U.S. v. State of Mich., s. 93-1222
| Decision Date | 04 March 1994 |
| Docket Number | 93-1810,Nos. 93-1222,s. 93-1222 |
| Citation | 18 F.3d 348 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. STATE OF MICHIGAN; John Engler; Michigan Department of Corrections; Gwen Andrew; Thomas Eardley; Duane L. Waters; Don P. LeDuc; Kenneth L. McGinnis; Dan Bolden; John Jabe; Pamela Withrow; John Hawley; James Pogats; Jack Bergman, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
William L. Fette, American Civil Liberties Fund of Michigan, Kalamazoo, MI, Delmer C. Gowing, III, Ocean Ridge, FL, Elizabeth R. Alexander, Chief Staff Counsel, Washington, DC, Alan M. Gershal, Asst. U.S. Atty., Office of the U.S. Atty., Detroit, MI, for Gary Knop.
Patricia A. Streeter, Detroit, MI, William L. Fette, American Civil Liberties Fund of Michigan, Kalamazoo, MI, Elizabeth R. Alexander, Chief Staff Counsel, Washington, DC, for remaining amici curiae.
Lisa J. Stark (argued & briefed), Susan D. Carle, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civ. Rights Div., Appellate Section, Arthur E. Peabody, Jr., Chief, William Bradford Reynolds, Asst. Atty. Gen., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Sp. Litigation Section, Washington, DC, John A. Smietanka, U.S. Atty., Office of the U.S. Atty., Grand Rapids, MI, for U.S.
Barbara A. Schmidt, Susan Przekop-Shaw (argued & briefed), Office of the Atty. Gen., Corrections Div., Lansing, MI, for State of Mich. in No. 93-1222.
Frank J. Kelley, Office of Atty. Gen., Appellate Div., Barbara A. Schmidt, Susan Przekop-Shaw (argued & briefed), Office of the Atty. Gen., Corrections Div., Lansing, MI, for defendants-appellants in No. 93-1810.
Before: KEITH and RYAN, Circuit Judges, and JOHNSTONE, Senior District Judge. *
The United States filed this case to require the State of Michigan to bring the conditions in several Michigan prisons up to constitutional standards. In 1984, the United States and Michigan agreed to a consent decree, which was entered by the district court. In April 1992, the parties filed a joint motion requesting that the court dismiss portions of the consent decree because Michigan had substantially complied with the terms of the decree and because all but one of the disputed conditions had been brought into compliance with constitutional standards. The parties requested that the consent decree remain in place with respect to mental health issues, which were still in dispute. The district court refused to adopt the parties' stipulation in its entirety, and the State of Michigan appeals that decision.
The issue for decision is whether the district court was bound to act in conformance with the stipulation of the parties. We hold that it was not, and affirm.
This case has already made one trip to the Sixth Circuit, and the general background facts are succinctly set forth in this court's prior opinion. We will not repeat them here. See United States v. Michigan, 940 F.2d 143 (6th Cir.1991). Instead, we recount only the facts necessary to our decision.
The consent decree entered by the court sets forth broad, generalized goals for Michigan to meet in each of five areas. The decree also references a "state plan" for achieving these goals:
H. Defendants have developed their own comprehensive plan, entitled "State Plan for Compliance" (State Plan), specifying measures they intend to take at [the subject prisons] in order to assure constitutional conditions therein, and to address a number of other matters designed to improve conditions of confinement. Defendants intend to fully implement the State Plan unless implementation is excused or modified in accordance with the terms of this Decree. A copy of the State Plan is attached to this Decree as Exhibit A.
I. Implementation of the various provisions of the State Plan will be adequate to bring Defendants into full compliance and thereby satisfy the terms and provisions of this Decree. The Court shall be advised as to each failure to comply with the provisions of the State Plan and, on request of either party or on the Court's own motion, a hearing may be held as to the constitutional implications of said failure and Defendants' non-compliance. Nothing in this Decree shall be interpreted as requiring Defendants to specifically comply with any State law, or any other provision of the State Plan that does not implicate constitutional rights of inmates.
J. Defendants shall report to the Court and to the United States any time they intend to modify their Plan, and shall advise the Court and the United States, by legal memoranda, whether the modification sought raises constitutional issues.
After several years of monitoring, compliance hearings, and an appeal to this court, the parties filed a joint motion on April 29, 1992, to dismiss portions of the consent decree. In the motion, the parties stated that they "agree that Defendants are in substantial compliance, and have achieved the goals of the Decree by assuring at least constitutional conditions" with respect to all disputed conditions except mental health care. According to paragraph R of the consent decree, however, termination was an all or nothing matter:
R. After Defendants have complied with all of the terms of this Decree, Defendants may apply to terminate the jurisdiction of this Court.
Consequently, the joint motion also requested that the district court amend paragraph R to read:
Termination of the Court's jurisdiction may be sought by either party as to any provision of the Decree when Defendants are in compliance with constitutional requirements.
The joint motion was accompanied by a stipulation to dismiss all issues except those relating to the mental health of the inmates.
The district court entered its first opinion and order with respect to the joint motion on July 2, 1992. The district court refused to adopt the amendment proposed by the parties to the termination clause of the decree. While the court was willing to dismiss portions of the decree on a piecemeal basis, it felt that the language proposed by the parties substituted compliance with the Constitution for compliance with the consent decree. The court's order vacated paragraph R of the decree and allowed piecemeal dismissal of the decree provided the State complied with the pertinent terms of the decree.
The court next refused to dismiss any portion of the decree without receiving an updated report on the status of compliance. To that end, the court ordered a review by the independent expert assigned to monitor the consent decree. The expert was directed to develop a list of the various provisions of the decree and determine whether each provision had been complied with. The expert was also asked to determine the relationship, if any, between provisions for which there was compliance and those where compliance had not been achieved.
The court's order explicitly declined to dismiss the portions of the consent decree related to medical care because the court found that these provisions were inextricably linked to the mental health requirements such that the two should be reviewed together. The court also specified that the first round of compliance investigations should relate only to the Marquette Branch Prison and the Michigan Reformatory. The court judicially noticed that the State was in the process of implementing the final round of changes at the State Prison of Southern Michigan required by the consent decree in a prisoner civil rights case known as Hadix v. Johnson, 694 F.Supp. 259 (E.D.Mich.1988). The court felt that the implementation of these requirements might warrant dismissal of various provisions of the United States v. Michigan decree in favor of the Hadix decree. The court concluded its order by stating:
Following receipt of the Independent Expert's Report and the comments by the parties and amici, and following a hearing if necessary, the Court will enter an order dismissing jurisdiction over provisions where compliance has been achieved. If provisions remain where compliance has not been achieved, the Court will entertain motions with respect to those provisions, which may include motions to modify the Decree based on the parties' positions concerning constitutional requirements.
With this background in mind, we now reach the subject of the first notice of appeal to this court, an appeal from a December 1, 1992, opinion and order of the district court granting portions of the parties' joint motion and deferring decision on the balance of the motion. The district court issued this opinion and order after receiving the requested reports from the expert. The court's opinion addressed the terms of the state plan attached to the consent decree. The court found that there had been compliance with selected portions of the state plan concerning 1) sanitation, safety, and health; 2) fire safety; and 3) overcrowding and protection from harm, and therefore "dismissed" those portions of the state plan.
The court declined, however, to dismiss any of the portions of the decree concerning access to courts. The court believed that a new state plan was required in light of this court's decisions in the consolidated appeal of Knop v. Johnson and Hadix v. Johnson, 977 F.2d 996 (6th Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1415, 122 L.Ed.2d 786 (1993). In that opinion, this court held that meaningful access to the courts may require more than simply law books and simplified pleading forms....
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Hadix v. Johnson
...against direct legislative suspension and to fulfill its "obligation to exercise its jurisdiction meaningfully," United States v. Michigan, 18 F.3d 348, 352 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 925, 115 S.Ct. 312, 130 L.Ed.2d 275 By preserving the federal courts' ability to suspend the automa......
-
U.S. v. State of Mich.
...empowered, but is actually obligated, to exercise its independent judgment regarding compliance with a decree." United States v. Michigan, 18 F.3d 348, 351 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 115 S. Ct. 312 "'[A] court has an affirmative duty to protect the integrity of its [consent] decree. This dut......
-
Glover v. Johnson, 77-CV-71229.
...in each program in each case. In making this judgment and adopting this approach, I have followed the teaching of U.S. v. State of Mich., 18 F.3d 348 (6th Cir.1994). The procedure for the determination of finality, as outlined in that case, is a method for reaching a balance in these The pl......
-
Woods v. Lecureux
...(6th Cir. July 3, 1996); United States v. Michigan, Nos. 94-2391, 95-1258, 1995 WL 469430 (6th Cir. Aug. 7, 1995); United States v. Michigan, 18 F.3d 348 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 925, 115 S.Ct. 312, 130 L.Ed.2d 275 (1994); United States v. Michigan, 940 F.2d 143 (6th Appellant cit......