Glover v. Johnson
| Decision Date | 19 July 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 77-CV-71229.,77-CV-71229. |
| Citation | 931 F. Supp. 1360 |
| Parties | Mary GLOVER, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Perry JOHNSON, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Deborah LaBelle, Detroit, MI, for Plaintiffs.
Lisa Ward, Asst. Attorney General, Mich. Dept. of Corrections, Lansing, MI, for Defendants.
OPINION AND ORDERS REGARDING PLAINTIFFS' MOTIONS TO COMPEL AND FOR CONTEMPT SANCTIONS
This protracted prisoner class action commenced in 1977. To provide a context for my decisions today, I will sketch a brief history of the case. For those persons interested in a more detailed presentation, the history provided in Glover v. Johnson, 721 F.Supp. 808 (E.D.Mich.1989), and Glover v. Johnson, 934 F.2d 703 (6th Cir.1991), should suffice.1
In a 1979 opinion, I found that the educational and vocational opportunities available to female prisoners in the custody of the Michigan Department of Corrections ("Department of Corrections" or "Department") were substantially inferior to those provided male prisoners. Glover v. Johnson, 478 F.Supp. 1075 (E.D.Mich.1979) ("Glover I"). On April 6, 1981, after comprehensive negotiations, I entered a Final Order setting forth the remedies to be provided by the Department. Glover v. Johnson, 510 F.Supp. 1019 (E.D.Mich.1981) ("Glover II"). Neither of these orders was appealed and therefore they serve as the law of the case. Glover, 934 F.2d at 706.
From 1981 to 1986, the Department proved unwilling to implement some of the programs ordered in Glover I and Glover II, even after findings of contempt and threats of further contempt. In 1991, I tried another approach; I ordered Defendants to develop a remedial plan to address the constitutional problems in its women prisons.2 Defendants appealed this order but the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit agreed with me that the Department had not used its best efforts to comply with Glover I and Glover II. Glover, 934 F.2d at 714. In fact, the court of appeals stated that "the history of this case shows a consistent and persistent pattern of obfuscation, hyper-technical objections, delay, and litigation by exhaustion on the part of the defendants to avoid compliance with the letter and the spirit of the district court's orders." Id. at 715.
From 1991 to 1995, Defendants did not comply with their own remedial plan in significant ways. Intent on ending this time-consuming and costly litigation, I tried a third approach to resolve this dispute. In a July 25, 1995 order, I established a "compliance committee" to address the problems preventing compliance with the remedial plan. The Compliance Committee included representatives from the parties and the court but no lawyers; it was my hope that a nonadversarial approach to the conflict might render more satisfying results. However, the Compliance Committee format met with substantial resistance. Defendants appealed every one of my orders seeking to establish or sustain it. Department of Corrections Director Kenneth McGinnis declined to meet with me to discuss how the Compliance Committee might be structured or utilized to meet the common goal of finality in these proceedings. Without hope that this nonadversarial approach could succeed, I dissolved the Compliance Committee in a January 5, 1996 order.
In July 1995, Plaintiffs had filed three motions alleging problems that I had hoped would be resolved by the Compliance Committee. In these motions Plaintiffs sought relief for alleged violations of the remedial plan and other associated orders regarding prisoner access to the courts, denial of programming based on prisoner custody level, and denial of program opportunities at Camp Branch. When the Compliance Committee effort failed, I scheduled hearings on these motions. On January 19, 1996, Plaintiffs filed a fourth motion alleging violations of court orders as to apprenticeship programming at the Crane Women's Facility.
On February 15, 1996, February 16, 1996, March 11, 1996, and March 15, 1996, evidentiary hearings were held on Plaintiffs' motions. On May 7, 1996, and May 9, 1996, the parties argued their proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law on the four motions. This opinion and its orders address the issues raised in these four motions.
Because Plaintiffs seek contempt sanctions, it is important to state the law of contempt proceedings. The basis of all such proceedings is "the basic proposition that all orders and judgments of courts must be complied with promptly." NLRB v. Cincinnati Bronze, Inc., 829 F.2d 585, 590 (6th Cir. 1987). In a civil contempt proceeding, a plaintiff must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant did not comply with a court's prior order. Glover v. Johnson, 75 F.3d 264, 266 (6th Cir.1996), petition for cert. filed, 64 U.S.L.W. 3823 (May 30, 1996). The test for compliance is not whether a defendant made a good faith effort at compliance but whether the defendant took all reasonable steps to obey the court's order. Glover v. Johnson, 934 F.2d at 708. Once a prima facie showing of a violation of the court's order has been made, the charged party has the burden of proving inability to comply. Huber v. Marine Midland Bank, 51 F.3d 5, 10 (2d Cir.1995). "The alleged contemnor's burden is to establish his inability clearly, plainly and unmistakably." Id. The burden of production regarding inability "may be difficult to meet, particularly in cases ... where the defendants have a long history of delay and the plaintiffs' needs are urgent." Badgley v. Santacroce, 800 F.2d 33, 36 (2d Cir.1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1067, 107 S.Ct. 955, 93 L.Ed.2d 1003 (1987). (Citations omitted).
The Constitution guarantees effective and meaningful access to the courts for prisoners. Lewis v. Casey, ___ U.S. ___, ___ - ___, 116 S.Ct. 2174, 2180-81, 135 L.Ed.2d 606; Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 821, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 1494-95, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977). Having concluded that Defendants have violated this constitutional right on several occasions, I have issued assorted remedial orders requiring Defendants to provide Plaintiffs adequate access. See, e.g., Glover, 510 F.Supp. at 1023; Glover, 721 F.Supp. 808, 814-15 (E.D.Mich.1989).
Recently, my orders regarding access have been embodied in the remedial plan.3 It provides, in conjunction with Department of Corrections Policy Directive ("PD") BCF-61.01, that all general population prisoners shall be entitled to use the main law library at each correctional facility for a least six hours each week. RP 2-3; PD-BCF-61.01 at 4. It also requires Defendants to provide paralegal training "until such time as a sufficient pool of trained legal assistants is developed." RP 2-4. Finally, the Defendants are required to establish a method to determine when a sufficient pool of inmate paralegals exists to meet the needs of the prisoner population. RP 2-6.
From December 1991, when the remedial plan was implemented, until January 1995, when Defendants established its new segregation policy, general population prisoners of every custody classification were provided use of the main law library at Scott Correctional Facility ("SCF"). There has been no ambiguity in the Court's order that all plaintiff class members were entitled to access to a Bounds law library. That this has been the understanding of Defendants is evidenced by the fact that in the remedial plan Defendants acknowledged that they had already remedied their procedures to allow level I prisoners, housed outside the main complex at SCF, regular access to the main law library. Finally, Prisoners were also able to establish a legal assistance agreement with a trained prisoner paralegal, irrespective of custody level.
Plaintiffs contend that in contravention of this Court's orders, Defendants have denied prisoners assigned to custody levels I, IV, and V at SCF adequate access to the courts. Defendants counter that the limits they have placed upon prisoner access to the main law library and legal assistance are justified by legitimate security concerns. Moreover, Defendants contend that the access still available to level I, IV and V prisoners satisfies the requirements of the orders of this Court and the Constitution. Finally, Defendants argue that Plaintiffs lack standing to pursue this motion. I conclude that Defendants' contentions are largely without merit and that prisoner access to the courts at SCF violates the clear orders of this Court and is also constitutionally inadequate.
Based upon the evidence presented during the evidentiary hearings, and pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a), I make the following findings of fact in regard to Plaintiffs' Motion to Compel Law Library Access and Implementation of Inmate Assistance Agreements:
1. Defendants' Segregation Policy
(1) In January 1995, as a consequence to an escape from the Ryan Correctional Facility, Defendants implemented Policy Directive 05.01.140, which requires the segregation of prisoners by custody level.4 Tr. 1/23/96 at 29.
(2) PD 05.01.140 provided for exceptions to the requirement of segregation for academic or vocational training, the Warden's Forum, the Prisoner Benefit Fund, and Store Committee. Defs. Ex. 5.
(3) Defendants' segregation policy was modified by the Department of Corrections to permit prisoners of different security levels to attend sex offender and assaultive offender psychotherapy groups and outpatient mental health team group therapy. Defs. Ex. 5 (DOM 1995-54).
(4) The warden of SCF sought and received variances from PD 05.01.140 for Women's Legal Services and prison industries. Tr. 1/23/96 at 35-36.
(5) The warden for SCF never sought a variance to allow level I or level V prisoners to use the law...
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Glover v. Johnson
...to provide Plaintiffs adequate access" were "embodied in the remedial plan" devised by the defendants in 1991. Glover v. Johnson, 931 F.Supp. 1360, 1363 (E.D.Mich.1996). The court described the pertinent portions of the remedial plan as It provides, in conjunction with [a] Department of Cor......
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