Ramos v. Lamm

• Decision Date: 21 February 1980
• Docket Number: No. 77-K-1093.,77-K-1093.
• Parties: Fidel RAMOS, David Lee Anderson, Sadiki Lisimba Ajamu (a/k/a Eugene Collins), Alexander Roses, Mark J. Menchetti and Lester Lazenby et al., Plaintiffs, v. Richard D. LAMM, Allen L. Ault, John Perko, Edgar Fox and William Wilson, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Colorado

485 F. Supp. 122

Fidel RAMOS, David Lee Anderson, Sadiki Lisimba Ajamu (a/k/a Eugene Collins), Alexander Roses, Mark J. Menchetti and Lester Lazenby et al., Plaintiffs, v. Richard D. LAMM, Allen L. Ault, John Perko, Edgar Fox and William Wilson, Defendants.

No. 77-K-1093.

United States District Court, D. Colorado.

December 20, 1979.

As Amended December 26, 1979.

On Motion for Stay of Execution February 21, 1980.

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James E. Hartley and Hugh Q. Gottschalk, ACLU Foundation of Colorado, Inc., Denver, Colo., Peggy A. Wiesenberg and Ralph I. Knowles, Jr., The Nat. Prison Project, Washington, D. C., Dudley P. Spiller, Jr., Denver, Colo., The Colorado Coalition of Legal Services Programs, for plaintiffs.

J. D. MacFarlane, Atty. Gen., Joseph N. de Raismes, First Asst. Atty. Gen., Richard H. Goldberg, Jeffrey Weinman, and Maureen E. Phelan, Dennis Sousa, Henry L. Solano, Asst. Attys. Gen., Denver, Colo., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

KANE, District Judge.

This action is a suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983¹ challenging conditions of confinement at the maximum security unit of the Colorado State Penitentiary at Canon City, Colorado. Plaintiffs are persons incarcerated in this maximum security unit, and defendants include the governor of Colorado, the executive director of the Department of Corrections, and the superintendent of the maximum security unit. The suit was filed in forma pauperis on November 30, 1977. After appearance of counsel for plaintiffs and amendment of their complaint, the suit was certified as a class action on March 31, 1978, pursuant to F.R.Civ.P. Rule 23. The class consists of all persons who are now or in the future may be incarcerated in the maximum security unit, or the new maximum or close security unit, of the Colorado Department of Corrections.

On May 17, 1978, a motion to dismiss, or in the alternative to abstain, was denied, and defendants answered the amended complaint on June 9, 1978. After a year and a half of discovery and months of efforts to reach a settlement, the pretrial order was filed. On October 5, 1979, the eleventh hour before trial, the Honorable Richard D. Lamm, Governor of Colorado, filed a letter with the court concerning the parties' efforts to reach a settlement. In the letter Governor Lamm detailed the unsuccessful efforts made to bring the various constituencies of the state government into consensus and requested an additional one week's continuance of the trial date in order to further these efforts. The request was granted. In part of his letter, Governor Lamm stated, "I understand that the parties must prepare for trial, but it is my earnest hope that a consensus can be reached before trial, one way or another. I believe that an agreement negotiated by the parties in good faith in this matter should be given a chance to succeed, which it can if there is a legislative consensus in support of it. But I cannot agree to the document which I have reviewed absent such a consensus, and I do not believe that it would be in the interest of the court or the parties for me to do so." Trial began on October 15, 1979 and lasted for five weeks. Testimony from inmates, state officials and numerous experts was received. Thousands of pages of documentary evidence were received, and a firsthand inspection of the prison was made. After eight hours of final arguments a bench ruling was made in favor of plaintiffs holding that the conditions at the Canon Correctional Facility deprive persons incarcerated there of rights clearly protected by the United States Constitution and violate numerous rules of state law. This opinion supplants the bench ruling.

THE CONTEXT OF JUDICIAL DETERMINATION

Across the country, civil rights cases filed by state prisoners in federal courts have increased from 2,030 in 1970 to 11,195 in 1979, an increase of 451.5 per cent. Administrative Office of the United States Courts, 1979 Annual Report of the Director 59-62 (1979).² In the District of Colorado, for the twelve month period ending June 30, 1979, 155 civil rights cases were commenced by state prisoners, compared to 106 in 1978, 51 in 1977, and only 21 in 1976.³ This represents an increase of 50 per cent since 1978, and almost 750 per cent since 1970. As of June 30, 1979, 115 such cases were pending in this district, compared to only 65 as of the same time in 1978.⁴

From the Colorado State Penitentiary alone, 150 civil rights cases have been filed since 1976. Of these 150, 84 were dismissed and two others were decided in favor of defendant state officials.⁵ In comparison, in only four cases was there any disposition, preliminary or otherwise, in favor of plaintiff inmates. Two cases are on appeal, nine have been stayed or consolidated with this action, 39 others are pending, and ten have had assorted histories. Of the 92 case dispositions, 86 were either dismissed or decided in favor of state officials, accounting for more than 93 per cent of the results. Such a history hardly indicates that the federal judiciary has jumped at the chance to interpose itself between Colorado officials and persons confined at the State penitentiary. The contrary is true.

A great deal of this deference to state officials has been due to the substantial reluctance of federal courts to intervene in matters of prison administration. For many years, the so-called "hands off" policy was a near absolute jurisdictional bar to federal court review of alleged violations of prisoners' asserted constitutional rights. Language from the Tenth Circuit is suggestive of the attitude that "courts are without power to supervise prison administration or to interfere with the ordinary prison rules or regulations." Banning v. Looney, 213 F.2d 771, 771 (10th Cir. 1954), cert. denied, 348 U.S. 859, 75 S.Ct. 84, 99 L.Ed. 677 (1954). See Stroud v. Swope, 187 F.2d 850, 851 (9th Cir. 1951), cert. denied, 342 U.S. 829, 72 S.Ct. 53, 96 L.Ed. 627 (1951); Garcia v. Steele, 193 F.2d 276, 278 (8th Cir. 1951); and Dayton v. Hunter, 176 F.2d 108, 109 (10th Cir. 1949), cert. denied, 338 U.S. 888, 70 S.Ct. 184, 94 L.Ed. 545 (1950).⁶ With Cooper v. Pate, 378 U.S. 546, 84 S.Ct. 1733, 12 L.Ed.2d 1030 (1964) (per curiam), however, the courts began to open their doors to prisoner complaints. In Cooper, a state prisoner alleged that he was denied religious freedom and discriminated against in his religious practice. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal:

`We think that it is well settled that it is not the function of the courts to superintend the treatment and discipline of prisoners in penitentiaries, but only to deliver from imprisonment those who are illegally confined.' Stroud v. Swope, Warden, 9 Cir., 187 F.2d 850, 851. A prisoner may not approve of prison rules and regulations, but under all ordinary circumstances that is no basis for coming into a federal court seeking relief even though he may claim that the restrictions placed upon his activities are in violation of his constitutional rights. Citations omitted.

324 F.2d 165, 167 (7th Cir. 1963) (quoting United States ex rel. Morris v. Radio Station WENR, 209 F.2d 105, 107 (7th Cir. 1953)). On certiorari, the Supreme Court reversed. "Taking as true the allegations of the complaint, as they must be on a motion to dismiss, the complaint stated a cause of action and it was error to dismiss it." Cooper v. Pate, 378 U.S. at 546, 84 S.Ct. at 1734.

By 1972, the Supreme Court said in Cruz v. Beto, 405 U.S. 319, 321-22, 92 S.Ct. 1079, 1081, 31 L.Ed.2d 263 (1972) (per curiam):

Federal courts sit not to supervise prisons but to enforce the constitutional rights of all `persons', including prisoners. We are not unmindful that prison officials must be accorded latitude in the administration of prison affairs, and that prisoners necessarily are subject to appropriate rules and regulations. But persons in prison, like other individuals, have the right to petition the Government for redress of grievances which, of course, includes `access of prisoners to the courts for the purpose of presenting their complaints.' Johnson v. Avery, 393 U.S. 483, 485, 89 S.Ct. 747, 749 21 L.Ed.2d 718 721; Ex parte Hull, 312 U.S. 546, 549, 61 S.Ct. 640, 641, 85 L.Ed. 1034 1035.

The court reversed the lower courts' dismissal and granted petitioner's motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis.

The Tenth Circuit followed suit in Bethea v. Crouse, 417 F.2d 504 (10th Cir. 1969). Discussing its past dealings with prisoner complaints, the Court of Appeals stated at 505-06 (emphasis added):

We have consistently adhered to the so-called "hands off" policy in matters of prison administration according to which we have said that the basic responsibility for the control and management of penal institutions, including the discipline, treatment, and care of those confined, lies with the responsible administrative agency and is not subject to judicial review unless exercised in such a manner as to constitute clear abuse or caprice upon the part of prison officials. See Graham v. Willingham, 384 F.2d 367 (10th Cir. 1967). Also see Banning v. Looney, 213 F.2d 771 (10th Cir. 1954); Powell v. Hunter, 172 F.2d 330 (10th Cir. 1949). But being fully cognizant that one does not lose all his constitutional rights when he enters a prison, see Cooper v. Pate, 378 U.S. 546, 84 S.Ct. 1733, 12 L.Ed.2d 1030 . . ., we have never turned a deaf ear to a bona fide claim for relief based upon the deprivation of a constitutional right when asserted by a federal or state prisoner, either in the nature of a mandamus or habeas corpus proceeding, or, as here, a claim under the Civil Rights Act.

Accord, Gregory v. Wyse, 512 F.2d 378, 381 (10th Cir. 1975), Dearman v. Woodson, 429 F.2d 1288, 1290 (10th Cir. 1970). In Crouse, inmates at the Kansas State Penitentiary complained, inter alia, that...