Walters v. Edgar

• Decision Date: 28 August 1995
• Docket Number: No. 82 C 1920.,82 C 1920.
• Parties: Terrell WALTERS and Joseph Ganci, and All Others Similarly Situated, Plaintiffs, v. Governor James EDGAR, Odie Washington, Keith Cooper, Dwayne A. Clark, Sergio Molina, Glenn Johnson, Thomas Page, Richard Gramley, George de Tella, and Peter E. McElhinney, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

900 F. Supp. 197

Terrell WALTERS and Joseph Ganci, and All Others Similarly Situated, Plaintiffs, v. Governor James EDGAR, Odie Washington, Keith Cooper, Dwayne A. Clark, Sergio Molina, Glenn Johnson, Thomas Page, Richard Gramley, George de Tella, and Peter E. McElhinney, Defendants.

No. 82 C 1920.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

August 28, 1995.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

James P. Chapman, James P. Chapman & Assoc., Chicago, IL, Alan Mills, Chicago, IL, for plaintiffs.

Wallace Cyril Solberg, Ill. Atty. Gen. Office, Chicago, IL, Carol L. O'Brien, Ill. Dept. Corrections, Chicago, IL, for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

BUCKLO, District Judge.

In Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977), the Supreme Court reiterated that prisoners "beyond doubt . . . have a constitutional right of access to the courts." Id. at 821, 97 S.Ct. at 1494. The Court in Bounds held that prisons must provide inmates with adequate law libraries or "adequate assistance from persons trained in the law" for this right to be meaningful. Id. at 828, 97 S.Ct. at 1498. This case presents the question of whether the Illinois Department of Corrections can satisfy its constitutional obligation to provide meaningful access to the courts to inmates in segregation in maximum security prisons who have no direct access to library books, and at least one third of whom are unable to read or comprehend legal materials, through what is essentially a runner system by which inmates are provided books and materials at their request.

Plaintiffs Terrell Walters and Joseph Ganci brought this class action against Illinois state officials alleging that inmates in segregation in Illinois maximum security correctional facilities are not allowed access to any prison library and that the inmate law clerk system employed in lieu of library access denies plaintiffs reasonable access to the courts in violation of their constitutional rights. Judge James Moran, to whom this case was assigned originally, certified a class consisting of all persons who are presently or will be in segregation in the maximum security facilities of the Illinois Department of Corrections. The case was later assigned to me.¹

The trial in this case involved many witnesses from all five Illinois maximum security institutions as well as other officials from the Illinois Department of Corrections, non-employees, including experts in various fields and former officials, and inmates. Each side introduced hundreds of exhibits. The transcript covers some 6,000 pages. Following trial, the parties prepared proposed findings as well as supplemental briefs on various issues. There have been numerous supplemental hearings with regard to the evidence. The parties have also submitted additional evidence in response to questions raised during the trial and hearings, and during my consideration of the evidence.

This opinion constitutes my findings of fact and conclusions of law.^* For the most part, the evidence as to each institution will be considered separately. While the institutions have in common the fact that, as plaintiffs allege, no prisoner in segregation is allowed direct access to any library, there are numerous differences with respect to the substitute system in effect at each institution. Although each utilizes inmate law clerks to help prisoners, there are major differences in terms of the number of inmate law clerks assigned to help inmates in segregation and the type of help they provide.

At two of the institutions in this case, Joliet and Pontiac Correctional Centers, the evidence showed that inmates are unable to be assured of acquiring materials such as copies of cases despite changes made by defendants during the long course of this case. At both of these institutions, and at Menard Correctional Center, defendants failed to demonstrate that inmates who need assistance in preparing complaints or other pleadings will be provided that help. The evidence also showed that one third or more of the inmates in any Illinois prison are illiterate and unable to understand legal materials, and would be incapable without assistance of preparing a complaint that could withstand a motion to dismiss. I conclude that defendants are not providing inmates in segregation at Menard, Joliet or Pontiac Correctional Centers with reasonable access to the courts.

FINDINGS OF FACT^**

The Plaintiff Class

1. The class certified by Judge Moran in 1985 consisted of all persons who are presently or will be in segregation in the maximum security facilities of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Persons in segregation status include not only inmates sentenced or "assigned" to terms in segregation and who are in the segregation units of the various prison facilities, but also persons detained in segregation during an "investigation" into whether they have violated rules of the Department of Corrections and persons in segregation status who are physically confined in cells outside the segregation unit because of overcrowding.

2. After this case was reassigned to me, defendants sought modification of the class, arguing that prisoners with short stays in segregation would at most suffer a de minimis denial of their right of access to the courts. I agreed with defendants that a de minimis denial of access to the courts had not been accorded constitutional protection under prevailing authority² and proposed a tentative modification of the class to exclude such inmates, inviting responses from the parties. Plaintiffs responded, noting various problems with the proposed modification. I have concluded that modification would be practically impossible to manage. The evidence has shown that defendants' calculations of the time an inmate spends in segregation are not reliable. Furthermore, an attempt to limit the class to persons who were in, or expected to be in, segregation status for a specific period of time — for instance, 90 days — would require that prison personnel continually monitor such sentences for this specific purpose. Finally, as discussed below, the evidence indicates that, at least in the men's prisons, 85 percent of inmates placed in segregation remain there for 90 days or longer. Thus, the class will remain as it was originally certified by Judge Moran.

3. The male members of the class in this case are imprisoned at the Joliet Correctional Center, located in Joliet, Illinois; Stateville Correctional Center, also located in Joliet, Illinois;³ Pontiac Correctional Center, located in Pontiac, Illinois; and Menard Correctional Center, located in Chester, Illinois.

4. Each of these four institutions is classified as a maximum security prison, meaning that the inmates confined at these institutions are generally those who have been convicted of more serious offenses⁴ or have committed serious rule infractions since being confined.

5. The female members of the class are imprisoned at the Dwight Correctional Center, located in Dwight, Illinois. At the time this class was certified on August 8, 1985, Dwight contained minimum, medium, as well as maximum security units.

6. A few weeks before trial of this case commenced, the Illinois Department of Corrections established a minimum security institution for women at Kankakee, Illinois, and was gradually transferring women from Dwight to this new facility. In addition, some women in medium security classifications have been transferred from Dwight to Logan and Dixon Correctional Centers.

The Defendants

7. For purposes of injunctive and declaratory relief, the defendants are all sued in their official capacities. Plaintiffs' claims are therefore treated as claims against the State of Illinois. For simplicity, defendants will sometimes be referred to jointly as the "DOC."

Gangs

8. Richard Gramley, the Warden at Pontiac Correctional Center, testified that 80 percent of the inmates in Pontiac were gang-affiliated. Salvador Godinez, the Warden at Stateville Correctional Center, estimated that 95 percent of the inmates at Stateville were gang-affiliated. Gang members are allowed to hold jobs and a substantial portion of the inmates in segregation are gang members. Warden Gramley testified that he would not be surprised if inmates assigned to the law library were gang members and that there are no screening procedures in place to determine whether inmate law clerks are in fact gang-affiliated. Despite these facts, the evidence did not show that gang affiliation plays a part in the decisions of inmate law clerks to provide materials or assistance to an inmate. There was also no evidence to the contrary. There was evidence that at least one of the named plaintiffs is gang-affiliated, and it may be assumed that most of the inmates who testified have some gang affiliation in light of the substantial percentages of inmate gang affiliations noted by the wardens in this case. The problem of gang affiliation is relevant to the need for supervision of inmate law clerks and the need for procedures to ensure that any inmate requesting assistance has access to lay personnel as well as inmates.

Confinement of Inmates To Segregation

9. Segregation is a "jail within a jail." Inmates are confined to segregation when they violate DOC disciplinary rules, which may range from infractions such as insolence to a correctional officer to serious violent offenses such as physical attacks on guards or other inmates. The purpose of segregation is threefold: to separate the inmates, to punish the inmates, and to deter other inmates.

10. An inmate charged with violating a disciplinary rule is served with a Disciplinary Report, which states the alleged violation. The charge is then heard by the Institutional Adjustment Committee, the members of which are DOC employees. The Committee recommends a punishment, which may include demotion in grade (i.e., deprivation of certain privileges such...