Harris v. Murray

• Decision Date: 25 July 1990
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 89-0257-AM.
• Citation: 761 F. Supp. 409
• Parties: Gary Lee HARRIS, Plaintiff, v. Edward MURRAY, Director, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia

761 F. Supp. 409

Gary Lee HARRIS, Plaintiff, v. Edward MURRAY, Director, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 89-0257-AM.

United States District Court, E.D. Virginia, Alexandria Division.

July 25, 1990.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Gary Lee Harris, pro se.

William W. Muse, Asst. Atty. Gen., Richmond, Va., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

BRYAN, Chief Judge.

Plaintiff, Gary Lee Harris, a Virginia inmate, brings this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 asserting numerous allegations relating to conditions of confinement at the Nottoway Correctional Center.¹ Defendants have submitted a motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff was advised of his right to respond and has done so.² Accordingly, the Court finds this matter ripe for disposition and for the reasons stated below, defendants' motion is granted.³

Plaintiff alleges:

1) that he is forced to sit in a smoke filled visiting room;

2) that he and his wife are harassed in the visiting room by a sergeant Asal;

3) that he was unlawfully placed in segregation for 12 days by sergeant Asal and Bennett;

4) that while in segregation he was denied his reading glasses for 12 days;

5) that overcrowded conditions at the institution have caused many problems, such as:

a) poor medical care,

b) cold food,

c) a lack of places to sit when eating,

d) a lack of jobs,

e) environmental health and safety problems and

f) increased violence.

Plaintiff alleges that he is forced to sit in a smoke filled room while visiting with his wife. The visiting room at Nottoway Correctional Center holds approximately 250 people. Although it is equipped with an adequate ventilation system, there still may be some smoke when many of the occupants are smokers. If the ventilation system is turned on it makes the room very cold, therefore, it is turned on and off periodically to reduce the amount of smoke. Additionally, the back door is left slightly open and a fan is placed there to help alleviate the smoke in the visiting room. Inmates and their visitors also have the option of going out to a patio. Every effort is made to reduce the amount of smoke in the visiting area.⁴

Plaintiff's second claim regarding the visiting room is that he and his wife are harassed there by Sgt. Asal. According to Mr. Asal, plaintiff and his wife had problems following the various rules and regulations that were to be followed during visiting hours. On January 22, 1989, following an incident, a charge was placed against plaintiff for disobeying the direct order to leave the visiting room in a timely manner. Plaintiff was placed in pre-hearing detention as a result of this charge. Mr. Asal stated that the same action would have been taken against any other inmate who refused to obey the rules pertaining to visiting hours.⁵

Matters of visitation are within the discretion of prison administrators and should only be subject to federal court supervision if a prison's practice in this field interferes with the attorney-client relationship. Feazell v. Augusta County Jail, 401 F.Supp. 405, 407 (W.D.Va.1975). Further, neither prisoners nor visitors have a constitutional right to prison visitation. White v. Keller, 438 F.Supp. 110 (D.Md.1977).

Plaintiff's allegation regarding the adequacy of the visitation room must be dismissed. Prison officials have taken adequate measures to alleviate the inconvenience of occasional incidents when the room has several smokers. Further, plaintiff has not alleged any serious medical problems that have resulted from this condition. He has only alleged the obvious discomfort a non-smoker experiences when others around him are smoking. Generally, conditions not cruel and unusual under contemporary notions of decency are not unconstitutional. Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981). This condition does not lead to a constitutionally significant level of pain nor does it appear that this condition has been inflicted recklessly or wantonly by prison officials. See Shrader v. White, 761 F.2d 975, 979 (4th Cir.1985). Accordingly, this claim must be dismissed.

Plaintiff's harassment claim should also be dismissed. The Supreme Court has stressed the importance of granting prison officials significant latitude in the area of prison security. "... Maintaining institutional security and preserving internal order and discipline are essential goals that may require limitation or retraction of the retained constitutional rights of both convicted prisoners and pretrial detainees." Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 546, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1878, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979). "Prison officials must be free to take appropriate action to insure the safety of inmates and corrections personnel and to prevent escape or unauthorized entry.... Even when an institution or restriction infringes a specific constitutional guarantee such as the First Amendment, the practice must be evaluated in the light of the central objective of prison administration, safeguarding institutional security." Id. at 547, 99 S.Ct. at 1878. Further, prison administrators should be accorded wide-ranging deference in the adoption and execution of policies and practices designed to preserve internal order and discipline and maintain institutional security. Unless substantial evidence indicates that response to these needs exaggerated, courts should ordinarily defer to officials' expert judgment. Bell v. Wolfish, supra.

The Fourth Circuit has made it clear that federal courts do not have the role of super wardens of state penal institutions. Cooper v. Riddle, 540 F.2d 731, 732 (4th Cir. 1976). Additionally, it is well settled that the courts do not sit to supervise state prisons. Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 229, 96 S.Ct. 2532, 2540-41, 49 L.Ed.2d 451 (1976). In the instant case, plaintiff's visitation time had expired for the day and defendant Asal asserts that plaintiff refused to leave in a timely manner. Plaintiff claims that he did not refuse to leave the room but was singled out for harassment by prison officials.

Although plaintiff feels that he was being harassed by the officer who was attempting to clear the visitation room, it is obvious to the Court that the officer was merely trying to organize the inmates who were exiting the visiting room and make sure that their exit was in a timely and orderly fashion. Prison order and security is within the authority and discretion of prison officials. Plaintiff does not assert that he was harmed in any way, physically or emotionally. Therefore, the Court finds that this claim is without merit and must be dismissed.

Plaintiff asserts that he was unlawfully placed in segregation for twelve days as a result of a charge written on him concerning the visitation room incident. Officer Asal stated that he placed this charge against plaintiff for disobeying a direct order to leave the visiting room in a timely manner. Specifically, plaintiff alleges that he was not given a hearing before he was placed in detention. Defendants state that temporary reclassification is justified when prison officials believe the prisoner is guilty of a violation of the rules.

"Prison officials have broad administrative and discretionary authority over the institutions they manage and lawfully incarcerated persons retain only a narrow range of protected liberty interests." Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 467, 103 S.Ct. 864, 869, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983). Further, "administrative segregation is the sort of confinement that inmates should reasonably anticipate receiving at some point in their incarceration." Id. at 468, 103 S.Ct. at 870. Lastly, "the isolation of a prisoner pending investigation of misconduct charges against a prisoner serves important institutional interests relating to the insulating of possible witnesses from coercion or harm." Hewitt, at 473, 103 S.Ct. at 872.

Plaintiff claims essentially that he was denied due process as he was not given a hearing before being placed in detention. The Court finds this argument meritless. Plaintiff received a charge against him stating that he violated a direct order of an official. It was within the discretion of the administration to place plaintiff in pre-hearing detention prior to receiving a hearing to determine whether or not the charges were accurate and warranted by the official.

As defendants have stated, plaintiff does not allege that he did not receive adequate due process after his brief period in detention. Nor does he state that the conditions of his confinement were less than adequate. As it appears to the Court that defendants acted reasonably and within their discretion in maintaining internal peace and order within the institution, this claim is dismissed.

Plaintiff alleges that while he was segregated for twelve days, he was denied his reading glasses. Moreover, he states that it was possible that his eyes could have deteriorated or that he may have possibly become blind as a result of defendants' action.

Following his receipt of an institutional charge, plaintiff was placed in general detention. Prior to being placed in detention, his personal property was inventoried. Plaintiff had two pairs of glasses in his possession. The inventory sheet reflects that he kept one pair in his possession and the other pair went into storage while he was in detention. Further, defendants state that if he had requested the other pair, they would have been given to him.⁶

Deliberate indifference to a prisoner's serious medical needs violates the Eighth Amendment. Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104, 97 S.Ct. 285, 291, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976). To state a constitutional claim under § 1983, the plaintiff must allege facts tending to show that the defendants were deliberately indifferent to plaintiff's serious medical needs and that they acted under color of state law. West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 108 S.Ct. 2250, 101 L.Ed.2d 40 (1988).

Plaintiff has failed to state facts that indicate deliberate indifference to his need for reading glasses while he...