Johnson v. Anderson

• Decision Date: 07 February 1974
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 4534.
• Citation: 370 F. Supp. 1373
• Parties: Lester M. JOHNSON et al., Plaintiffs, v. Raymond W. ANDERSON et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Delaware

370 F. Supp. 1373

Lester M. JOHNSON et al., Plaintiffs, v. Raymond W. ANDERSON et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 4534.

United States District Court, D. Delaware.

February 7, 1974.

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Paul P. Welsh, of Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell, Wilmington, Del., for plaintiffs.

Francis A. Reardon, Deputy Atty. Gen., Wilmington, Del., for defendants.

OPINION

STAPLETON, District Judge:

The plaintiffs in this civil rights action are six inmates at the Delaware Correctional Center at Smyrna. Five are currently housed in the solitary confinement section of that institution. They allege that they have been denied due process of law; that the conditions of their incarceration constitute cruel and unusual punishment; and that their access to newspapers and magazines has been unconstitutionally abridged. The remaining plaintiff was held in the isolation section during some unspecified period in the past and makes the same arguments with respect to that confinement. Defendants are the Correctional Center, its superintendent, Raymond W. Anderson, and four members of his staff. Plaintiffs request injunctive relief and damages. Jurisdiction is conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 1343. This opinion embodies the Court's findings of fact and conclusions of law resulting from trial of the issues raised by plaintiffs' amended complaint.¹

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

This dispute arises from actions taken by the defendants in the aftermath of a brutal attack on a prison guard, Lt. Pope.

On May 7, 1973, all of the plaintiffs were housed in B block of the maximum security building at the Correctional Center. No other inmates were housed in B block at that time.² On that evening, Lt. Pope was assaulted in or near B block and stabbed numerous times about the chest, back and head. When Superintendent Anderson arrived at the scene of the attack, he was informed by Captain Williams that Lt. Pope had implicated five of the six plaintiffs in the assault and that Captain Williams had placed these five inmates in solitary confinement.

Superintendent Anderson initiated an investigation of the Pope incident. This investigation included an interview of Lt. Pope and the taking of a statement from him. There was some delay, of a duration unspecified in the record, before Lt. Pope's condition permitted the taking of his statement. The investigation convinced Superintendent Anderson that plaintiff Dickerson had not been involved in the assault and he was never placed in solitary confinement as a result of the incident. In the course of the investigation, the matter was referred to the Attorney General's office for possible criminal prosecution.

On May 16, 1973 Superintendent Anderson sent a written memorandum to the five plaintiffs in solitary entitled "Explanation of Transfer to Isolation Section." The memorandum read as follows:

You were placed in the Isolation Section of the Maximum Security Building on Monday, May 7, 1973 at approximately 11:00 P.M., at which time you were informed and read, by Capt. James A. Williams in the presence of other Correctional Officers, your Constitutional Rights and the reason for your transfer to the Isolation Section.³ This is in accordance with the Rules for the Treatment of Inmates, Pages A-10 and A-11, Article #31.⁴

The reason for your transfer to the Isolation Section of the Maximum Security Building is the alleged assault on Lt. Earl Pope and Correctional Officers Michael McCarty and Ralph Thompson. This is not a punishment measure on the part of the Center. Your case has been referred to the Attorney General's Office for further action.

The "Rules for the Treatment of Inmates in Delaware Correctional Institutions" provide a procedure for Adjustment Board hearings before a substantial punishment can be imposed.⁵ The procedural rights guaranteed to an inmate under this procedure exceed the minimum safeguards required by the United States Constitution. These five plaintiffs, however, have never been afforded the opportunity of a hearing before the Adjustment Board or any other correctional officer or board.

On May 8, 1973 Superintendent Anderson gave a telephone interview to a member of the press. The newspaper account read in part as follows:

"As Anderson gave out his report, he expressed strong bitterness against any court ruling that these five prisoners deserved the same treatment given other inmates in the correctional center.

"The Warden said that they are now in the isolation section or `the hole', and he added `they will remain there until I am ordered to leave them out, and if I am ordered to leave them out before I think they should come out, I no longer want to be warden of this institution.'"

Superintendent Anderson acknowledged during his testimony that this was "a fair report."

On some date prior to June 12, 1973, the five plaintiffs in isolation were indicted by a grand jury as a result of the Pope incident. Because the proceedings were initiated by an indictment, no preliminary examination was held. On June 12, 1973 these plaintiffs were arraigned and pleaded not guilty. At the time of the hearing in this case they were awaiting trial on these indictments.

Following the Pope incident, the prison administration directed that a number of physical changes be made in B block. Small doors were constructed in the cell doors in B block so that guards might pass food and other items to the inmates with minimum personal contact. An additional bar gate was constructed between cell block B and the remainder of the maximum security section. While the record does not disclose when the project was commenced, there is also currently under construction a new exercise yard for use by inmates of B block. This yard will be so constructed that a guard may maintain continual surveillance from a location inside the building and inaccessible to those in the yard.

The new gate and pass-throughs were completed shortly before July 9, 1973. On July 11, 1973 Superintendent Anderson issued new rules applicable to B block. Under the pre-May 7, 1973 practice, inmates on B block, while kept segregated from general population of maximum security, were accorded the same privileges as the inmates confined there. For example, most inmates in B block had been permitted to eat together in the "day room" and had been permitted to exercise out of doors for an hour each day. Under the new rules, inmates were fed in their cells and, when permitted out of their cells for exercise and showers, were released only in groups of two or three. Inmates were permitted to exercise for one hour a day but this exercise was restricted to the cell section of the tier until such time as the new yard could be completed. In addition, the regulations regarding personal belongings in a cell, commissary access, access to library books, access to legal reference works, and visitation were more restrictive than the previously prevailing practice in B block though considerably more lenient than the similar regulations in isolation.⁶ These new rules were applicable to all inmates housed in the approximately sixteen cells in block B. At the time of trial there were seven inmates housed in this cell block.

On July 9, 1973 the five plaintiffs who had been confined in isolation since May 7, 1973 were transferred to cell block B. However, upon discovering that their privileges would be less than those which they enjoyed prior to May 7, 1973, they demanded to be returned to isolation. Their demand was acceded to and they have been in the isolation section since that time. Efforts by Superintendent Anderson, a social worker at the prison, and others to induce them to return to cell block B have been unfruitful.

The plaintiffs have consistently maintained that they could not properly be placed in isolation, or subjected to any conditions more severe than those existing on B block prior to May 7th, absent utilization of the procedures specified in the prison rules as a prerequisite for serious disciplinary action.

II. THE DUE PROCESS ISSUES

Plaintiffs maintain that they have been denied due process of law in two respects. First, the five plaintiffs in isolation claim that their transfer to isolation without the opportunity for a hearing violated their rights to procedural due process. Second, all six plaintiffs claim that prison restrictions on the access of inmates in solitary confinement to legal research materials have unreasonably hindered their access to the courts in violation of their rights under the Due Process Clause.

A. Plaintiffs' Right To A Hearing

It is now well established in this circuit as elsewhere that a citizen does not shed all of his constitutional rights at the prison gate. To determine what rights survive incarceration and how those rights have been properly affected by the state's legitimate interests in security and rehabilitation within its penal institutions involves a weighing and balancing of conflicting interests. Gittlemacker v. Prasse, 428 F.2d 1 (3rd Cir. 1970).

In striking this constitutional balance here, we are aided by several established propositions.

First, absent an unusual circumstance, the Due Process Clause requires that, prior to the imposition of solitary confinement, an inmate must at least be given notice of the charge against him and an opportunity to tell his side of the story. Gray v. Creamer, 465 F.2d 179 (3rd Cir. 1972); United States ex rel. Tyrrell v. Speaker, 471 F.2d 1197 (3rd Cir. 1973); Biagiarelli v. Sielaff, 483 F.2d 508 (3rd Cir. 1973); Braxton v. Carlson, 483 F.2d 933 (3rd Cir. 1973);⁷ Sostre v. McGinnis, 442 F.2d 178 (2nd Cir. 1971); Adams v. Pate, 445 F.2d 105 (7th Cir. 1971).

Second, the cases are unanimous in holding that the state's legitimate interest in the security of its penal institutions is sufficiently compelling that an inmate may, consistent with due process of law, be transferred to solitary confinement summarily whenever the security...