Union County Jail Inmates v. Scanlon

• Decision Date: 27 April 1982
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 81-863.
• Citation: 537 F. Supp. 993
• Parties: UNION COUNTY JAIL INMATES, Timmie Lee Barlow, et al., Plaintiffs, v. James SCANLON, Thomas Jefferson, etc. et al., Defendants, v. William H. FAUVER, Commissioner, Department of Corrections, Third-Party Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

537 F. Supp. 993

UNION COUNTY JAIL INMATES, Timmie Lee Barlow, et al., Plaintiffs, v. James SCANLON, Thomas Jefferson, etc. et al., Defendants, v. William H. FAUVER, Commissioner, Department of Corrections, Third-Party Defendant.

Civ. No. 81-863.

United States District Court, D. New Jersey.

April 27, 1982.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Stanley C. Van Ness, New Jersey Public Defender by T. Gary Mitchell, Trenton, N. J., for plaintiffs.

Robert C. Doherty, County Counsel, County of Union, Elizabeth, N. J., for defendants.

Irwin I. Kimmelman, Atty. Gen. of New Jersey by Joseph T. Maloney, Deputy Atty. Gen., Trenton, N. J., for third-party defendant.

OPINION

HAROLD A. ACKERMAN, District Judge.

It is no secret that crime is one of the most serious problems facing this country. People properly perceive it as a disease of epidemic proportions affecting the very well-being of society.¹ It is understandable that the public, acting through its appointed and elected representatives, has attempted to respond forcefully by apprehending, prosecuting, convicting, and in appropriate circumstances, incarcerating the perpetrators of crime.

Incarceration, especially for violent criminals, is increasingly considered to be the appropriate response to criminal behavior.² For this reason, the legislatures of many jurisdictions have reacted to this epidemic through the passage of new laws significantly stiffening penalties to be meted out to offenders and adjusting parole guidelines. New Jersey is no exception. The new criminal code has already had an appreciable impact on the number and length of incarcerative sentences.³

As an inevitable consequence of this war on crime, there has been an enormous increase in the population of correctional facilities in this country.⁴ Again, New Jersey is no exception.⁵ The erection of new correctional facilities to accommodate the increased jail and prison populations has been urged by many responsible leaders including Chief Justice Warren E. Burger.⁶ To date, new construction has not kept pace with the demand for prison space.

Institutions have become not just crowded but overcrowded. The reduced habitability of correctional facilities has in turn spawned a flood of lawsuits by prisoners in the federal courts.⁷ The complaints alleging violations of the United States Constitution paint an egregious picture of the conditions of confinement in both state and federal institutions. The allegations implicate the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments with respect to the confinement of those who stand accused but who are not free on bail (pretrial detainees). They raise Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment issues with respect to sentenced offenders. These amendments protect, respectively, pretrial detainees from subjection to punishment without due process, Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979), and sentenced persons from subjection to cruel and unusual punishment, Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981). Courts, while being sensitive to the public desire to incarcerate criminals, must, when called upon, examine the conditions of incarceration because "people are sent to prison as punishment, not for punishment."⁸

This action involves the overcrowded conditions at the Union County Jail ("UCJ"). The plaintiffs, represented by the New Jersey Public Defender,⁹ brought suit a year ago against the Union County officials who administer the UCJ (hereinafter referred to collectively as the "County").¹⁰ The County, alleging that the overcrowded condition of the UCJ is caused in whole or in part by the refusal of the New Jersey Department of Corrections to remove those UCJ inmates who have been sentenced to state prison terms, has impleaded as a third-party defendant, William H. Fauver, Commissioner of the Department of Corrections. Everyone agrees that the UCJ is overcrowded. The only issue in this case is whether the conditions in the jail have fallen below the standards constitutionally mandated. I find that they have.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

This case has taken a unique procedural path. On October 22, 1981, the Public Defender and the County submitted to the Court for its approval a stipulation of settlement which provided, inter alia, for a population cap in the UCJ of 238.¹¹ The settlement was approved and entered into the record as a consent judgment. The third-party defendant was not a party to that settlement. Subsequently, the County sought a preliminary injunction compelling the Commissioner to withdraw immediately those UCJ inmates sentenced to state prison terms in order to enable the County to comply with the settlement agreement. In response to the request, the Commissioner moved to vacate the consent judgment asserting that the County was without the authority to have entered into it under the terms of Governor Byrne's Executive Orders Nos. 106 and 108, dated June 19, 1981 and September 11, 1981. Those Executive Orders declared a state of emergency in the state prison system due to overcrowding, suspended the operation of N.J.S.A. 2C:4310(e) which mandated the removal of state sentenced inmates within 15 days of sentencing, and granted to the Commissioner authority to designate the place of confinement of any state or county inmate.

In order to avoid a potential confrontation between the state executive government and the federal judiciary, I stayed the hearing on the County's order to show cause and the Commissioner's motion to vacate the consent judgment. At that time, the appeal of a decision by the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey upholding the Governor's orders was pending before the New Jersey Supreme Court. On January 6, 1982, the appeal was decided. Worthington v. Fauver, 88 N.J. 183, 440 A.2d 1128 (1982). In Worthington, Justice Pashman, writing for a unanimous court, held that the executive orders were a valid exercise of the power delegated to the Governor under the Civil Defense and Disaster Control Act. The Court also held that they did not violate the state constitutional doctrine of separation of powers, and that the Commissioner's action in designating the county jails as the place of confinement of state sentenced inmates currently housed there was not arbitrary or capricious.¹²

On January 20, 1982, counsel for all of the parties in this litigation were heard on the previously stayed motions, as well as on a motion made by the County to vacate the consent judgment, and on plaintiffs' motion that the County be found in contempt for failure to abide by the terms of the consent judgment. On January 29, 1982, I denied the third-party defendant's motion to vacate the consent order. Consideration of the other motions was deferred. At that time, I determined that a Special Master should be appointed pursuant to Fed.R. Civ.P. 53 to undertake a thorough examination of the conditions in the UCJ and to investigate the extent of the County's compliance with the consent judgment.¹³ The Special Master, the Hon. Worrall F. Mountain, filed his report with the Court on February 26, 1982.¹⁴ Objections were duly filed by the Commissioner and a hearing was held on March 25, 1982. I must now decide whether to accept, reject or modify the Special Master's report. Fed.R.Civ.P. 53(e)(2). For the reasons which I will articulate infra, I have determined that his findings of fact should be adopted. I will also accept, with certain specific modifications, the proposed conclusions of law. The remedy outlined by the Special Master will be followed in all material respects.

FINDINGS OF FACT OF SPECIAL MASTER

Rule 53(e)(2) sets forth the standard of review to be applied to a master's findings of fact: "In an action to be tried without a jury the court shall accept the master's findings of fact unless clearly erroneous." See also Kyriazi v. Western Electric Co., 647 F.2d 388, 396 (3d Cir. 1981). The findings of the Special Master therefore carry a presumption of correctness. The burden is on an objector to overcome that presumption. See Halderman v. Pennhurst State School and Hospital, 533 F.Supp. 661 (E.D.Pa.1982). However, such a presumption does not apply to the conclusions of law proposed by the Special Master. I may not abdicate my responsibility to make a legal determination as to the constitutional significance of the facts as found. See Polin v. Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., 634 F.2d 1319, 1321 (10th Cir. 1980).

The Special Master's findings of fact show the following: The UCJ is an aging eight-story facility located in the urban center of Elizabeth, New Jersey. As a county jail, it houses pretrial detainees and persons sentenced within the county to terms of less than one year. N.J.S.A. 2C:43-10(c). Persons sentenced to terms of one year or more normally may be housed at the UCJ for up to 15 days before they are transferred to a state facility, but under the declared state of emergency, they are being housed at the UCJ until the Commissioner determines otherwise.

The daily population of the UCJ has averaged well over 300 inmates for the last several months. On February 8, 1982, the date the Special Master toured the facility, there were 350 inmates housed at the UCJ, of whom 92 were awaiting transfer to state prisons. On February 15, 1982, there were 359 inmates, of whom 81 were awaiting transfer. On February 24, 1982, the total population at the UCJ was 385, of whom 101 were awaiting transfer to state facilities. At the hearing on the objections to the Special Master's report, counsel for the County defendants stated that the UCJ population as of March 24, 1982, was 362 inmates of whom 97 were state sentenced inmates. As of the week of April 19, 1982, the population had risen to 392, of whom 115 were state sentenced inmates. See Affidavit of Gary Mitchell, filed April 22, 1982.

It can be calculated from the facts adduced by the Special Master with respect to the jail population on February 15, 1982, that pretrial...