Morales v. Turman

• Decision Date: 21 July 1976
• Docket Number: No. 74-3436,74-3436
• Citation: 535 F.2d 864
• Parties: Alicia MORALES et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. James A. TURMAN, Individually and in his official capacity as ExecutiveDirector of the Texas Youth Council, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 864

535 F.2d 864

Alicia MORALES et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. James A. TURMAN, Individually and in his official capacity as ExecutiveDirector of the Texas Youth Council et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 74-3436.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

July 21, 1976.

John L. Hill, Atty. Gen., Thomas W. Choate, Asst. Atty. Gen., Austin, Tex., Robert Salter, Gatesville, Tex., for defendants-appellants.

Andrew P. Miller, Atty. Gen., Robert E. Shepherd, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Richmond, Va., for Com. of Va., amicus curiae.

Steven Bercu, El Paso, Tex., Peter B. Sandmann, Robert Walker, San Francisco, Cal., for plaintiffs-appellees.

Patricia M. Wald, Mental Health Law Project, Washington, D. C., for American Orthopsychiatric Ass'n, amicus curiae.

Roby Hadden, U. S. Atty., Tyler, Tex., William Malcom Logan, Jr., Neal Tonken, Attys., Frank M. Dunbaugh, Deputy Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Civ. Rights Div., Washington, D. C., for the U. S., amicus curiae.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Before AINSWORTH, MORGAN and RONEY, Circuit Judges.

AINSWORTH, Circuit Judge:

This action, predicated on the notion of a constitutionally based right to rehabilitative treatment in juvenile correctional facilities, involves a sustained attack on a wide range of practices, policies, procedures, and resultant conditions authorized by the Texas Youth Council (TYC), which has responsibility under Texas law for minors adjudicated delinquent and involuntarily committed to its custody by Texas courts. ¹ As counsel for plaintiffs-appellees stated at the commencement of his oral argument before us, "at the heart of this case is the question whether the juvenile justice system as we now know it will continue to exist." Because the suit seeks to enjoin the operation and effectuation of state legislative and administrative policies in a manner which triggers the three-judge court requirement of 28 U.S.C. § 2281, we are without jurisdiction to consider the significant issues raised by this appeal, and remand the case for the convening of a three-judge court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2284.

I. The Proceedings Below

This litigation commenced on February 12, 1971 with the filing of a class action on behalf of those involuntarily committed to the custody of the TYC against Dr. James A. Turman, then Executive Director of the TYC, members of the TYC, superintendents of TYC schools, and other employees responsible for supervision of juveniles committed to TYC custody. Originally the scope of the suit was limited to securing private access to counsel, ² but it rapidly expanded to embrace a wide range of issues regarding the nature and adequacy of TYC programs and procedures. ³ In August of 1973, the District Court issued a preliminary injunction which proscribed the continuation of particularly egregious practices and activities that would "work irreparable injury, both physical and psychological, upon members of the plaintiff class." ⁴ The basis for this relief was the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution and the plaintiffs' alleged right to treatment under the Federal Constitution and state statutes. Morales v. Turman, E.D.Tex., 1973, 364 F.Supp. 166. ⁵ This interim order was followed a year later on August 30, 1974 with the 70-page order and opinion from which the present appeal was taken. ⁶ Morales v. Turman, E.D.Tex., 1974, 383 F.Supp. 53.

The fact that plaintiffs' action involves a comprehensive constitutional attack on the practices and policies of the TYC is apparent from the plaintiffs' specification of the legal issues raised by the case in the final pretrial order of June 14, 1973. ⁷ In their formulation of the issues in the pretrial order, plaintiffs questioned inter alia whether the "rules, regulations, practices and policies of the TYC" violated the rights of committed youths (1) to First Amendment freedoms of speech, expression, religious choice, and the right to petition for redress of grievances; (2) to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment; (3) to protection from cruel and unusual punishment as guaranteed in the Eighth Amendment; (4) to privacy, as assured by the First, Fourth, Fifth and Ninth Amendments; (5) to freedom from involuntary servitude under the Thirteenth Amendment; (6) to equal protection of the laws vis-a-vis adults fined or imprisoned for the same offenses under the Fourteenth Amendment; (7) to rehabilitative treatment administered in a manner least restrictive of their liberty, assuming judicial determination that such a right exists under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; and (8) to freedom from discipline while institutionalized, arbitrary transfer between institutions or groupings, and parole revocations, without due process of law.

The breadth of the relief requested is apparent from the plaintiffs' second amended complaint. Among other things, the court was asked to order the defendants to submit and implement a plan whereby the plaintiff class would be assured: (1) that safe and sanitary conditions would be restored to and maintained at TYC schools and facilities; (2) that architectural and design changes would be made to facilitate rehabilitation; (3) that inmates would be accorded essential preventive and therapeutic medical, dental, and mental health services, including complete physical and mental examinations upon admission to TYC schools and periodically thereafter; (4) that classification and confinement schemes would be organized to prevent grouping multiple offenders with youths having less serious records; (5) that an individualized treatment plan would be developed as each individual enters TYC custody with the participation of psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors and other professionals, and that the individual treatment plans thereafter would be implemented; (6) that adequate educational, vocational and work programs would be established; (7) that TYC staff would be recruited, selected, trained and employed so as to ensure that staff members in sufficient numbers and with adequate education and experience would be available; (8) that confinement in isolation cells would be eliminated, and that the practices and procedures governing disciplinary confinement of any kind would be ameliorated; (9) that visiting regulations and facilities would be established which would ensure decency, comfort, privacy, reasonable and frequent visiting periods, and which would place no restrictions on the identity of visitors; (10) that adequate, unmonitored telephone access would be provided; (11) that corporal punishment would be prohibited; (12) that extensive procedural protections could be invoked by an inmate before any disciplinary measures could be taken against him; and (13) that inmates would be permitted to speak, write, and receive letters in languages other than English. The plaintiffs further requested that the defendants be restrained from engaging in any of the unlawful acts, practices or omissions itemized at length in connection with their "right to treatment" cause of action, and that if the defendants failed to submit and implement a satisfactory plan, further incarceration and detention of the plaintiff class in deficient TYC facilities should be enjoined.

The District Court granted virtually all the relief that was requested by the plaintiffs. See generally Morales v. Turman, E.D.Tex., 1974, 383 F.Supp. 53. The sheer comprehensiveness of the memorandum opinion that was issued makes it impossible to recount here the multitudinous requirements that the decision imposes on the TYC. A few examples will have to suffice. The District Court found that the Gatesville State School for Boys, the school with the largest capacity in the state, and Mountain View State School for Boys, the maximum security facility in the entire TYC system the school to which troublesome elements in other state schools were sent were "places where the delivery of effective rehabilitative treatment is impossible" due to the "history of brutality and repression" at those institutions. 383 F.Supp. at 121, 58-59, 72, 76. The court held that these schools must be abandoned as soon as possible. Id. at 125. The court disparaged the TYC policy of utilizing large institutions located in small rural towns located far from urban population centers, because of the difficulties thus created for involving families in treatment plans and for attracting qualified professional staff. Id. at 123-24. The court further held that the defendants "must cease to institutionalize any juveniles except those who are found by a responsible professional assessment to be unsuited for any less restrictive, alternative form of rehabilitative treatment," id. at 125, and that they must "create or discover a system of community-based treatment alternatives adequate to serve the needs of those juveniles for whom the institution is not appropriate." Id. In addition, "those few juveniles for whom close confinement is appropriate must be surrounded by a staff trained to meet their special needs, in a virtually one-to-one ratio." Id. at 125-26 (emphasis in original). Some indication of the composition of the trained staff thus mandated may be gleaned from the court's summary of the personnel requirements at a "minimally adequate institution" in the area of psychiatric care alone: there must be a psychiatrist certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology as qualified in the field of child psychiatry for each 100 students. Id. at 102, 105. His services must be supported by at least one psychologist with a doctorate, and two with master's degrees, as well as psychiatric nurses also for each 100 students. Id. at 102. Additional personnel requirements stem from minimum standards in areas of medical treatment, social worker care, dietary requirements,...