Jones v. Superintendent, Civ. A. No. 73-C-56-H to 73-C-58-H.

• Decision Date: 18 January 1974
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 73-C-56-H to 73-C-58-H.
• Citation: 370 F. Supp. 488
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia
• Parties: Donald Rayburn JONES et al. v. SUPERINTENDENT. Michael Gayle GALLAHAN v. E. A. HENRY, Superintendent. Donald Rayburn JONES v. SUPERINTENDENT.

370 F. Supp. 488

Donald Rayburn JONES et al. v. SUPERINTENDENT.

Michael Gayle GALLAHAN v. E. A. HENRY, Superintendent.

Donald Rayburn JONES v. SUPERINTENDENT.

Civ. A. Nos. 73-C-56-H to 73-C-58-H.

United States District Court, W. D. Virginia, Harrisonburg Division.

January 18, 1974.

William A. Carter, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Richmond, Va., for respondent.

OPINION and JUDGMENT

DALTON, District Judge.

Civil Action No. 73-C-56-H was filed on October 31, 1973, by petitioners Donald R. Jones, Robert E. Titdale, and Michael G. Gallahan, inmates of White Post Correctional Field Unit #7, White Post, Virginia, on a complaint which this court will construe as one filed pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Petitioners seek damages in the amount of $100,000 and injunctive relief against J. D. Terry, former Acting Superintendent of Unit #7, and other Unit #7 correctional staff personnel for alleged shortcomings in the conditions of confinement met by petitioners during stays in the isolation cells at the field unit.

In Civil Action No. 73-C-57-H, filed on October 31, 1973, Michael G. Gallahan, a vegetarian, seeks damages in the amount of $10,000 for allegedly having been deprived of an adequate meatless diet while serving a stint of fifteen days in isolation at Unit #7.

In Civil Action No. 73-C-58-H, filed on October 31, 1973, Donald R. Jones seeks an injunction that would prohibit employees of the Virginia Division of Corrections from taking any retaliatory action against him or his fellow litigators in the above two cases, or otherwise interfering with their pursuance of that litigation.

Upon motion of the respondents, this court by order of December 4, 1973, ordered the above three cases consolidated. Respondents have moved for the consolidation of two other cases filed by Donald R. Jones, Civil Actions No. 73-C-55-H and No. 73-C-65-H, which involve the earlier removal of Jones from the study release program at Correctional Field Unit #8, Linville, Virginia, and his subsequent transfer to Unit #7. The court will consolidate those two cases, but not with the cases herein, as the allegations in Nos. 73-C-55-H and 73-C-65-H concern events that transpired at Unit #8. Respondents' motion to consolidate these two cases herein is therefore denied.

Civil Action No. 73-C-56-H was filed during the fifteen-day confinement in isolation of petitioners Jones, Tisdale and Gallahan after they were found guilty of institutional infractions by Unit #7's Adjustment Committee; those findings are not at issue. Jones and Gallahan began confinement on October 18, 1973; Tisdale on October 19, 1973. Petitioners' allegations can be summarized as follows:

1. Infrequent attention was paid to inmates in isolation, specifically from 12 midnight to 2:00 p. m. on October 24, 1973, when no one entered the isolation area to attend to medicinal or hygenic needs, even though several count checks were made and one meal was served. One petitioner says that he was to receive medication on request, another that he was to receive medicine every four hours.

2(a). The unit physician never visits the isolation cells.

2(b). The Superintendent has threatened petitioners with disciplinary action if the physician finds that they are faking illness.

3. Meals for men in isolation are not the same as meals served the regular prison population; seconds are not allowed; meals are often late and cold.

4(a). No implements with which the cells may be cleaned are issued to isolation inmates.

4(b). Serving trays with food scraps are often left lying in the hallway from one meal to the next, and attract vermin.

5. Heating equipment is outdated and often inoperative.

6. What personal property will be allowed to be retained in the isolation cells is arbitrarily decided.

7. Isolation cells are not furnished with desks, chairs or tables, and lighting is inadequate for reading after darkness.

8. There is no opportunity for exercise while in isolation.

9. Adjustment committee proceedings are "cut-and-dried affairs."

10. Inmates have limited access to unit administrators.

11. Petitioners have been harassed and verbally abused on occasion.

Respondents have submitted records and affidavits to support their motion for summary judgment upon the ground that none of the above allegations contain facts that elevate the claims to constitutional dimensions. Petitioner Jones, who drafted the complaint, has submitted a memorandum in support of his motion in opposition to respondents' motion for summary judgment. The court has carefully considered the record, and agrees with respondents' contention that summary judgment in their favor is in order. "It is only when the deprivations of prison confinement impose conditions of such onerous burdens as to be of constitutional dimensions that courts may intervene in prison management." Breeden v. Jackson, 457 F.2d 578 (4th Cir. 1972).

Petitioners' complaints do not reach the level deemed actionable in Breeden v. Jackson, supra. They complain that they were denied medical assistance for some fourteen hours on October 24, 1973, but not one individual is identified as having suffered from the alleged deprival. The isolation cells inspection sheet for that date, which has been made a part of the record, shows that correctional staff members came through the isolation area hourly that day, as they are required to do. The record indicates that both Jones and Tisdale received medications on the date of October 24, 1973. In addition, the reports covering the petitioners' stay in isolation are replete with instances of at least two of the inmates refusing to take medication. Indeed, the record tends to bear out respondents' contention that at least one of the petitioners, Jones, was using sick call as a subtle means of harassing the guard personnel. He had been seen on some twelve occasions for various ailments by the unit physician since August 8, 1973, but had refused on three separate occasions to undergo a complete physical examination, for which appointments had been made in an attempt to ascertain Jones' true state of health. Respondents admit to some annoyance at having to repeatedly take "malingerers" to the doctor, but emphatically deny that any threats concerning medical care have been made. All of the petitioners have made frequent trips to see the unit physician, and there is no indication of any staff interference with either their consultations or treatment.

Division of Corrections Guideline No. 800, Page 15, Paragraph I (April 16, 1973) states that "an appropriate member of the medical staff will visit the isolation unit daily to determine medical needs of any inmate assigned to the unit." By respondents' own admissions, this procedure is not followed in the isolation cells at Unit #7. W. D. Blankenship, Area Administrator for the Bureau of Correctional Units, admits in his affidavit that the unit physician "rarely" visits the isolation cells, but states that inmates needing medical care are taken to the doctor in the unit dispensary, where the medications and medical equipment are located, rather than having the doctor going to them. Even though the Division's guideline is not literally being followed, as petitioners have not been demonstrably injured by this procedure, no relief on this ground is appropriate. The Division would be well advised, however, that when it promulgates its own standards, and makes them known to the inmates, it should in all fairness attempt to fully implement such standards.

The allegations with respect to meals (save for the complaints of petitioner Gallahan, which are examined in Civil Action No. 73-C-57-H), lack of cleaning implements, the problem of residual serving trays, deprivations of personal property, lack of furnishings, and lack of exercise, in the opinion of this court, are all on the level of the usual incidents of confinement in isolation. See Breeden v. Jackson, supra. Respondents state that petitioners' meals were regularly prepared in the unit kitchen, and that those in isolation receive two meals a day, without dessert or seconds, as called for in the Division Guidelines. Those in isolation are fed as much as other nonworking inmates, and are served before the general unit population is, according to respondents. Housecleaning implements are denied those in isolation, to prevent their possible use as weapons. Respondent affiant L. F. Jenkins, a guard sergeant at Unit #7, states that inmate "housemen" are brought into the isolation cell area approximately every other day to clean up. While the solitary cell inspection sheets submitted as part of the record do not indicate such diligence, they do reveal that at least once, upon the inmates' request, the cells were cleaned. By petitioners' own allegations, however, the condition of the cells do not appear to have been so unfit as to warrant relief. Nor does the practice of occasionally leaving empty food trays outside cell doors merit the intervention of this court. The books that petitioner Jones had removed from his cell were determined to be neither religious or legal in nature, which were the only types of books allowed in the isolation cells. All inmates in isolation are allowed uniform privileges and possessions, and if any inmate had personal items denied the others, it was a result of an official oversight, according to respondents. The isolation cells are equipped with a bed, a toilet, a sink, and a light which is recessed into the wall. The furnishings, concededly quite spartan, create discomfort and temporary inconveniences to inmates, to be sure, but not of such a nature as to be the basis for judicial relief. Respondent Jenkins states that he even allowed Jones to bring a personal portable light into his cell to use. Denial of the use of recreational facilities is likewise no ground for relief (the maximum time that an inmate can spend in isolation is fifteen days). See Breeden v. Jackson, supra.

Petitioners contend that the...