Morales Feliciano v. Rullan
| Decision Date | 06 August 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-1300.,04-1300. |
| Citation | 378 F.3d 42 |
| Parties | Carlos MORALES FELICIANO et al., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. John A. RULLAN, Secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Health, et al., Defendant, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Juan M. Pérez-Giménez, J.
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Carlos A. Del Valle Cruz, with whom Anabelle Rodriguez, Secretary of Justice, Eileen Landron Guardiola, Eduardo A. Vera Ramirez, and Landron & Vera, LLP, were on brief, for appellant.
Carlos V. Garcia Gutierrez, with whom Alejandra Bird Lopez, Manuel A. Rodriguez Banchs, Ricardo Alfonso Garcia, and Civil Action and Education Corporation were on brief, for appellees.
Before SELYA, LYNCH and LIPEZ, Circuit Judges.
Like the legendary Phoenix, this class action litigation involving prison conditions in Puerto Rico is seemingly incapable of eternal rest. The iteration now before us focuses on prospective injunctive relief ordered by the district court in 1998 (the centerpiece of which is the proposed privatization of medical and mental health care throughout the correctional system). Despite his predecessor's enthusiastic assent to that arrangement, the Commonwealth's Secretary of Health (the Secretary), acting in his official capacity, sought five years later to vacate or terminate the consent decree embodying that relief.1 Following an evidentiary hearing, the district court rejected that initiative. Morales Feliciano v. Calderon Serra, 300 F.Supp.2d 321 (D.P.R.2004) (Morales IV). The Secretary now attacks this decision on several fronts. He asserts, inter alia, that the court acted ultra vires; that the court's 1998 order was void ab initio for failure to meet the requirements of section 802 of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), Pub.L. No. 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321-66, § 802 (1996), codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3626; and that in all events, the order should be terminated because the district court's supportive factfinding was clearly erroneous and infected by errors of law. As a fallback, he argues that the district court bungled the evidentiary hearing and that, at a bare minimum, the matter should be remanded for reconsideration. Finding these importunings unpersuasive, we affirm the decision below.
Given the long and tortuous history of this litigation — two years ago, we acknowledged that "the lore of this case is Byzantine," Morales Feliciano v. Rullan, 303 F.3d 1, 3 (1st Cir.2002) (Morales III) — we confine our introductory comments to those events that are most directly germane to this appeal. The shelves of any well-stocked law library will satisfy the appetites of readers who hunger for more exegetic detail. See, e.g., Morales III, 303 F.3d 1; Morales-Feliciano v. Parole Bd., 887 F.2d 1 (1st Cir.1989); Morales IV, 300 F.Supp.2d 321; Morales Feliciano v. Rossello Gonzalez, 124 F.Supp.2d 774 (D.P.R.2000); Morales Feliciano v. Rossello Gonzalez, 13 F.Supp.2d 151 (D.P.R.1998) (Morales II); Morales Feliciano v. Hernandez Colon, 775 F.Supp. 487 (D.P.R.1991); Morales Feliciano v. Hernandez Colon, 775 F.Supp. 477 (D.P.R.1991); Morales Feliciano v. Hernandez Colon, 771 F.Supp. 11 (D.P.R.1991); Morales Feliciano v. Hernandez Colon, 754 F.Supp. 942 (D.P.R.1991); Morales Feliciano v. Hernandez Colon, 704 F.Supp. 16 (D.P.R.1988); Morales Feliciano v. Hernandez Colon, 697 F.Supp. 51 (D.P.R.1988); Morales Feliciano v. Hernandez Colon, 672 F.Supp. 627 (D.P.R.1987); Morales Feliciano v. Hernandez Colon, 697 F.Supp. 26 (D.P.R.1986); Morales Feliciano v. Romero Barcelo, 672 F.Supp. 591 (D.P.R.1986); Morales Feliciano v. Romero Barcelo, 605 F.Supp. 967 (D.P.R.1985); Morales Feliciano v. Romero Barcelo, 497 F.Supp. 14 (D.P.R.1979) (Morales I).
In the 1970s, a group of prison inmates initiated a class action alleging "dire shortcomings in virtually every aspect of prisoner confinement" in the Puerto Rican correctional system. Morales III, 303 F.3d at 3. The district court found the plaintiffs likely to succeed on the merits and issued preliminary injunctive relief. Morales I, 497 F.Supp. at 39-41. The defendants made little progress and the district court, in March of 1986, appointed a monitor. See Morales III, 303 F.3d at 3; Morales Feliciano v. Romero Barcelo, 672 F.Supp. at 621. The court charged the monitor with studying various elements of the correctional system and recommending remedial action. With the monitor's assistance, the court became more proactive and issued a torrent of orders, including temporary restrainers and contempt citations. The court thereafter imposed multimillion dollar fines for the most egregious failures to comply with its directives.
In 1990, the court ordered the implementation of medical and mental health care plans recommended by the monitor. These plans transferred the primary responsibility for medical and mental health care in the correctional system from the Administrator of Corrections (the AOC) to the Secretary. The plans also required that the Secretary employ for a minimum of three years a chief health care coordinator (the CHCC) who would bear responsibility for easing the transition and coordinating compliance.
Over time, prison conditions improved. In 1996, the district court entered a partial final judgment that settled several disputed issues and urged attempts at consensus-based compliance efforts as to other issues. Despite improvements in many areas, the delivery of medical and mental health care lagged behind.
In April of 1997, a court-appointed expert found the existing health care programs incapable of meeting constitutional standards and suggested, as an alternative, the appointment of a receiver. The parties (who, over a quarter of a century, have agreed on little else) unanimously opposed this recommendation. They suggested instead the formation of a private non-profit corporation to provide medical and mental health services to the inmate population. On September 26, 1997, the parties drafted, executed, and filed a stipulation embodying this consensus. Under the terms of the stipulation, a non-profit corporation was to be formed. The corporation would be structured to provide health care services, consistent with the 1990 plan, to all individuals held in institutions operated by the AOC. The stipulation pledged the parties' full cooperation, required the Secretary and the AOC to lay the groundwork for a transition, and offered to subject the process of privatization to the supervision of the district court. Finally, the stipulation memorialized the parties' agreement to engage in further discussions concerning the role and authority of the CHCC.
The district court endorsed the stipulation and, thus, assumed ownership of the privatization plan that had been conceived by the parties. See Morales III, 303 F.3d at 3-4; see also Morales II, 13 F.Supp.2d at 212-14 (). The order, as it pertains to this appeal, has retained its original substance. The non-profit entity, known as the Correctional Health Services Corporation (the CHSC), has been formed.
The parties and the district court envisioned the CHSC as a key piece of the privatization machinery. Withal, the CHSC was intended as a transitional device rather than as the exclusive provider of inmate health care services in perpetuity. The parties expected that within a few years of its full implementation, the CHSC would compete with private health care providers for contracts to furnish health care services to those persons held in the AOC's custody. This expectation remains in force.
The CHSC has a checkered history. Originally, the parties hoped that it would begin to function as early as July 1, 1998, and become fully operational as a provider of health care to the inmate population by the end of that year. That prediction proved wildly optimistic. Although the district court, using accrued fines, has made substantial funding available to the CHSC — as of the date of the district court's decision, roughly $55,000,000 had been spent on the privatization solution — this monetary infusion has not yet brought the project to fruition. While the CHSC has made substantial progress toward reaching its stated goals, the pace has been much slower than anticipated. To this point, the CHSC has developed an administrative infrastructure, fashioned an impressive set of substantive programs, and constructed needed facilities. As a result, it has begun contributing to the management of payroll, staff assignments, inventory, purchasing, billing, and financing. The CHSC's achievements in formulating substantive programs include the creation of an electronic database for health records, patient tracking, and the keeping of appointments; the design of a telemedicine program to enable remote diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric illnesses; and the training of personnel to maximize the efficacy of these (and other) programs. The CHSC also has improved the quality of the facilities and equipment dedicated to the provision of inmate health care. In the same vein, it has purchased and installed computers at most of the institutions operated by the AOC. Last — but far from least — it is in the process of developing a new acute care hospital.
Without in any way minimizing either the value or extent of these accomplishments, it is evident that the CHSC has lagged far behind the timetable that its proponents originally envisioned. Part of the reason is that court supervision has made the process cumbersome (for example, lengthy periods of time have been consumed in the submission and approval of budget proposals). Other factors, such as snail's-pace negotiations with outside contractors, false starts, and resistance...
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