Hawkins v. Hall

• Decision Date: 25 March 1981
• Docket Number: No. 80-1257,80-1257
• Parties: Charles R. HAWKINS, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Frank A. HALL et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 914

644 F.2d 914

Charles R. HAWKINS, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Frank A. HALL et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 80-1257.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Argued Jan. 6, 1981.

Decided March 25, 1981.

Gordon A. Martin, Jr., Boston, Mass., with whom James D. Hanrahan and Martin, Morse, Wylie & Kaplan, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for plaintiff-appellant.

Lee Carl Bromberg, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Boston, Mass., with whom Francis X. Bellotti, Atty. Gen. and Bromberg, Sunstein & McGregor, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for defendants-appellees.

Before MARKEY, ^* Judge, CAMPBELL and BOWNES, Circuit Judges.

BOWNES, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-appellant Charles R. Hawkins, Jr., filed a complaint in the district court charging that his civil rights had been violated while an inmate at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute Concord. He alleged that on February 18, 1976, three days after a riot at Concord, he was verbally provoked and physically abused in the corridor of an inmate dormitory, beaten by several correction officers while being dragged across the prison yard, attacked again in the detention area that same day, and later was viciously assaulted and sexually abused by correction officers. Hawkins named the following correction officers as defendants: Paul Wilson, Charles Farley, Howard McNiff, Americo DeLuca, Richard Ferreira, John Squeglia, Noe Robert Labbe, and Leonard Scott. ¹

There are three issues on appeal: (1) whether the district court erred by failing to find as a matter of law that Hawkins' solitary confinement in a psychiatric observation cell constituted cruel and unusual punishment; (2) whether the district court erred in dismissing the complaint as against Commissioner of Corrections Frank A. Hall; and (3) whether the district court erred in denying Hawkins' post-trial motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and new trial.

We review the facts and all the reasonable inferences to be drawn from them in the light most favorable to the Government. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 469, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942); United States v. Porcaro, No. 79-1060 (1st Cir. Jan. 28, 1981); United States v. Doran, 483 F.2d 369, 372 (1st Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 906, 94 S.Ct. 1612, 40 L.Ed.2d 111 (1974). Officer Wilson testified that when he directed a group of inmates, including Hawkins, to stay away from workmen who were replacing glass broken during the riot, appellant became provocative. Because Hawkins would not stop his yelling and screaming, Wilson decided to place him in the detention area. Hawkins would not go voluntarily but struck Officer Charles Farley, who had sought to aid Wilson. Officers Wilson, Farley, McNiff and DeLuca picked up Hawkins by the legs and moved down the stairs toward the detention area. All fell to the bottom of the staircase. Hawkins, who testified that he was knocked senseless, stood up and said he would "walk like a man." He then broke away from DeLuca's grasp and swung at Farley. Several officers sought to restrain Hawkins; Richard Ferreira testified that the appellant bit him as he was moved to the detention area. Officer Labbe, who was stationed at the detention area, had been informed by telephone of the imminent arrival of Hawkins. Although Hawkins was passive after being brought into the detention area, Labbe decided, because of his prior conduct, that Hawkins should be confined to an observation cell pending medical or psychiatric review. According to routine, he was stripped and searched before being placed in Observation Cell # 1 by Officer Squeglia. Pending examination by medical personnel and an assessment of his psychiatric condition, Hawkins was not permitted clothing.

The observation cell, called the "Blue Room," was used to house temporarily violent and/or suicidal inmates. It was unfurnished except for a seatless hole-in-the-floor toilet with an outside flush and one bare bulb light fixture. It was six to eight feet wide, and ten to twelve feet long.

When an inmate was placed in the observation cell, correctional personnel were instructed to contact the medical and/or psychiatric staff so that it could be determined whether and when he was to be removed. Within a short time after Hawkins was confined in the observation cell, he was observed by a paramedic, an assistant to the psychiatric professional assigned to Concord. He was examined by a physician and psychiatric social worker the next morning. Hawkins was moved from the cell pursuant to an order of the paramedic and the institution physician within twenty-four hours of his confinement.

The case was tried to a jury. At the close of plaintiff's case, the district court permitted Hawkins to amend his complaint by adding the following:

(T)he maintenance of a cell, baren, (sic) such as the Blue Room, at M.C.I. Concord, by the Defendant Genakos constituted a violation of the Eighth Amendment and the placing of the Plaintiff Charles Hawkins in that cell when he was not suicidal in any way constituted a violation of his constitutional rights.

The court denied the motion of both parties for a directed verdict with regard to the maintenance and use of the observation cell.

Because of the multiplicity of factual issues and defendants, the court submitted the case to the jury with special interrogatories and instructions. With regard to the observation cell, defendants requested an instruction that the correction officials were entitled to a presumption that they acted properly in placing Hawkins in it. Plaintiff sought an instruction that the jury be required to find an eighth amendment violation if they determined that Hawkins was denied any of the basic necessities such as bedding and articles for personal hygiene while confined in the observation cell. The court denied both requests; it instructed in pertinent part:

But prison guards may not inflict unnecessary or wanton pain on any inmate, nor may they subject an inmate to inhumane conditions, conditions which shock the conscience of civilized people, conditions which transgress our concepts of humanity and dignity and decency. They may not do that. Nor may they punish an inmate.

... You have to determine what happened; and after you have determined what did happen, then you must make a judgment whether the totality of what happened was so inhumane, so indecent as to violate the plaintiff's constitutional rights.

The jury found against Hawkins on all of his beating and assault claims. It further determined that the "confinement of Charles R. Hawkins, Jr. in the Blue Room Observation Cell No. 1 on order of Noe Robert Labbe and the retention of Hawkins by Richard Ferreira and Labbe on February 18 and 19, 1976, (did not) violate Hawkins' constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment." The jury answered all the special interrogatories in defendants' favor. The district court entered judgment for the defendants and denied plaintiff's post-trial motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and new trial. This appeal followed.

We reject Hawkins' argument that the district court erred by failing to find as a matter of law that Hawkins' confinement in the observation cell violated the eighth amendment. It was within the province of the jury to find and evaluate the facts and determine whether conditions were so "inhumane" as to "shock the conscience of civilized people" and "transgress our concepts of humanity and dignity and decency." ² The district court properly instructed the jury on this...