Mims v. Shapp
| Decision Date | 12 October 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-5906,83-5906 |
| Citation | 744 F.2d 946 |
| Parties | Jeffrey Roger MIMS, John James Keen, Edward X. Sistrunk, Glenn X. Jordan, Fred Burton, Vivian Richbourg, David Scoggins, Frank Patterson, Clifford Futch, all prisoners at the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (hereinafter referred to as S.C.I. Pgh.)--all who were or are presently confined to the Behavioral Adjustment Unit, [Hereinafter known as the B.A.U.), on behalf of themselves and all those similarly situated in the B.A.U. v. Milton SHAPP, Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Israel Packel, Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Stewart Werner, Commissioner of the Bureau of Corrections for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, James Howard, Warden of the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh, Charles Zimmerman, Deputy Warden of the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh, William Jennings, Deputy Warden of the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh, Lawrence Weyandt, Major of the Guards at the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, John Jasak, Captain of the Guards at the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, David Young, casework Supervisor at the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Charles Kozakiewcz, Lieutenant of the Guards of the State Correctional Institution at Pgh. in charge of Prison security, James Robles, Sergeant of the Guards of the SCI Pgh. in Charge of the B.A.U., Sergeant Caruthers, Sergeant of the Guards of the SCI Pgh. in charge of the B.A.U., Their Agents, Subordinates and Employees. Frederick BURTON v. William B. ROBINSON, Individually and in his official capacity as Commissioner of Corrections of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, together with his Agents and Successors in Interest Stewart Werner, Individually and in his former official capacity as Commissioner of Corrections of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Robert L. Johnson, Individually and in his former official capacity as Superintendent of the State Corr |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
LeRoy Zimmerman, Atty. Gen., Jose' Hernandez-Cuebas, Deputy Atty. Gen., Andrew S. Gordon, Sr. Deputy Atty. Gen. (argued), Allen C. Warshaw, Sr. Deputy Atty. Gen., Chief, Litigation Section, Louis Anstandig, Egler, Anstandig, Garret & Riley, Pittsburgh, Pa., for appellants.
Paul R. Gettleman, (argued), Eleanore N. Gettleman, Zelienople, Pa., for appellees.
Before ALDISERT, Chief Judge, WEIS, Circuit Judge, and RE, Judge. *
This appeal is brought by Pennsylvania prison officials, defendants below, from a judgment and damages award entered in favor of a state prisoner. The action was commenced under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 and tried without a jury. We must decide whether the district court erred in determining that defendants violated the prisoner's due process rights by denying him meaningful periodic review during segregated confinement for five years.
This case was before us in a previous appeal, No. 82-5107. A panel opinion, written by the author of this opinion, affirmed the judgment of the district court on November 29, 1982. But prior to the issue of this court's mandate, the court in banc, responding to a petition for rehearing and considering an intervening decision of the Supreme Court, vacated the district court judgment in favor of the plaintiff prisoner and remanded the proceedings for reconsideration in light of Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 103 S.Ct. 864, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983). Mims v. Shapp, 702 F.2d 453 (3d Cir.1983). On remand, the district court reaffirmed its judgment, concluding that Hewitt did not command a change in its original disposition. 574 F.Supp. 637. We now reverse.
The relevant facts are undisputed. In May 1973, plaintiff Frederick Burton was an inmate in Philadelphia's Holmesburg prison serving a sentence for first degree murder of a police officer. See Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Burton, 459 Pa. 550, 330 A.2d 833 (1974). 1 While at Holmesburg Burton participated in the killing of the Deputy Warden. 2 Immediately after this incident, Burton was transferred, first to the state prison in Graterford, and then to Western Penitentiary in Pittsburgh. He was placed in solitary confinement--officially known as administrative segregation--in the Behavioral Adjustment Unit (BAU) in both prisons. Burton remained in administrative segregation in Western Penitentiary for more than five years until his release, by court order, into the general prison population in September 1978.
While confined in the BAU at Western Penitentiary, Burton's treatment was undeniably severe. He was not allowed to work during his five years of confinement, and was permitted only two showers and one change of clothing per week. He ate all meals in his cell, slept on the floor because his mattress did not fit on the concrete slab bed, and, although permitted to exercise outside his cell for a minimal time each day, he was forced to undergo a thorough and degrading strip and body cavity search after each such temporary release. See Brief for Appellee at 14.
Although no hearing preceded his assignment to the BAU at either Graterford or Western Penitentiary, by late 1975, prison authorities at Western Penitentiary began regular monthly reviews of Burton's administrative segregation status through the Program Review Committee (PRC). The PRC consistently recommended that Burton remain in the BAU for an additional thirty days, and these recommendations were approved by the Warden, Mr. Howard. At no time prior to his release from the BAU in 1978 did the Western Penitentiary authorities develop plans to introduce Burton into the general prison population; at no time was Burton informed of specific criteria by which his eligibility for a release to the general prison population would be judged. Mims v. Shapp, 457 F.Supp. 247, 249-50 (W.D.Pa.1978) ().
Burton brought this suit in 1975, alleging, inter alia, that his continued confinement in the BAU violated his due process rights under the Constitution and demanding declaratory and injunctive relief, compensatory and punitive damages, and attorney's fees. In August 1978, the district court granted Burton's motion for a preliminary injunction, concluding that his rights were violated by the circumstances of his confinement. This led to Burton's release from the BAU in September 1978. In November 1980, the district court awarded Burton $6,700 in compensatory damages and in December 1981, awarded him $8,200 in attorney's fees.
Appellants do not appeal from the grant of injunctive relief but challenge these last two orders arguing that: (1) they did not violate appellee's constitutional rights; (2) even if they did, then they are not liable for damages because they are protected by qualified executive immunity; and (3) if they are not so protected, then the damage award is error because the district court failed to find that plaintiff's confinement was unjustified and it wrongly assessed liability from January to September 1978. Because we determine that there was no violation of Burton's constitutional rights, we will not meet appellants' second and third contentions.
Appellants contend that the trial court erred in holding that Burton suffered deprivation of his constitutional right to due process. Our review of this determination by the district court is plenary as to that court's choice, interpretation and application of controlling legal precepts and subject to the clearly erroneous rule as to its findings of fact. Universal Minerals, Inc. v. C.A. Hughes & Co., 669 F.2d 98, 103 (3d Cir.1981); Krasnov v. Dinan, 465 F.2d 1298 (3d Cir.1972).
Under the fourteenth amendment, the threshold question in determining whether there has been a deprivation of rights without due process is whether there is a protected interest at issue. Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 223, 96 S.Ct. 2532, 49 L.Ed.2d 451 (1976). Only then does the inquiry shift to whether the procedures employed to protect that interest were constitutionally adequate. Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 335, 96 S.Ct. 893, 903, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976). Here, Burton alleges a constitutional violation on the basis of the procedures used by the prison authorities to keep him in administrative segregation. 3 This type of segregated confinement implicates a liberty interest cognizable under the fourteenth amendment. Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. at 468, 103 S.Ct. at 870. As the Hewitt Court stated, the Pennsylvania regulations which establish administrative segregation also establish "a protected liberty interest [in the inmates] in remaining in the general prison population." Id. A protected interest being present, the focus of our analysis is whether the process afforded Burton satisfied fourteenth amendment requirements.
As the Supreme Court has noted, when a cognizable interest is at issue, the determination of what process is due
generally requires consideration of three distinct factors: First, the private interest that will be affected by the official action; second, the risk of an...
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...to subject a prisoner to administrative segregation may fluctuate with the passage of time and change of circumstances." Mims v. Shapp, 744 F.2d 946, 953 (3d Cir.1984). In Mims v. Shapp, the Third Circuit found that monthly review of a prisoner's status satisfied due process concerns. 744 F......
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