Mawby v. Ambroyer

• Decision Date: 30 June 1983
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 82-70962.
• Citation: 568 F. Supp. 245
• Parties: Frank MAWBY and Brian Martin, Plaintiffs, v. Donald AMBROYER, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

568 F. Supp. 245

Frank MAWBY and Brian Martin, Plaintiffs, v. Donald AMBROYER, Defendant.

Civ. No. 82-70962.

United States District Court, E.D. Michigan, S.D.

June 30, 1983.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Frank Mawby, in pro. per.

Brian Martin, in pro. per.

Frank W. Brochert, Detroit, Mich., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

RALPH M. FREEMAN, District Judge.

This is a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiffs Frank Mawby and Brian Martin, former inmates of the Macomb County Jail, allege that their first, eighth, and fourteenth amendment rights were violated by various practices of the jail, including maintaining an inadequate law library, failing to permit contact visits, requiring that outgoing mail be sealed by jail officials rather than prisoners, incarcerating seventeen-year-old inmates with the general inmate population, failing to provide incoming inmates a physical exam, failing to provide religious activities for maximum security inmates, failing to provide smoke detectors in the maximum security section of the jail, restricting the inmates' right to receive magazines, failing to provide opportunity for inmates to exercise, maintaining the plumbing and bathing facilities in a substandard manner, and failing to maintain clothing and linen in accordance with federal standards. Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief as well as both punitive and compensatory damages. Since plaintiffs have been discharged from the Macomb County Jail, their claims for declaratory and injunctive relief are rendered moot. DeFunis v. Odegaard, 416 U.S. 312, 316-20, 94 S.Ct. 1704, 1705-07, 40 L.Ed.2d 164 (1974). Plaintiffs' claims for damages, however, are not rendered moot by discharge. Boag v. MacDougall, 454 U.S. 364, 102 S.Ct. 700, 70 L.Ed.2d 551 (1982).

The defendant, Administrator of the Macomb County Jail, answered the plaintiffs' complaint and filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c). Plaintiffs filed a response to the defendant's motion, and the case was referred to Magistrate Steven W. Rhodes for his report and recommendation. On March 22, 1983, Magistrate Rhodes issued his report and recommended that the following claims be dismissed: the claim that the law library is inadequate, the claim that seventeen-year-old inmates are housed with adult inmates, the claim regarding physical examinations, the claim that religious services are unavailable to maximum security inmates, the structural defects claims, and the claims of inadequate clothing and linen. The magistrate further recommended that plaintiffs file answers to specified questions concerning certain claims and that defendant's motion to dismiss these claims be held in abeyance pending plaintiffs' response.

Plaintiff Mawby filed timely objections and answers to the magistrate's report with this Court, which is now required to review the objections de novo pursuant to the provisions of the Magistrate's Act, 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). See Gioiosa v. United States, 684 F.2d 176 (1st Cir.1982). Plaintiff Martin failed to object to the magistrate's report and recommendations, and such failure to object waives his right to appeal. In United States v. Walters, the Sixth Circuit stated that "the fundamental congressional policy underlying the Magistrate's Act — to improve access to the federal courts and aid the efficient administration of justice — is best served by our holding that a party shall file objections with the district court or else waive right to appeal." 638 F.2d 947, 949-50 (6th Cir.1981).

This case is before the Court on the defendant's motion for judgment on the pleadings, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c). Defendant submitted an affidavit with attached exhibits, such as Standard Operating Procedures of the jail and an inspection report from the Michigan Department of Corrections. Because matters outside the pleadings have been presented to and not excluded by the Court, the motion will be treated as one for summary judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. For purposes of this motion, facts asserted and supported by the plaintiffs are regarded as true. Day v. UAW, 466 F.2d 83 (6th Cir.1972). The exhibits which tend to controvert plaintiffs' allegations need not be considered by this Court. Plaintiffs' allegations must be examined in light of these principles to determine whether they state a claim under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Frank Mawby was incarcerated in the Macomb County Jail from February to May, 1981, and from February to April, 1982. On the latter occasion, Mawby had been returned to the jail from Jackson State Prison for an evidentiary hearing on whether to vacate a guilty plea. Although he was not a permanent inmate, Mawby was not a pretrial detainee, having already been convicted. Pretrial detainees are protected by the Due Process Clause from incarceration under conditions which constitute "punishment," a protection not afforded inmates already convicted. Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 535, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1872, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979). Convicted inmates are primarily protected by the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. See, e.g., Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 102-03, 97 S.Ct. 285, 290, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976). Thus, convicted inmates may be punished so long as their punishment is not cruel and unusual.

Plaintiff alleges that the jail law library is inadequate because pages have been torn out of books and there is no way to update the law, i.e., the library does not contain Shepard's Citations. Defendant admits that some pages have been torn out from the law books, but states that those pages have been torn out by prisoners. Standard Operating Procedures submitted by the defendant essentially admit that, aside from a few advance sheet editions, the law library does not contain the relevant Shepard's Citations. This issue was addressed by Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977), wherein the Supreme Court held that prisoners' right of access to the courts requires that states provide law libraries or alternative sources of legal knowledge. The Court did not prescribe which materials a prison law library must contain and stated that a law library need not be provided where other methods, e.g., professional or quasi-professional legal assistance, assure meaningful access to the courts. Bounds, 430 U.S. at 830, 97 S.Ct. at 1499. See Holt v. Pitts, 702 F.2d 639 (6th Cir.1983). The defendant's list of legal materials in the library indicates that caselaw and statutory compilations relevant to prisoners' claims are provided. The library includes the Northwest Reporter 2d Series (1960-date), Michigan Criminal Law and Procedure (2d ed.), Wharton's Criminal Procedure, Michigan Court Rules Annotated, Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated Vols. 1-2 (Michigan Constitution), Black's Law Dictionary, Complete Manual of Criminal Forms, Prisoner's Rights Sourcebook, How to Find the Law (7th ed.), Perkins on Criminal Law and Procedure (4th ed.), Federal Habeas Corpus (2d ed.), and several volumes of Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated. Provision of these materials satisfies the requirements of Bounds v. Smith. It is not to be expected that jails provide law libraries comparable to those in our law schools, and this notion is reflected in the rule that a pro se prisoner's pleading is judged under less stringent standards. Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520, 92 S.Ct. 594, 595, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972).

Plaintiffs also contend that denial of their requests for contact visits while incarcerated was unconstitutional. A district court sitting in this district, applying the conceptual framework of Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979), recently held that contact visitation implicates no express constitutional right, even where denied to pretrial detainees. O'Bryan v. County of Saginaw, Mich., (O'Bryan III), 529 F.Supp. 206, 211 (E.D. Mich.1981). The Supreme Court has cautioned that "the inquiry of federal courts into prison management must be limited to the issue of whether a particular system violates any prohibition of the Constitution. ..." Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. at 562, 99 S.Ct. at 1886. The Sixth Circuit has held that prison procedures and practices regarding visitation are "precisely the sort of `judgment calls' regarding prison management that Bell v. Wolfish requires to be left to the expertise of prison administrators." Weaver v. Jago, 675 F.2d 116, 117 (6th Cir.1982).

A prisoner's conditions are to be judged under the Eighth Amendment or the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment depending on whether he has undergone a formal adjudication of guilt. Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651, 671-72 n. 40, 97 S.Ct. 1401, 1412-13 n. 40, 51 L.Ed.2d 711 (1977). Under the latter standard, the test is whether the prison's restriction is "imposed for the purpose or with the intent of punishing the pretrial detainees at the jail." O'Bryan III, 529 F.Supp. at 212. Assuming arguendo that this standard should be applied,¹ there is no allegation that the policy against contact visits was ever intended as punishment. On the other hand, "contact visitation for convicted prisoners is a matter within the discretion of prison officials." McMurry v. Phelps, 533 F.Supp. 742, 765 (W.D.La.1982). Accord McCray v. Sullivan, 509 F.2d 1332 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 859, 96 S.Ct. 114, 46 L.Ed.2d 86 (1975); Walker v. Pate, 356 F.2d 502 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 384 U.S. 966, 86 S.Ct. 1598, 16 L.Ed.2d 678 (1966). Since they have alleged no improper motive on the part of jail officials, plaintiffs' allegations that they were denied contact visits do not rise to the level of constitutional deprivations. Defendant's motion will be granted on this issue.

Plaintiffs' next complain that inmates are prohibited from sealing their outgoing mail. Defendant's Standard Operating Procedure # 63 states that jail staff will not read the mail before...