United States v. Rundle
| Decision Date | 08 November 1967 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 43741. |
| Citation | 276 F. Supp. 637 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America ex rel. Albert RAYMOND v. Alfred T. RUNDLE, Superintendent, State Correctional Institution, Graterford, Pennsylvania. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Melvine M. Dildine, Defender Assn. of Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiff.
Welsh S. White, Asst. Dist. Atty., Philadelphia, Pa., for defendant.
Pursuant to an order of this Court dated the 9th of October, 1967, a hearing was held in the United States Court House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 31, 19671 in which plaintiff, a prisoner under sentence of death sought to enjoin respondent from (a) denying him the use of his personal funds held in a prison savings account to purchase legal materials, copies of his indictment, etc., (b) denying him his statutorily-guaranteed exercise privileges, and (c) curtailing his visitation rights.
The issue presented common to all three allegations is whether the prison regulations and/or policies complained of cause plaintiff to be deprived of "any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws * * *." 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983.
It has been held by this Court that Federal courts will not interfere with uniformly applied prison regulations designed to achieve discipline indispensable to orderly operation of state penal institutions. United States ex rel. Wakeley v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 247 F.Supp. 7 (E.D.Pa.1965). It was recognized in that case that the exercise of many of our rights long freely enjoyed by non-prisoners may be abridged in a prison environment when such exercise would pose a threat to internal discipline. But it was also significantly noted that while discipline is essential and certain rights might be curtailed in order to achieve it, the circumscription must always reasonably relate to the maintenance of prison discipline and never be rather an arbitrary and capricious disregard of human rights. United States ex rel. Wakeley, supra.
Specifically, as to the visitation rights, it was brought out at the hearing that while plaintiff doesn't enjoy the same visitation rights as other prisoners, this is not peculiar only to him, but standard practice as regards all similarly situated capital inmates. The reason asserted for the rule is lack of personnel to supervise the visits to prisoners under sentence of death. It appears, and quite reasonably so, that capital prisoners necessarily, by their very nature, require more supervision than others.
Defendant asserted during the hearing that plainti...
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Stokes v. Hurdle
...501 F.2d 585, 588 (4th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 925, 95 S.Ct. 1120, 43 L. Ed.2d 394 (1975); United States ex rel. Raymond v. Rundle, 276 F.Supp. 637, 638 (E.D.Pa.1967). The prison officials, of course, have a great interest in maintaining prison order and discipline among the inma......
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Sostre v. Rockefeller
...v. Pegelow, 313 F.2d 548, 551 (4th Cir.1963); Gallego v. United States, 276 F.2d 914 (9th Cir.1960); United States ex rel. Raymond v. Rundle, 276 F.Supp. 637, 638 (E.D.Pa.1967); United States ex rel. Hancock v. Pate, 223 F.Supp. 202, 205 (N.D.Ill.1963); cf. Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. ......
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...constitutional right to visitation from his sisters. Walker v. Pate, 356 F.2d 502 (C.A. 7th Cir. 1966); United States ex rel. Raymond v. Rundle, 276 F.Supp. 637 (U.S.D.C.E.D.Pa. 1967). This does not completely answer the question, however, as a deprivation of some right or interest not nece......
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Tunnell v. Robinson, Civ. A. No. 79-361.
...to achieve discipline, and which are indispensable to the orderly operation of state penal institutions. United States ex rel. Raymond v. Rundle, 276 F.Supp. 637 (D.C.Pa., 1967). As for the plaintiff's efforts to stretch prisoner civil rights into the realm of rehabilitation programs, perio......