Landman v. Royster, Civ. A. No. 170-69-R.

• Decision Date: 29 January 1973
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 170-69-R.
• Citation: 354 F. Supp. 1292
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia
• Parties: Robert Jewell LANDMAN et al. v. M. L. ROYSTER, etc., et al.

354 F. Supp. 1292

Robert Jewell LANDMAN et al. v. M. L. ROYSTER, etc., et al.

Civ. A. No. 170-69-R.

United States District Court, E. D. Virginia, Richmond Division.

January 29, 1973.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Philip J. Hirschkop, Alexandria, Va., for plaintiffs.

Vann H. Lefcoe, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Va., Richmond, Va., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM

MERHIGE, District Judge.

Under date of October 30, 1971, this Court issued a memorandum and order, 333 F.Supp. 621, enjoining the defendants, who are responsible for the maintenance and running of the Virginia penal system, "from performing, causing to perform, or permitting the performance of any acts found in the memorandum of the Court to be violative of the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment." The Court further directed that the defendants implement certain minimum due process procedures to be observed in administering discipline, to prepare and file with the Court a list of rules and regulations concerning standards of behavior, to take steps to make the inmate population aware of these rules, and to take all "necessary steps to inform all members of the custodial staff of all units of the Virginia State Penitentiary system of the injunctive terms of this order."

Subsequently, on July 18, 1972, the defendants filed a motion to vacate the injunction, alleging that the Court's injunction had contributed to a state of permissiveness and unrest which was endangering penal security. Thereafter, the plaintiffs, by written motion, petitioned for an order requiring the defendants to show cause why they should not be held in contempt of court for failure to obey the letter and spirit of the Court's order.

This matter came on for hearing on November 21, 1972. After the presentation of testimony by the defendants in support of their motion to vacate, the Court for the reasons stated from the bench granted plaintiffs' motion for a directed verdict. Not a scintilla of evidence was offered by defendants in support of their allegation concerning the existence of an emergency or of any link between any alleged unrest and the Court's injunction. A fair and reasonable conclusion is that the motion was precipitated by the plaintiffs' announced intention to seek an order of contempt against the defendants. Evidence was then heard on plaintiffs' contempt motion.

The evidence presented to the Court can be divided roughly into three contentions by the plaintiffs of allegedly contemptuous actions on the part of the defendants. First, there was evidence in support of a claim that the defendants arbitrarily placed certain maximum security prisoners on padlock, isolation and in the old death row cells without first providing them with the hearings required by the Court's order. Second, there was evidence concerning the alleged failure of the defendants to ensure that the Court's order was implemented throughout all levels of the penal system. Finally, evidence was presented in support of the plaintiffs' contention that the defendants had failed to provide inmates at disciplinary hearings the procedural requirements made a part of the injunction. From all of the evidence adduced, the Court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law:

Throughout the Spring of 1972, it appears that tension was building in the maximum security section (C-Block) of the State Penitentiary.¹ By May, the tension had erupted into several disturbances, including the setting of small fires in the cells, floodings, and prolonged periods of yelling by the inmates. Prior to these disruptions, however, the custodial staff had begun to fear that a wholesale takeover of C-Block was being planned. In response, they ordered that all inmates in C-Block be placed on padlock. The effect of such padlock is the restriction of every inmate to his cell and the restriction of any congregation at all among those incarcerated in C-Block. The decision to padlock all of the prisoners seems to have been made jointly by the defendant Slayton, Superintendent of the penitentiary, and the C-Block custodial staff. No hearings were held prior to the step, and no charges were placed against any of the inmates.

Three of the inmates who seem to have contributed heavily to the existing tensions were Victor Cassara, Wiley Reynolds and James Peterson. Each appeared as a witness in this action. All have lengthy records of trouble with the prison authorities and other inmates. During the fall of 1971 and the spring of 1972, all were held, at one time or another, on C-Block padlock, isolation, and in the old death row cells, which are completely segregated from the rest of the inmate population. Peterson's case is of particular concern with reference to the pending motion.

In April of 1972, Peterson was transferred from the maximum security building at the State Farm to the general population of C-Block at the State Penitentiary. The guard in command of C-Block at the time was Lt. H. Catron, with whom Peterson had, slightly more than a year prior thereto, been involved in a serious altercation. Some three weeks after his transfer, Peterson was placed on padlock status at the order of Catron. The reasons assigned by Catron for his actions were that Peterson talked louder than other inmates in the mess hall, entered and left his cell slower than the others, and evidenced anger over the failure to be given his typewriter and over the lack of ready access by the guards to fire extinguishers (this concern was precipitated by a fire in a cell near Peterson's). This transfer was effected summarily, without prior authorization by the Institutional Classification Committee (ICC). Subsequently, on May 30, Peterson was again summarily transferred by Catron, this time to isolation, for allegedly breaking the padlock on his cell. An Adjustment Committee hearing, which was not accorded Peterson until six days later, resulted in a decision to continue him in isolation for a certain number of days as punishment for his alleged misbehavior.

As the period for Peterson's incarceration in isolation ended, the C-Block officers expressed their concern over his return. Apparently, he was felt to be so disruptive and intimidating to other inmates that the security of C-Block was threatened by his return. Accordingly, the Institutional Classification Committee ordered that he be kept in isolation, which was done for a number of days. He was thereafter transferred to the old death row cells in East Basement (of A Building), then to what is described as the new ones in the basement of B Building, after Slayton decided that his incarceration in solitary might be violative of the Court's order. Peterson, as well as Cassara, Reynolds and several other inmates who were kept in these cells, remained confined on padlock, despite the fact that there was an exercise room available for just the new death row cells. Peterson had remained in such confinement from July, 1972, until after the hearing on this matter in November. The Court has learned, however, that he has now been transferred out of the penitentiary to a field correctional unit.

From the Peterson case, as well as from other testimony, the Court reaches several conclusions. First, there developed in C-Block, and the Court is satisfied in other areas throughout the penal system as well, an approach of ordering inmates into a higher security classification than they had previously been in prior to affording them a hearing. Such an approach violates both the letter and the spirit of the Court's order. By the precise and unequivocal terms of the order, the defendants are enjoined from the imposition of penalties prior to a hearing that conforms to the necessary due process requisites. Similarly, though not by express terms, the spirit of the Court's order mandates that an inmate who is transferred to a higher security classification for any appreciable period of time be afforded an opportunity for a hearing. This is normally accomplished by the Institutional Classification Committee. Common sense dictates, however, that there will be times when the exigencies of the situation require that an inmate be placed in confinement before a hearing can be convened. The Court recognizes this and has never suggested that such summary action prior to a hearing is prohibited.

The evidence before the Court, however, is that confinement prior to hearing became the rule in certain cases rather than the exception. The Peterson case cited previously is a prime example. The reasons presented to the Court, while they may have created suspicions which would justify greater confinement, do not show the sort of emergency conditions that would require immediate incarceration. More importantly, even if they did, an inmate such as Peterson was and is entitled to be afforded a hearing as soon as practicable after his confinement. The ICC normally held hearings according to a set schedule, as a consequence of which an inmate might have to wait several days or longer before being heard. Such a delay, in the absence as here of any reasonable justification therefor, cannot be tolerated.

The Court has for over three years endeavored to express its appreciation of the security problems which the defendants face, particularly in view of a crowded, antiquated facility, manned generally by an untrained, understaffed and in some instances potentially physically incapable guard force. It may well be that a sort of intuitive suspicion on the part of a guard is sufficient to confine a man to a greater security status in order to prevent difficulties. The Court is fully cognizant that we deal with a constant potential danger. But even in the face of this, the inmate must be afforded a hearing immediately thereafter in order that he may present his defense, if any, and in order that prison officials other than the acting officer might confirm that the latter's suspicions are justified. The defendants have knowingly failed...