Gates v. Collier

• Decision Date: 20 October 1972
• Docket Number: No. GC 71-6-K.,GC 71-6-K.
• Parties: Nazareth GATES et al. and United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor, v. John COLLIER et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Mississippi

349 F. Supp. 881

Nazareth GATES et al.

and

United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor, v. John COLLIER et al.

No. GC 71-6-K.

United States District Court, N. D. Mississippi, Greenville Division.

September 13, 1972.

Judgment October 20, 1972.

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Roy S. Haber, Jackson, Miss., for plaintiffs.

H. M. Ray, U. S. Atty., Oxford, Miss., Jesse Queen, Michael Davidson, Tom Sheron, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff-intervenor.

A. F. Summer, Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., P. Roger Googe, Jr., William A. Allain, Jesse Adams, Asst. Attys. Gen., for defendants.

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

KEADY, Chief Judge.

This case of great public concern and interest involves alleged unconstitutional conditions and practices in the maintenance, operation, and administration of the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi (Parchman).

The action began February 8, 1971, as a class action brought by certain Parchman inmates against the Superintendent of the Penitentiary, the members of the Mississippi Penitentiary Board and the Governor of the State. Thomas D. Cook, penitentiary superintendent at the commencement of the action, was replaced in February 1972 by John Collier, who has been substituted in his stead as a defendant. Invoking federal court jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343, the plaintiffs allege that the defendants, by their methods of prison administration, have deprived the inmates of rights, privileges and immunities secured to them by the First, Eighth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments and by 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1994. The complaint also charge that negro inmates have been segregated and discriminated against on the basis of their race in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.¹ The complaint seeks injunctive relief to remedy the alleged misconduct of the defendants and a declaratory judgment that the continuation of certain practices and conditions at the penitentiary is unconstitutional.

On August 23, 1971, the United States was allowed to intervene as plaintiff pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 2000h-2.² The complaint in intervention alleges that the defendants have, contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment, maintained a system of prison facilities segregated by race; and, additionally, the defendants have failed to provide the inmates with adequate housing, medical care, and protection from assault from other prisoners; that the conditions of the sewerage disposal and water systems create an immediate health hazard, and that prison officials have permitted the custodial staff, including inadequately trained armed trusties, to inflict cruel and unusual punishment upon inmates in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The United States seeks injunctive relief to remedy the alleged misconduct of defendants.

The parties have conducted extensive pre-trial discovery consisting of depositions, interrogatories and answers, interviews, inspections and investigations carried on at Parchman by attorneys, penologists, FBI agents, legislators and other interested persons. After pre-trial conferences, the case was set for full evidentiary hearing on May 15, 1972. By agreement of counsel for all parties, however, the introduction of oral evidence and further testimony in open court was waived and the case submitted to the court for decision upon the pleadings, stipulations, depositions, interrogatories and answers, offers of proof, factual summaries, proposed trial plans, evidentiary synopses, photographs, reports and other documentary evidence. In this manner a multitude of materials has been admitted as evidence, without objection; and these materials constitute the basis upon which the court makes its findings of fact and conclusions of law as follows:

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Established in the year 1903, Parchman is the sole state prison for the State of Mississippi and is located in the Delta region of the state. The main area, comprising approximately 16,000 acres, is located in Sunflower County near Drew. A smaller area is located in Quitman County in the vicinity of Lambert. Parchman is and has always been operated essentially as a farm devoted to the growing of cotton, soybeans and other crops as well as the production of livestock, swine, poultry and the operation of a dairy. In recent years vocational training for certain trades has been established.

2. The Penitentiary Board, composed of 5 persons appointed by the Governor with consent of the Senate for 4-year terms, appoints the prison superintendent, who, by statute, is vested with the exclusive management and control of the prison system in all aspects, including the care and treatment of inmates and the hiring, control and discharge of approximately 150 civilian employees. Miss.Code Ann. §§ 7924, 7930 and 7932 (1971 Supp.).

3. There are approximately 1900 inmates at Parchman, of which 50 are women; and two-thirds of the total prison population is black. The prison itself consists of 21 units, 12 of which are the major residential camps with permanent population. All of the units are located at Parchman except (a) the Governor's mansion, which is in Jackson; (b) Mississippi State Hospital, which is located at Whitfield approximately 140 miles from Parchman; and (c) Camp B, which is located near Lambert. Seven camps have no permanent population because inmates are assigned only temporarily to them, viz: Maximum Security Unit (MSU), Hospital, Dairy, Camp 3 (Pre-release Center), Camp 7 (Psychiatric Camp), Camp 9 (Diagnostic and Reception Center), and Whitfield (Mississippi State Hospital). Two separate facilities exist for women, i. e., Women's Camp and Women's Pre-release Center.

4. All persons who are convicted of a felony and sentenced to a prison term by the state courts of Mississippi are confined at Parchman or at Whitfield. Miss. Code Ann. § 7922. MSU also houses a number of pre-trial detainees who have been sent by court order to Parchman for safekeeping. All inmates, except those confined to MSU, are housed in barracks or dormitories.

5. Four civilians, or "free-world" personnel, are stationed at each of the 12 residential camps. There is a sergeant who is in charge of and responsible for the security and welfare of his camp and its inmates. Two employees, known as drivers, are assigned to most of the camps for the purpose of taking inmates to and from field work. The remaining civilian is employed as night watchman.

6. While the sergeants, drivers and night watchmen have general supervisory responsibility over the inmates, the practice at Parchman is that, as former Superintendent Cook described it: "The inmates do the guarding of other inmates." Under the system in use certain inmates, described as "trusties", "hallboys", "floorwalkers" and "cage bosses" (whose selection and responsibilities are described more fully below) perform custodial and supervisory duties over the rest of the inmates, and in some cases trusties are armed for the performance of their duties.

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

7. The policy and practice at Parchman has been and is to maintain a system of prison facilities segregated by race, and by which the black inmates are subjected to disparate and unequal treatment. Approximately twice the number of blacks are required to live in the same amount of dormitory space as white inmates. Inmates are assigned to the 12 major residential camps on the basis of race. Inmates are assigned to work details according to race. Blacks have not been afforded the same vocational training opportunities as have the white inmates. Prison officials maintain separate files for black and white inmates and make work and housing assignments therefrom. Although inmates of both races are housed in the same buildings at the prison hospital and women's camps, they are nevertheless placed in separate, segregated wings. Black inmates in some instances have been subjected to greater punishment or more severe discipline than have white inmates for similar infractions of penitentiary rules. Historically, Parchman employees have been only of the white race and not until recent months have any blacks been employed as civilian personnel. At the time the record was closed, only two blacks were employed.

PHYSICAL FACILITIES

8. The housing units at Parchman are unfit for human habitation under any modern concept of decency. The facilities at all camps for the disposal of human and other waste are shockingly inadequate and present an immediate health hazard. Open sewage is a breeding ground for rats and other vermin. As recently reported by the State Board of Health: "A new sewage system is the most pressing environmental need now existing at the Penitentiary." The entire waste disposal system has been condemned by state health and pollution agencies. All of the 14 water systems have one or more deficiencies needing attention or improvement; 8 of the systems have major defects which present a potentiality for dangerous contamination. Water, contaminated as a result of the inadequate sewerage system, has caused the spread of infectious diseases. At most camps the amount of water available for drinking and sanitation is approximately half enough for inmate personnel. As reported by the State Board of Health February 10, 1972: "The water supply facilities at Mississippi State Penitentiary were found to be inadequate and obsolete . . . to protect the health of the inmates and employees at Mississippi State Penitentiary. The need for a new water system is almost as great as the need for a sewer system."

9. The building facilities at most camps, "are in a deplorable state of maintenance and repair," as reported by the Mississippi Joint Legislative Committee January 4, 1971, and result in sub-human conditions. The electric wiring at a majority of the units is frayed, exposed and generally...