Johnson v. Levine

• Decision Date: 17 May 1978
• Docket Number: Civ. No. H-77-113.
• Citation: 450 F. Supp. 648
• Parties: Charles E. JOHNSON and Charles A. Hunter, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. Mark A. LEVINE, Commissioner, Division of Correction, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, Ralph L. Williams, Warden, Maryland House of Correction, Robert J. Lally, Secretary, Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and Marvin Mandel, Governor of the State of Maryland, Defendants. Charles A. HUNTER, Plaintiff, v. Ralph L. WILLIAMS, Warden, Maryland House of Correction, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

450 F. Supp. 648

Charles E. JOHNSON and Charles A. Hunter, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. Mark A. LEVINE, Commissioner, Division of Correction, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, Ralph L. Williams, Warden, Maryland House of Correction, Robert J. Lally, Secretary, Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and Marvin Mandel, Governor of the State of Maryland, Defendants.

Charles A. HUNTER, Plaintiff, v. Ralph L. WILLIAMS, Warden, Maryland House of Correction, Defendant.

Civ. No. H-77-113.

United States District Court, D. Maryland.

May 17, 1978.

Paul D. Bekman and Nevett Steele, Jr., Baltimore, Md., for plaintiffs.

Francis B. Burch, Atty. Gen. of Md., Stephen B. Caplis and W. Timothy Finan, Asst. Attys. Gen. of Md., Baltimore, Md., for defendants.

ALEXANDER HARVEY, II, District Judge:

In this consolidated class action, the plaintiffs, who are state prisoners, are challenging as unconstitutional conditions of confinement at the Maryland House of Correction (the "MHC"), a medium-security penal institution under the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services of the State of Maryland. The essential claim here is that the MHC is unconstitutionally overcrowded and that, as a result, the plaintiffs are being deprived of various rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

Commencing in early 1977, many different suits were filed in this Court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by inmates confined in the MHC, all raising the basic question of overcrowding at that institution.¹ Orders were entered consolidating three of these suits and certifying Civil No. H-77-113 as a class action, pursuant to Rule 23, F.R.Civ.P.² The class includes all persons who are now or will be in the future confined to the Maryland House of Correction and who are state prisoners convicted and sentenced in state courts and remanded to the custody of the Commissioner of Corrections.³ Other individual suits raising the same questions presented herein have been stayed pending the outcome of this consolidated class action.

Named as defendants in this case are the Commissioner of the Maryland Division of Correction, the Warden of the MHC, the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, and the Governor of the State. Plaintiffs here seek only declaratory and injunctive relief.

In the complaint, the plaintiffs assert that the MHC is severely overcrowded and that the degree of overcrowding threatens the physical and psychological safety of its inmates and otherwise violates their rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Specifically, plaintiffs assert inadequacies at the MHC in medical facilities, sanitation and hygiene, vocational and other rehabilitative programs, psychological and psychiatric counseling and facilities, discipline and punishment, parole and release procedures and the operation of a meaningful classification system. Defendants concede that the MHC is overcrowded from a correctional point of view, but assert that the institution's overcrowded condition does not reach constitutional proportions. Defendants further contend that inmates at the MHC receive adequate food, shelter and medical care, and that the institution's medical and psychiatric facilities and its programs and services are adequate to meet constitutional standards.

The parties have agreed that the basic and central questions to be decided by the Court are whether the MHC is unconstitutionally overcrowded, and if so, the number of inmates which can be constitutionally confined at the institution. As relief, the plaintiffs, inter alia, specifically request that the Court limit the number of inmates confined at the MHC to 912, that the Court order that facilities at the MHC known as the "punitive segregation area" and the "Special Confinement Area" (the "SCA") be closed, that the Court order the defendants to provide additional medical personnel and emergency treatment and equipment to meet the medical needs of inmates at the MHC, and that attorney's fees be awarded to counsel for the plaintiffs.

Following extensive pretrial discovery and numerous conferences with the Court, the case came on for trial before both the undersigned Judge and Judge Blair, sitting without a jury.⁴ Shortly before the trial, the undersigned Judge, accompanied by counsel, made an extensive tour of substantially all areas of the MHC.⁵ Most of the basic facts were stipulated, and the evidence presented at the trial consisted mainly of the testimony of correctional and other experts called by the parties. The case has now been submitted on the stipulations, testimony produced at the trial and the numerous exhibits admitted in evidence. Findings of fact and conclusions of law under Rule 52(a), F.R.Civ.P., are embodied in this Opinion, whether or not expressly so characterized.

The facts

Originally constructed some one hundred years ago, the MHC has had various additions and new facilities added from time to time since then. The basic structure is a typical 19th-Century stone institution. With the various additions and improvements over the years, the MHC is today designed to house 1100 inmates.⁶ However, the institution had a population on March 10, 1978 of 1708 prisoners.

Prisoners in Maryland are classified as maximum security, medium security and minimum security. Typically, a medium security inmate is a person who has an intermediate length sentence or who has served a considerable part of a longer sentence without demonstrating a need for continued maximum security treatment. Many medium security inmates are transferred to minimum security institutions during the latter part of their terms. Approximately 30% of the inmates at the MHC are participating in academic or vocational programs in preparation for transition to minimum security status.

The main prison building is designed with a central structure controlling access to the two principal housing areas, namely the South and the West Wings. Each wing has a two-sided central core of cells, four tiers high, each tier having between forty and forty-nine individual cells. Each cell contains roughly forty square feet, and a great many cells in the South and West Wings contain two inmates. Each cell in the South and West Wings contains, in addition to one or two bunks, a toilet, a sink and usually a shelf, locker or stool. Hot water is available in each cell. The wings share a single shower room with fifty shower heads, providing a ratio of one shower for every twenty-four men, based on present population.

Housing for inmates at the MHC is also available in six dormitory areas. These areas presently provide approximately fifty-five square feet per inmate bed space and eighty square feet per inmate, including recreation area.

Of the three principal inmate housing areas, the West Wing was opened in 1879, the South Wing in 1928 and H, I and J Dormitories in 1955. Other substantial additions to the physical plant include an Administration Annex in 1958, an industries compound opened in 1964, a new power plant in 1970, major improvements to the main dining room in 1974, a gymnasium in 1974 and a new hospital in 1975.

On the south side of the West Wing, the first two tiers, designated E-1 and E-2, are used to house inmates subject to administrative segregation. Prisoners who have violated institutional rules and regulations are confined here on a single-celled basis, following administrative hearings. Inmates in administrative segregation are fed in their cells, are permitted to leave their cells for recreation for only one hour a day, and are otherwise more restricted in their activities than prisoners in the general population.

The dining facility, which is located in the main housing unit, seats 500 inmates at one time. It is therefore necessary to have three feeding shifts for each meal. Much of the kitchen equipment is antiquated.

The Special Confinement Area (the "SCA") consists of fifty individual cells in two rows of twenty-five each, which are back to back and share a common rear wall. The SCA was designed to house inmates who have psychological or psychiatric problems and who therefore must be separated from others in the general population. Inmates confined in the SCA remain in their cells approximately twenty-three hours a day and are allowed one hour exercise per day. Many of the cells have no beds but only mattresses. No hot water is available in the cells, but one of the fifty cells has been converted to a shower for use by the inmates. Prisoners confined here are fed in their cells.

The punitive segregation area consists of ten cells located beneath the main dining room in the basement of the institution. These cells are approximately forty square feet in size and have no running water. No beds are provided, only mattresses, and the only toilet facility is a mesh bar opening in the floor. Inmates are confined in this area as punishment for short periods of time.

Recreational facilities include a large indoor area in the South Wing, an outdoor recreation yard and a recently constructed gymnasium. The gymnasium building contains a full-size basketball court and bleachers and is often used as a movie theater. Television rooms with pool and table tennis tables are included within this building. There is also a library and an adjoining activities area where inmate organizations may hold meetings.

The main visiting room holds up to twenty-three inmates and sixty-nine visitors at one time. Plans are being prepared by the Division of Correction for converting in the near future the old auditorium in the main building into a large visiting hall, which would provide more space, better security and a more pleasant atmosphere for inmates and their visitors.

A new hospital accommodating twenty-eight patients has recently been opened. This facility includes several...