Lightfoot v. Walker

• Citation: 486 F. Supp. 504
• Decision Date: 18 March 1980
• Docket Number: 78-2095.,Civ. No. 73-238E
• Parties: Ralph LIGHTFOOT et al., Plaintiffs, v. Daniel WALKER et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Illinois

486 F. Supp. 504

Ralph LIGHTFOOT et al., Plaintiffs, v. Daniel WALKER et al., Defendants.

Civ. Nos. 73-238E, 78-2095.

United States District Court, S. D. Illinois.

February 19, 1980.

As Amended March 18, 1980.

Harvey Grossman, Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc., East St. Louis, Ill., Pat Flynn, Legal Services, Greenville, S.C., for plaintiffs.

Thomas Crooks, John Prusik, Asst. Attys. Gen., Victor Yipp, Ill. Dept. of Corrections, Chicago, Ill., for defendants.

ORDER

FOREMAN, Chief Judge:

This is a civil rights action, brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for the benefit of all prisoners at the Menard Correctional Center in Menard, Illinois (hereinafter referred to as Menard). Jurisdiction is predicated upon 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3), 1343(4) and 2201 et seq. The Court also invoked its pendent jurisdiction on October 18, 1976, to hear claims concerning inadequate health care, in violation of the Constitution, laws and regulations of the State of Illinois. The plaintiff class are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, to stop state prison officials from maintaining an inadequate health care system for the prisoners at Menard.

This claim was originally filed on October 2, 1973, on behalf of thirty-eight (38) named black prisoners confined to segregation at the prison since May 1, 1973. One of the conditions challenged in this original complaint was the inadequacy of health care provided in segregation. A temporary restraining order entered by consent of the parties on December 4, 1973, provided, in part, for regular exercise and proper health care.

On July 14, 1975, in a first amended complaint, the plaintiffs expanded their proposed class to include all inmates in segregation. This group, certified as a class on March 5, 1976, claimed violations of both federal constitutional and state law in a number of areas of institutional life, including a claim that a systematic denial of adequate health care services existed at Menard. Upon plaintiffs' motion, the Court appointed a panel of impartial medical experts pursuant to Rule 706 of the Federal Rules of Evidence.¹ The basic function and duties of that panel were stated as follows:

The medical panel shall assist the Court in determining questions of essential medical care as required by the United States Constitution and good medical practice as required by the Illinois Department of Corrections Administrative Regulations. The panel shall organize, direct and conduct a comprehensive health services survey to determine the adequacy and propriety of health care services presently being provided to the plaintiff class by the defendants.²

The Court was informed by letter on February 27, 1976, that the three physician appointees, Dr. Richard Della Penna, Dr. Lambert King and Dr. Ronald Shansky, were found acceptable by defendants.

On October 18, 1976, the Court, sua sponte, ordered a separate trial on the claim of denials of essential medical care as alleged in paragraphs 43-45 of the First Amended Complaint. The Court's medical panel filed its first report on November 18, 1976, and stated its conclusion that there is a systematic denial of acceptable medical care to the residents of the entire institution, not solely to the then existing plaintiff class of the prisoners in the segregation unit.

In light of the Medical Panel's finding that health care deficiencies were affecting the general population, as well as segregation, and there being no objection from the defendants, the Court on December 23, 1976, granted plaintiffs' motion to expand the plaintiff class to all inmates incarcerated at the institution for purposes of declaratory and injunctive relief as to those issues involving federal constitutional and pendent state claims of denials of medical care as stated in paragraphs 43 through 45 of the First Amended Complaint.

A non-jury trial of the health care issues for purposes of declaratory and injunctive relief commenced August 29, 1977, and continued for thirty-one (31) days of trial ending on November 17, 1977. During the trial, the Court's medical panel reinspected the institution pursuant to the request of defendants (Defendants' Motion for a Reinspection mailed for filing on June 22, 1977) and submitted their second request, "Report of Medical Panel Concerning Reinspection of Menard Correctional Center on September 20, 1977."

Plaintiffs called three experts and introduced 223 exhibits, while defendants called six experts and introduced 89 exhibits. Two members of the Court's panel of medical experts testified, and the panel's two reports were introduced into evidence.

The following is a brief summary of the qualifications of the Court's panel:

1. Lambert N. King, M.D., Ph.D., is a board-certified physician in internal medicine who served as Medical Director of Cermak Memorial Hospital for the Cook County Department of Corrections from November 1974 to May of 1977, member of the staff at Cook County Hospital, consultant to the National Health Service to plan model jail health services, and has written and lectured extensively on correctional medical care. He visited Menard on three separate occasions over four days, performed a detailed chart review of about 50 randomly-selected medical records, examined a large number of other medical records, and interviewed many Menard residents and staff.

2. Ronald M. Shansky, M.D., is a physician who is a member of the staff at Cook County Hospital, the Metropolitan Correctional Center of Chicago. Dr. Shansky also has a master's degree in public health and teaches public health at the University of Illinois. Dr. Shansky visited Menard on three separate occasions, over four days, performed a detailed chart review of approximately 30 randomly-selected medical records, examined other medical records, and interviewed many Menard residents and staff.

3. Richard Della Penna, M.D., is a physician who previously was the medical director of a program operated by Montefiore Hospital which provided health care services to inmates confined in institutions of the New York City Department of Corrections. Dr. Della Penna has written in the area of correctional health care and served as Chairperson of the Task Force which developed Standards for Health Services in Correctional Institutions, an official report of the American Public Health Association. Dr. Della Penna visited Menard on two occasions, conferred with staff and residents, inspected the facility and reviewed medical records.

The plaintiffs' three experts were:

1. Whitney Addington, a physician certified in the area of internal medicine. He has written extensively in the area of pulmonary medicine with a particular emphasis on tuberculosis and asthma.

2. Frank Rundle, a certified psychiatrist, who has been repeatedly qualified as an expert in federal courts and is currently an advisor to Judge Robert Ward of the Southern District of New York. He examined medical and psychiatric files during a four day visit to Menard in April of 1977.

3. Theodore J. Gordon, the Chief of the Bureau of Occupational Health and Institutional Hygiene for the Environmental Health Administration. He is certified by the Department of Agriculture as a food inspector and by HEW as a health care facility surveyor. He examined Menard in a survey on August 26, 1977.

The defendants' expert witnesses were:

1. Jay K. Harness, M.D., a board-certified surgeon who is Director of the Office of Health Care for the Michigan Department of Corrections and a consultant on correctional health care.

2. Kenneth Babcock, M.D., a physician who was formerly the Director of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals from 1954-1964, and now is a consultant on hospital-medical problems of correctional institutions. Dr. Babcock visited Menard in 1973, and again in January and October, 1977.

3. John Grenfell, Ed.D., a professor at the Rehabilitation Institute at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a consultant on correctional staff training and treatment. His deposition testimony was admitted into evidence.

4. Patricia A. Nolan, M.D., M.P.H., a physician and diplomat of public health. She was formerly a public health physician in the New York City Department of Public Health from 1974 to 1976, and presently is employed by the Illinois Department of Public Health in the Office of Health Facilities and Quality of Care. She visited Menard in April and August of 1977.

5. Dennis Jurczak, M.D., a psychiatrist who is the Assistant Director of the Office of Health Care in the Michigan Department of Corrections. He formerly was employed as a psychiatrist for the Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Naval hospitals and two state departments of corrections. He visited Menard on one occasion prior to testifying.

6. Norman Freeman, a doctoral candidate in environmental health at the University of Michigan. For the past four years, he has been employed as an environmental health sanitarian with the Illinois Department of Health. He has been an environmental health sanitarian for almost twenty years. Mr. Freeman inspected Menard during a four day study in January of 1977, and in a re-evaluation in August of 1977.

After the conclusion of the trial, the Court allowed plaintiffs to file a post-trial memorandum on November 1, 1978, containing proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. The defendants also filed their own findings and conclusions in a memorandum filed on January 22, 1979. The plaintiffs were then granted leave to file a reply brief with supplemental findings of fact on July 9, 1979. Finally, on October 5, 1979, the Court heard final oral arguments summarizing these post-trial briefs. The Court has carefully considered all the voluminous exhibits, briefs, memoranda and evidence presented in reaching its decision. Before stating its findings of fact and conclusions of law, the Court will briefly discuss the current status of the law.

Initially, the Court must deal with the...