U.S. v. State of Mich.

Citation940 F.2d 143
Decision Date02 July 1991
Docket Number90-1367 and 90-1537,Nos. 90-1366,s. 90-1366
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. STATE OF MICHIGAN, James J. Blanchard, Governor of the State of Michigan, the Michigan Corrections Commission, Gwen Andrew, Chairman, Michigan Corrections Commission, Thomas Eardley, Dwayne Waters, Don P. Leduc, Members, Michigan Corrections Commission, Michigan Department of Corrections, Perry Johnson, Director, Michigan Department of Corrections, Robert Brown, Jr., Deputy Director, Michigan Department of Corrections, Dale Foltz, Regional Administrator, State Prison of Southern Michigan, John Jabe, Warden, Michigan Reformatory, Theodore Koehler, Warden, Marquette Branch Prison, John Prelesnik, Administrator, Reception and Guidance Center, State Prison of Southern Michigan, and Jack Bergman, Administrator, Michigan Intensive Programming Center, Defendants-Appellants.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

William L. Fette, American Civil Liberties Fund of Michigan, Kalamazoo, Mich., Elizabeth R. Alexander (argued), Chief Staff Counsel, National Prison Project, Washington, D.C., Patricia A. Streeter, Detroit, Mich., for appellees.

Patricia L. Blake, Detroit, Mich., Susan Przekop-Shaw (argued), Office of Atty. Gen., Corrections Div., Lansing, Mich., David K. Flynn, Marie K. McElderry, John R. Dunne, Susan D. Carle (argued), U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civil Rights Div., Appellate Section, Washington, D.C., Arthur E. Peabody, Jr., Chief, William Bradford Reynolds, Asst. Atty. Gen., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Litigation Section, John A. Smietanka, U.S. Atty., Office of the U.S. Atty., Grand Rapids, Mich., for U.S.

Michael Barnhart, Patricia A. Streeter, Barnhart & Mirer, Detroit, Mich., for amicus curiae Hadix, et al.

Richard M.C. Adams, Asst. Atty. Gen., Susan Przekop-Shaw (argued), Corrections Div., Donald S. McGehee, Office of the Atty. Gen., Tort Defense Div., Thomas C. Nelson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Office of the Atty. Gen., Habeas Div., Lansing, Mich., for defendants-appellants.

Before KRUPANSKY and BOGGS, Circuit Judges, and CELEBREZZE, Senior Circuit Judge.

KRUPANSKY, Circuit Judge.

The five orders of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan dated November 3, 1989, November 6, 1989, two on January 24, 1990, and April 4, 1990, presently under appellate review, had their common genesis in the ongoing implementation of a consent decree approved by the court on July 16, 1984 resolving a case initiated by the plaintiff-appellee United States of America (United States) against the defendants-appellants State of Michigan, et al. (Michigan), pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1997 et seq.

In the first order, issued on November 3, 1989 the district court rejected Michigan's proposed inmate classification plan, including its validation of compliance procedures, dated June 3, 1988, and directed the state to submit, by not later than April 2, 1990, a revised professionally-based classification plan that incorporated court-substituted compliance procedures. The court-dictated compliance procedures detailed the content, nature, and extent of the plan that would satisfy the requirements of the July 16, 1984 consent decree. On November 6, 1989, the district court also mandated the development of "a plan [by Michigan] illustrating how they plan to manage the correctional population projected by their research division." United States v. Michigan, No. G84-63 CA at 3 (W.D.Mich. Nov. 6, 1989) (order) [hereinafter Nov. 6 Order]. Michigan moved for reconsideration of the November 3 and 6 decisions, which the district court denied in an order issued on January 24, 1990. The district court declared the two orders "final orders for the purposes of appeal." United States v. Michigan, No. G84-63 CA at 5 (W.D.Mich. Jan. 24, 1989) (order denying motion to modify or set aside Nov. 3 and 6 orders) [hereinafter Jan. 24 Order Denying Motion to Modify]. All three orders were timely appealed by Michigan and assigned case number 90-1366 for appellate review.

Also on January 24, 1990, in a separate, concurrent order, the district court amplified and extended its two previous orders entered on November 3 and 6, 1989 by directing an annual projection of the state's prison population to the year 2000 to be "developed by an independent contractor, and not by the Department of Corrections or by employees of the State of Michigan.... The contractor ... and the scope of service must be approved by the Court following notice to the plaintiff and amici." United States v. Michigan, No. G84-63 CA at 30-31 (W.D.Mich. Jan. 24, 1990) (contempt order) [hereinafter Jan. 24 Contempt Order]. In the same entry, the district court adjudged Michigan in contempt of two previous orders dated March 31, 1988 and September 28, 1988. This decision was appealed on February 22, 1990 and was assigned appellate number 90-1367.

The fifth judgment on appeal was issued April 4, 1990. To further support the validation procedure addressed by its order of January 24, 1990, in conjunction with its findings of contempt, the trial court modified the consent decree and state plan of July 16, 1984 by mandating the disclosure of privileged medical/mental health/dental care internal peer audits in lieu of summaries thereof. That related appeal was designated as case number 90-1537.

On June 29, 1990, this court granted a temporary stay of execution of the orders dated November 3 and 6, 1989, and January 24, 1990, which stay, following a hearing on July 27, 1990, was continued pending further order. On September 7, 1990, this court granted a temporary stay of execution of the April 4, 1990 order. 1 Because of their common origins in the July 16, 1984 consent decree, the five orders were consolidated into one appeal. Oral arguments were entertained by this court on September 19, 1990.

For purposes of orientation, the evolution of this proceeding may be briefly summarized by an overview of the events that gave rise to this case. In January of 1984, the United States filed a complaint against Michigan pursuant to CRIPA, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1997, 2 in which it alleged that Michigan violated the eighth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution by perpetuating conditions and practices which constituted cruel and unusual punishment at the State Prison of Southern Michigan (including the Reception and Guidance Center), the Michigan Reformatory, and the Marquette Branch Prison (including the Michigan Intensive Programming Center) (collectively "the subject prisons") in the following manner:

18. The subject prisons fail to provide and maintain basic elements of a safe and sanitary physical and environmental plant (including fire safety) for the inmates.

19. The subject prisons fail to provide medical services (including services for suicidal, psychotic, and self-mutilating inmates) minimally necessary to meet the inmates' serious needs, where the failure to provide such care manifests a deliberate indifference to these needs.

20. The subject prisons fail to protect inmates from harm, including harm from increased violence and serious threats to health associated with overcrowding.

Complaint at 5, United States v. Michigan, No. G84-63 CA (W.D.Mich. filed Jan. 18, 1984) (emphasis added).

The United States also charged that Michigan had violated the guarantees of the first, sixth, and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution by depriving inmates access to the courts in that the subject prisons (1) failed to provide inmates access by mail to their attorneys, to courts, and to government officials, and (2) failed to provide inmates sufficient access to law library resources and/or legal assistance. The United States petitioned for preliminary and permanent injunctive relief.

On January 18, 1984, contemporaneously with the filing of the complaint, the United States moved the trial court to enter a judgment memorializing an agreement and a plan of implementation between it and Michigan that, to the full satisfaction of the United States, corrected the totality of the conditions which anchored its constitutional infringement charges.

On February 24, 1984, prior to the hearing on the consent decree, the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (NPP-ACLU) and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Michigan (ACLUFM) requested leave to "intervene" as "litigating amici curiae" with the full litigating rights of a named party to the controversy. On March 23, 1984, before the entry of the consent decree, the district court denied the motions of the NPP-ACLU and the ACLUFM for "litigating status," and the motion of the "Hadix class" of prisoners for intervention pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 24, 3 but permitted their appearance in the traditional role of amici to address, by brief and oral argument, the proposed consent decree. United States v. Michigan, 680 F.Supp. 928, 935-43 (W.D.Mich.1987) (order granting amicus curiae status). The court also ordered the real parties in interest, the United States and Michigan, to redraft their agreement to conform with various court suggestions as a condition to endorsing and adopting the consent decree as its judgment. Id. at 945-49 (order rejecting proposed consent decree). A hearing on the revised agreement was scheduled for June 22, 1984.

Early in June 1984, the NPP-ACLU and the ACLUFM filed a 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 class action styled Knop v. Johnson, Civ. No. G84-651-CA5 (W.D.Mich.) that challenged many of the same conditions of confinement in Michigan prisons as those already challenged by the United States in the instant case. See Knop v. Johnson, 667 F.Supp. 467 (W.D.Mich.1987). Sometime subsequent to initiating its class action, the Knop class, with the approval of the district court, replaced the NPP-ACLU and the ACLUFM as amicus curiae...

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