Morales v. Turman
| Decision Date | 30 August 1974 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 1948. |
| Citation | 383 F. Supp. 53 |
| Parties | Alicia MORALES, et al., v. James A. TURMAN, Individually and in his official capacity as Executive Director of the Texas Youth Council, et al. v. UNITED STATES of America, Amicus Curiae, American Orthopsychiatric Association et al., Amici Curiae. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Texas |
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Peter B. Sandmann, San Francisco, Cal., Steven L. Bercu, Richardson, Tex., William P. Hoffman, Jr., Washington, D. C., for plaintiffs.
John L. Hill, Atty. Gen. of Texas, Tex., Larry York, Joe B. Dibrell, Jr., Max P. Flusche, Jr., and Thomas W. Choate, Asst. Attys. Gen., Austin, Tex., Robert F. Salter, Staff Atty., Gatesville, for defendants.
Louis M. Thrasher, Michael Lottman, William Malcolm Logan, Jr., Daniel E. Maeso and Michelle White, Attys., Civil Rights Div., Dept. of Justice, for amicus curiae, United States of America, Larry A. Schwartz, Patricia M. Wald, for amici curiae, American Orthropsychiatric Association, et al.
JUSTICE, District Judge.
If any parents shall wilfullie and unreasonably deny any childe timely or convenient marriage, or shall exercise any unnatural severitie towards them, Such children shall have free libertie to Complain to Authoritie for redresse. Massachusetts Body of Liberties, 1641, No. 83: "Liberties of Children." (Italics added.)
While there can be no doubt of the original laudable purpose of juvenile courts, studies and critiques in recent years raise serious questions as to whether actual performance measures well enough against theoretical purpose to make tolerable the immunity of the process from the reach of constitutional guarantees applicable to adults. . . . There is evidence, in fact, that there may be grounds for concern that the child receives the worst of both worlds: that he gets neither the protections accorded to adults nor the solicitous care and regenerative treatment postulated for children. Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541, 555-556, 86 S.Ct. 1045, 1054, 16 L.Ed.2d 84 (1966). (Italics added.)
This civil action concerns both the adjudicatory and post-adjudicatory stages of the juvenile justice system in the State of Texas. The plaintiffs are minor children who represent a class consisting of all juveniles who are presently, have been in the past, or may be in the future adjudicated delinquent1 and involuntarily committed to the custody of the Texas Youth Council (hereinafter called the TYC).2 Defendants are Dr. James A. Turman, Executive Director of the TYC, members of the TYC (appointed by the Governor of Texas with the consent of the Senate), and various employees of the TYC responsible for supervision of the juveniles committed to TYC custody.3
A. Description of TYC System
The TYC has six training schools, three for girls and three for boys. The boys' schools are: Giddings State Home and School for Boys (maximum capacity 480 boys); Gatesville State School for Boys (a complex of seven schools with a total maximum capacity of 1,560 boys); and the Mountain View State School for Boys (maximum capacity of 480). The girls' schools are: Brownwood State Home and School for Girls (maximum capacity 240 girls); the Crockett State School for Girls (maximum capacity 209 girls); and the Gainesville State School for Girls (maximum capacity 390 girls).4
The seven subschools of Gatesville are: Valley, Hackberry, Riverside, Terrace, Hilltop, Live Oak, and Sycamore. At the time the trial of this civil action began, the population of Gatesville School was 1,149; Mountain View, 361; Brownwood, 109; Crockett, 126; and Gainesville, 220. In fiscal year 1972, sixty percent of the males admitted to TYC institutions were committed for crimes of stealing, nine per cent for crimes of violence, nineteen per cent for disobedience and immoral conduct, and sixteen per cent for other reasons. Of the females admitted to TYC institutions, fifteen per cent were committed for crimes of stealing, four per cent for crimes of violence, sixty-eight per cent for disobedience and immoral conduct, and thirteen per cent for other reasons.
As of May, 1973, the ethnic composition of the TYC Central Office was eighty-four and three-tenths per cent Anglo, eight and six-tenths per cent Mexican American, and seven and one-tenth per cent Black. All but one of the Blacks and one of the Mexican Americans are parole officers.
Seven of the 254 Texas counties accounted for fifty per cent of the TYC admissions in fiscal 1972. In the same year, eighty per cent of the admissions to TYC were boys, and twenty per cent were girls. The ethnic backgrounds of the youths incarcerated in the TYC are as follows: Anglo, forty-three and two-tenths per cent; Mexican American, twenty-four and three-tenths per cent; and Black, thirty-two and four-tenths per cent. The average length of stay of juveniles in various TYC institutions is as follows:
Median Longest
Crockett 12.3 mos. 38 mos
Gainesville 12.4 mos. 29 mos
Brownwood 12.0 mos. 21 mos
Gatesville 10.0 mos. 26 mos
Mountain View 18.8 mos. 30 mos
B. Outline of the Opinion
The genesis of this civil action was hardly dramatic. More than three years ago, this court granted a preliminary injunction sought by two young attorneys who were attempting to confer privately with their clients and communicate with them by uncensored mail. The extensive litigation outlined in this memorandum opinion has been the outgrowth. The first portion of the opinion relates to challenges to the jurisdiction of this court, traces the early history of the case, and discusses the juvenile's right to counsel and access to the courts. The second section concerns the widespread abuse of procedural due process for juveniles in the adjudicatory stage, and includes an agreed judgment entered in an attempt to correct this abuse. The final part of the opinion concerns plaintiffs' allegations regarding cruel and unusual punishment and the so-called right to treatment. A preliminary injunction in regard to some of the matters discussed in the final portion of this opinion was entered on August 31, 1973.5
The defendants' contention that this civil action is barred by the eleventh amendment to the Constitution borders on the frivolous; it is discussed here only because the defendants advance it with apparent seriousness. They argue, in essence, that execution of the relief requested by the plaintiffs, the United States, and the amici will necessitate the expenditure of state funds and thus constitute, in their words, a "raid on the treasury" of the state. Initially, it is noted that there is little or no evidence in the record to support the contention that any relief ordered by this court will be more costly than the maintenance of present conditions in the Texas Youth Council institutions. Indeed, there is some evidence that implementation of some of the kinds of requested relief — in particular the placing of more children in community facilities and fewer in residential institutions — would save the state a considerable sum. Yet it is not necessary for the court to make a finding with respect to the relative costs of various plans and compute whether the state may be put to an additional expense in complying with the court's order. The Supreme Court has spoken on the subject very recently in Edelman v. Jordan, (1974) 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662:
The injunction issued in Ex parte Young was not totally without effect on the State's revenues, since the state law which the Attorney General was enjoined from enforcing provided substantial monetary penalties against railroads which did not conform to its provisions. Later cases from this Court have authorized equitable relief which has probably had greater impact on state treasuries than did that awarded in Ex parte Young. In Graham v. Richardson, 403 U.S. 365, 91 S.Ct. 1848, 29 L.Ed. 2d 534 (1971), Arizona and Pennsylvania welfare officials were prohibited from denying welfare benefits to otherwise qualified recipients who were aliens. In Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 90 S.Ct. 1011, 25 L.Ed.2d 287 (1970), New York City welfare officials were enjoined from following New York State procedures which authorized the termination of benefits paid to welfare recipients without prior hearing. But the fiscal consequences to state treasuries in these cases were the necessary result of compliance with decrees which by their terms were prospective in nature. State officials, in order to shape their official conduct to the mandate of the Court's decrees, would more likely have to spend money from the state treasury than if they had been left free to pursue their previous course of conduct. Such an ancillary effect on the state treasury is a permissible and often an inevitable consequence of the principle announced in Ex parte Young. . . .
Consequently, even if compliance with the court's order requires the expenditure of state funds that might not ordinarily be allocated for Texas Youth Council purposes, the eleventh amendment constitutes no obstacle. Were it otherwise, "a great number of federal district court judgments are void, and the Supreme Court has affirmed many of these void judgments." Gaither v. Sterrett, 346 F.Supp. 1095, 1099 (N.E. Ind.), aff'd 409 U.S. 809, 93 S.Ct. 68, 34 L.Ed.2d 70 (1972).
During the week before the trial of this case, the defendants made their first motion for the convening of a three-judge district court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2281 (1970). The motion was denied by an order of July 20, 1973. In the same order, certain issues were severed (i.e., challenges to compulsory religious services and involuntary work practices) from the remaining issues in the...
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...S., & Ekland-Olson, S. (1987). Texas prisons: The walls came tumbling down. Austin: Texas Monthly Press. Morales v. Turman, 383 F. Supp. 53 (E.D. Tx....