was a permissible abridgement of the inmates' first amendment rights in order to secure the governmental interests in discipline, order, and security.

App. at 81-82 (emphasis in original). In Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979), the Supreme Court articulated four principles to consider when a prison rule or regulation is attacked on constitutional grounds. First, "convicted prisoners do not forfeit all constitutional protections by reason of their conviction and confinement in prison." Id. at 545, 99 S.Ct. at 1877. A prisoner retains those rights that are "not inconsistent with his status as a prisoner or with the legitimate penological objectives of the corrections system." See Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S. 817, 822, 94 S.Ct. 2800, 2804, 41 L.Ed.2d 495 (1974). Second, merely because prisoners "retain certain constitutional rights does not mean that these rights are not subject to restrictions and limitations.... There must be a 'mutual accommodation between institutional needs and objectives and the provisions of the Constitution that are of general application.' " Bell, 441 U.S. at 545-46, 99 S.Ct. at 1877-78 (quoting Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 556, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2975, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974)). Third, "maintaining institutional security and preserving internal order and discipline are essential goals that may require limitation or retraction of the retained constitutional rights" of convicted prisoners. Id., 441 U.S. at 546, 99 S.Ct. at 1877. Finally, prison officials

should be accorded wide-ranging deference in the adoption and execution of policies and practices that in their judgment are needed to preserve internal order and discipline and to maintain institutional security. "Such considerations are peculiarly within the province and professional expertise of corrections officials, and, in the absence of substantial evidence in the record to indicate that...