INMATES OF BOYS'TRAINING SCHOOL v. Affleck

• Citation: 346 F. Supp. 1354
• Decision Date: 28 July 1972
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 4529.
• Parties: INMATES OF the BOYS' TRAINING SCHOOL et al. v. John AFFLECK, Director, Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services, et al.
• Court: United States District Courts. 1st Circuit. United States District Courts. 1st Circuit. District of Rhode Island

346 F. Supp. 1354

INMATES OF the BOYS' TRAINING SCHOOL et al. v. John AFFLECK, Director, Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services, et al.

Civ. A. No. 4529.

United States District Court, D. Rhode Island.

July 28, 1972.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Harold Krause, Jr., Cary J. Coen, Kenneth F. MacIver, Jr., Robert L. Barton, Barry A. Fisher, Barry Vogel, V. Paul McGinn, Rhode Island Legal Services, Providence, R. I., Donald King, Ellen C. Hanson, Juvenile Law Center, St. Louis, Mo., Ann Wagner, Michael Davidson, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, New York City, for plaintiffs.

Richard J. Israel, Atty. Gen., Donald P. Ryan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Bennett R. Gallo, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Providence, R. I., for defendants.

OPINION

PETTINE, Chief Judge.

The indignities suffered by juveniles who did not respond well to their confinement to the Boys Training School and the attempts of Training School officials to cope with the disciplinary and running-away problems presented by such juveniles lead to the institution of this Civil Rights action. Confinement of these juveniles in the maximum security Adult Correctional Institution, in the resuscitated relic of a former women's prison, in dim and cold steel cellblocks, and in a wing of the adult medium security prison is argued to violate plaintiffs' constitutional rights to due process, and equal protection, and to constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Five named plaintiffs, for themselves and on behalf of a class, seek a preliminary injunction stopping confinement of juveniles in the Adult Correctional Institution Maximum Security building; in the solitary confinement cells of the Medium-Minimum Security building of the A.C.I.; and in Annex B, the old women's reformatory. They also seek to stop transfers of juveniles to the Youth Correctional Center (Annex C) of the Medium-Minimum Security Building and isolation of any juvenile in a room for more than two hours without a psychiatrist's certificate, and in any event, for more than 24 hours within a seven-day period. They also seek to define certain minimum requirements for conditions of confinement. While they do not seek to close Annex C immediately, they seek the return to the Training School of those juveniles transferred there without a judicial hearing.

Further prayers for relief raise, at the outside, important questions of the philosophy of treatment of juvenile offenders and, at base, vital questions of what rights juveniles retain in their confinement at state correctional centers. Arguing that these juveniles have a right to rehabilitative treatment, plaintiffs seek institution of vocational training, a drug rehabilitation program, and a psychiatric counseling program at the Boys' Training School. They also seek a full day of schooling for juveniles under age of sixteen, three hours of outdoors athletics, and the right of the juveniles to obtain food daily from the canteen unless a meal is served after six p. m. daily.

Jurisdiction exists on 28 U.S.C. § 1343. This has been certified as a class action.

The Court has viewed all of the involved places of confinement. A temporary restraining order was entered in January 1972, prohibiting the use of Annex B, the old Women's Reformatory, prohibiting the administrative transfer of further juveniles to the maximum security Adult Correctional Institution (A.C.I.), and conditioning the use of Annex C and its cellblock. Plaintiffs have moved for a preliminary injunction based primarily on evidence produced at hearing, stipulations, and affidavits. The motion for preliminary injunctive relief seeks support also from this Court's order of March 30, 1972 invoking its Rule 37, Fed.R.Civ.P., powers to sanction defendants for their consistent failure to comply with both the discovery rules and this Court's orders under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See Hodgson v. Mahoney, 460 F.2d 326 (1st Cir. 1972).

Defendants in this action are John Affleck, Director of the Rhode Island Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services; Anthony Orabone, Assistant Director of the Department in charge of the Division of Children and Youth Services; John Sharkey, Assistant Director of the Department in charge of the Division of Correctional Services; Francis Howard, Warden of the Adult Correctional Institution; Joseph Devine, Superintendent of the Boys Training School; the Board of Regents for Education for Rhode Island; Frederick Burke, the Commissioner of Education; William Robinson, the Director of the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, Rhode Island Department of Education; and Edward Costa, the Title I Coordinator of the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, Rhode Island Department of Education.

Preliminary Procedural Points

Defendants have sought dismissal of this action for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted. Rule 12(b)(6), Fed.R.Civ.P. They have also asked that this Court abstain from decision.

This action raises questions of substantial constitutional import and will not be dismissed. As the Supreme Court recently held in Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972), summary placement of an inmate in solitary confinement states a cause of action under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983. This law suit goes to the conditions of confinement of juveniles and, as such, is well within the jurisdiction of the federal courts. See Urbano v. McCorkle, 334 F.Supp. 161 (D.N.J.1971).

The intercession of a federal court into a state correctional system is a matter of much gravity and is not done here lightly. The Court, having entered a consent decree recently in a case concerning conditions at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institutions, was hopeful that the issues in this case could be similarly resolved, and accordingly, has encouraged the parties to negotiate their differences. Such efforts were unavailing; rather, as the record in this action demonstrates, this Court has had great difficulty in securing compliance from defendants with even customary discovery orders. In the circumstances of this case, the Court finds no equitable reason to withhold from ruling.

Nor does the Court find any justification in precedent to apply the abstention doctrine here. This case does not present issues of state law, the clarification of which would "obviate the need for a federal constitutional decision or would present the federal constitutional issue in significantly altered light." Wulp v. Corcoran, 454 F.2d 826 (1 Cir. 1972). To defer this case to adjudication elsewhere would be to cause unnecessary delay and injury to these plaintiffs, and is not required by precedent. Cluchette v. Procunier, 328 F.Supp. 767 (N.D.Cal.1971). As this Court has previously indicated, it will not defer adjudication in respect to the unacceptable "hands-off" doctrine which denies that inmates have enforceable rights. Palmigiano v. Travisono, 317 F.Supp. 776 (D.R.I.1970).

Exhaustion of administrative remedies is not a prerequisite to a § 1983 suit attacking conditions of confinement. Rodriguez v. McGinnis, 456 F.2d 79 (2d Cir. 1972); Edwards v. Schmidt, 321 F.Supp. 68 (W.D.Wis. 1971). Even if it were, there do not appear to be any administrative remedies available here.

Finally, in terms of comity, I would note that for the most part this law suit does not attack actions taken by the state legislature or by the state judiciary. Primarily under attack are conditions resulting from decisions made in the administrative discretion of those defendants who are officials of the Boys Training School. It would be well to take heed of what Kenneth Culp Davis teaches:

"`Where law ends tyranny begins.' I think that in our system of government, where law ends tyranny need not begin. Where law ends, discretion begins, and the exercise of discretion may mean either beneficence or tyranny, either justice or injustice, either reasonableness or arbitrariness."

Davis, Discretionary Justice, 3 (1969)

Of course, defendants have made these administrative decisions in light of the resources the legislature has made available to them.

Findings of Fact

The class of inmates at the Boys Training School may be divided into five sub-classes, depending on the reason for commitment: 1) those voluntarily committed by their parents, R.I.G.L. § 13-4-8; 2) those awaiting trial; 3) those convicted of delinquency, R.I.G.L. § 13-4-9, § 14-1-36; 4) those adjudicated wayward, R.I.G.L. § 14-1-36; and 5) those found to be dependent or neglected, R.I.G.L. § 14-1-34.

Most of the boys at the Training School are housed in cottages on the School grounds. For reasons concerned mostly with discipline and escape problems, some boys have been transferred from the cottages to functionally distinct and geographically separate institutions, known as Annex B, Annex C, Annex C cellblock, and the Maximum Security building of the Adult Correctional Institution (ACI). Some juveniles in Annex C and its cellblock were transferred there directly pursuant to court proceedings. As stipulated by the parties, juveniles otherwise are transferred to Annex B, Annex C and its cellblock, and Maximum Security without judicial hearing. It has been the past practice of defendants to effectuate these transfers without administrative hearing or prior notice. There are no specific rules or regulations which indicate what offenses will result in transfer of a juvenile to Maximum Security.

A registered nurse and a licensed practical nurse, located in the main building at the BTS, are on duty from 6:30 a. m. to 3 p. m. on weekdays, and on call for emergencies until 10 p. m. There is no psychiatrist or clinical psychologist on the BTS staff. A routine physical examination is given on entrance of a boy to the Training School. There is evidence, and I so find, of at least two probable suicide attempts by boys who received no medical or psychiatric care proximately following the attempts. The response of BTS supervisors to...