Sasnett v. Sullivan, 94-C-52-C.

• Decision Date: 09 January 1996
• Docket Number: No. 94-C-52-C.,94-C-52-C.
• Parties: Sylvester SASNETT, Lonnie Smith, James Lowery, James Hadley and Barbara Miller, et al., individually and on behalf of others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. Michael J. SULLIVAN, Secretary, Department of Corrections; Ken Sondalle, Administrator, Division of Adult Institutions; Jeffrey Endicott, Warden, Columbia Correctional Institution; Gary McCaughtry, Warden, Waupun Correctional Institution; Gerald Berge, Warden, Fox Lake Correctional Institution; Kristine Krenke, Warden, Taycheedah Correctional Institution; their agents, assistants, officials, employees, successors and others acting in concert or cooperations with them, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Wisconsin

908 F. Supp. 1429

Sylvester SASNETT, Lonnie Smith, James Lowery, James Hadley and Barbara Miller, et al., individually and on behalf of others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. Michael J. SULLIVAN, Secretary, Department of Corrections; Ken Sondalle, Administrator, Division of Adult Institutions; Jeffrey Endicott, Warden, Columbia Correctional Institution; Gary McCaughtry, Warden, Waupun Correctional Institution; Gerald Berge, Warden, Fox Lake Correctional Institution; Kristine Krenke, Warden, Taycheedah Correctional Institution; their agents, assistants, officials, employees, successors and others acting in concert or cooperations with them, Defendants.

No. 94-C-52-C.

United States District Court, W.D. Wisconsin.

December 1, 1995.

As Amended January 9, 1996.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Percy L. Julian, Julian, Olson & Lasker, S.C., Madison, WI, for Sylvester Sasnett, Will Highfill, Lonnie Smith, James Lowery, James Hadley, John Casteel, Barbara Miller.

Frank Remington, Wisconsin Dept. of Justice, Madison, WI, for Dept. of Corrections, Michael J. Sullivan, Ken Sondalle, Jeffrey Endicott, Gary McCaughtry, Gerald Berge, Kristine Krenke.

Janis C. Kestenbaum, Theodore C. Hirt, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, DC, for U.S.A.

Marc D. Stern, American Jewish Congress, New York City, for amicus curiae, American Jew. Cong.

OPINION AND ORDER

CRABB, Chief Judge.

This is a civil action for injunctive and declaratory relief brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb. Plaintiffs are Wisconsin state prisoners who challenge two internal management procedures regulating the wearing of jewelry and limiting to twenty-five the number of publications inmates are allowed to possess. The internal management procedures prohibit plaintiffs Sylvester Sasnett, Lonnie Smith and Barbara Miller from wearing crosses around their necks and caused plaintiffs Sasnett, James Lowery and James Hadley to relinquish possession of individually owned religious publications. Plaintiffs contend that the enforcement of these procedures violates their rights 1) to free exercise of religion under the First Amendment, by substantially burdening their exercise of religion using a means not rationally related to a legitimate governmental purpose; 2) to free exercise of religion under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb, by imposing a substantial burden on their practice of religion, in the absence of a compelling governmental interest and without using the least restrictive means of furthering a governmental interest; and 3) to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment by restricting their liberty interest in religious materials and items without affording plaintiffs the process due such deprivation. In addition, plaintiffs contend that defendants' regulations and policies restricting religious exercise are overbroad and facially invalid.

The case is before the court on the parties' cross motions for summary judgment. In an opinion entered June 23, 1995, Sasnett v. Department of Corrections, 891 F.Supp. 1305 (W.D.Wis.1995), I considered defendants' contention that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is unconstitutional and ruled that Congress did not overstep its constitutional bounds in passing the act. The parties now debate the proper interpretation and application of the act. Plaintiffs contend that the challenged regulations substantially burden their exercise of religion by preventing them from wearing crosses and possessing religious works beyond the twenty-five publication limit. Defendants argue that plaintiffs cannot meet the act's initial requirement of showing a substantial burden on their exercise of religion because plaintiffs cannot prove that their respective religions mandate the proscribed practices at issue. Plaintiffs contend that the act does not necessitate proof that their religious practices are mandated but requires only that the substantial burden fall on a practice that is sincere and religiously motivated. I conclude that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act calls for a religiously motivated standard but find that plaintiffs have met their burden on this point only with respect to the jewelry prohibition.

Defendants argue that they implemented the jewelry restriction to further the compelling state interests of prison safety, order and discipline and that the complete prohibition is the least restrictive means of achieving those goals. Plaintiffs contend that defendants' proffered aims are not compelling, that even if they are compelling, the regulation is not rationally related to furthering those goals and that the regulation is not the least restrictive means of achieving defendants' stated goals. I conclude that although defendants' stated goals are compelling, they have not chosen the least restrictive means of achieving them with respect to the jewelry regulation. I further conclude that plaintiffs' other claims do not afford them grounds for any additional relief. Accordingly, I will grant summary judgment for plaintiffs on the jewelry restriction and summary judgment for defendants on the publication limitation.

From the parties' proposed findings of fact, I find the following facts to be undisputed.

UNDISPUTED FACTS

Plaintiff Sylvester Sasnett is a prisoner at Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin; plaintiff Lonnie Smith is incarcerated at Fox Lake Correctional Institution in Fox Lake, Wisconsin; plaintiffs James Lowery and James Hadley are imprisoned at Waupun Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin. Plaintiff Barbara Miller has been an inmate at Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, from July 19, 1985 until present, except for the period between January 13, 1994 and January 19, 1995, when she was incarcerated at the Outagamie County jail in Appleton, Wisconsin. Plaintiffs are subject to the laws, rules, regulations and informal policies and procedures of the state of Wisconsin and its Department of Corrections. If plaintiffs violate these proscriptions, they are subject to discipline.

Defendant Michael Sullivan is Secretary of the Department of Corrections. Defendant Ken Sondalle is Administrator of the Division of Adult Institutions of the Department of Corrections. Defendants Jeffrey Endicott, Gary McCaughtry, Gerald Berge, and Kristine Krenke are the wardens of Columbia Correctional Institution, Waupun Correctional Institution, Fox Lake Correctional Institution, and Taycheedah Correctional Institution, respectively. All defendants are responsible for enforcing the rules, regulations, practices and procedures of the Department of Corrections and are sued in their official capacities.

The Department of Corrections and the individual correctional institutions regulate and restrict the possession and acquisition of inmates' personal property in several ways, including administrative rules promulgated pursuant to chapter 227 of the Wisconsin Statutes and published in the Wisconsin Administrative Code; emergency rules; internal management procedures, which are not promulgated according to statute and are not legislative rules of conduct; and institution handbooks provided to prisoners containing various rules, internal management procedures, policies and procedures.

In March 1988, a fire marshal from the Portage Fire Department conducted a fire inspection of Columbia Correctional Institution and recommended for fire protection that legal papers and storage in cells should be limited to a single 21" × 21" × 21" box. Columbia Correctional Institution adopted this recommendation in September 1988. Fire prevention aims to minimize the development and spread of a fire and is of particular importance to the safety of individuals, such as inmates, who cannot get away from a fire on their own. Fires spread faster when large amounts of paper are strewn about an area rather than stored in a container.

In January 1990, Sheldon Schall, Chief of Fire Protection for the Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations, conducted a comprehensive fire inspection of Waupun Correctional Institution, looking at the accumulation of combustible material in cells. During the inspection, Schall observed a significant number of cells presenting a great fire potential because of the amount of paper stored in the cell or the manner in which the paper was stored. Many cells contained bags or boxes of documents and magazines. Schall was concerned that the bags and boxes of paper throughout the cell would pose an obstacle to the prison staff's mobility when entering a cell for emergency purposes. In addition, he was concerned that the accumulation of paper in the cells would have a negative effect on the air exchange system, causing a build-up of smoke and toxic gases in the event of a fire. Schall recommended that to diminish the potential for a fire, allow for ease of mobility in a cell during an emergency and provide for proper air exchange, paper should be limited to an amount that could be stored in a 21" × 21" × 21" container. Schall recommended a container of that size because it could fit under a bunk while still providing reasonable room to store paper.

On or about May 13, 1991, defendant Gerald Berge, then Administrator of the Division of Adult Institutions, Department of Corrections, sent a memo to all wardens concerning inmates' possession of personal property and asked the wardens to respond to the issue of allowable property, including whether it was necessary to examine additional limits on that property. All wardens agreed that inmate property should be reviewed and limited in light of an increased inmate population, double celling and frequent inmate transfers.

On or about July 29, 1991, defendant Sondalle appointed an inmate property work group to review the wardens' responses and the department's inmate property procedures and to make specific...