Walters v. Thompson
| Decision Date | 08 August 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 82 C 1920.,82 C 1920. |
| Citation | 615 F. Supp. 330 |
| Parties | Terrell WALTERS, Joseph Ganci, and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. Governor James THOMPSON, Michael Lane, Daniel C. Bosse, J.W. Fairman, Henry E. Cowans, Marvin D. Shields, Donald Cartwright, James Thieret, James Chrans, Michael O'Leary, Jim Edgar, and Peter E. McElhinney, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Shelly Bannister, Margaret Byrne, Bannister & Byrne, Alan Mills, Uptown Peoples Law Center, James P. Chapman, James P. Chapman & Associates, Ltd., Chicago, Ill., for plaintiffs.
Joseph F. Spitzzeri, Asst. Atty. Gen., State of Ill., Neil F. Hartigan, Atty. Gen., Chicago, Ill., for defendants.
Plaintiffs Walters and Ganci are inmates in the segregation units of the Menard Correctional Center and the Joliet Correctional Center, respectively. They claim that defendants have denied them meaningful access to the courts. The focus of their complaint is two policies of the State Department of Corrections. First, plaintiffs allege that they have no physical access to their prison law libraries. Second, they also challenge the adequacy of the training, supervision and support given inmate clerks who provide plaintiffs with indirect access to the law libraries.
This case has had a somewhat curious history. It was originally brought pro se by Walters, raising five claims. Three were dismissed early in 1984, leaving two issues relating to legal research and legal papers pending. Thereafter Ganci joined as a plaintiff and they sought to represent a class restricted to the Joliet Correctional Center segregation unit. Walters was thereafter transferred to Menard, and counsel subsequently broadened the attack to include other segregation units in the state system.
The plaintiffs now seek to bring this action on behalf of a class of adult inmates housed in the segregation units of Illinois' maximum security institutions, who allegedly are being denied meaningful access to the courts as a result of defendants' policies. Plaintiffs seek injunctive relief on behalf of themselves and the class, and damages on behalf of themselves. Before the court are motions for class certification, for issuance of a preliminary injunction on the pleadings, and several subsidiary motions.
The class certification decision is made without reference to the merits of the case. Plaintiffs bear the burden of establishing the suitability of a class action. Eggleston v. Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local Union No. 130, 657 F.2d 890, 895 (7th Cir.1981), cert. denied 455 U.S. 1017, 102 S.Ct. 1710, 72 L.Ed.2d 134 (1982). There are four prerequisites to the maintenance of a class action under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. First, the class must be so numerous that joinder is impractical. Second, there must be issues of fact or law common to all class members. Third, the claims or defenses of the representative parties must be typical of those of the class. Fourth, the plaintiffs must be a fair and adequate class representative. See generally Dos Santos v. Columbus-Cuneo-Cabrini Medical Center, 684 F.2d 1346, 1349 (7th Cir.1982).
The proposed class easily satisfies the numerosity requirement. While discovery is not complete, it is evident that hundreds of inmates are housed in segregation units at all times (pl. reply brief, exh. 7). Further, a substantial proportion of those inmates housed in segregation stay there for lengthy periods (id. exh. 8). Finally, it may be appropriate to include future inmates in class actions challenging prison conditions, see Ahrens v. Thomas, 570 F.2d 286, 288 (8th Cir.1978), further increasing the size of the class. Even if the size of the putative class is discounted by the percentage of inmates not involved in legal proceedings, the number of inmates in the class is still substantial. Moreover, it is improper to limit the class to only those inmates currently pursuing legal actions. Inmates who have a claim but are unable to formulate a complaint due to restrictions on their access to legal materials are as much denied meaningful access to the courts as inmates who are already involved in a lawsuit.
The commonalty requirement is satisfied by a question of law or fact common to all class members. Faheem-El v. Klincar, 600 F.Supp. 1029, 1037 (N.D.Ill.1984). This case presents two interrelated and overriding common questions: first, whether preventing segregated inmates from having direct physical access to the law library denies them meaningful access to the courts and, second, whether the systematic reliance on inmate clerks to provide segregated inmates with indirect access to the law library is a constitutionally adequate substitute for direct access to the law library.
Plaintiffs' case is very simple. It rests on the position that defendants have denied segregated inmates meaningful access to the courts by failing to provide either direct access to the law library or any of the alternatives to direct library access outlined in Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977). Thus, defendants' argument that the length of time an inmate spends in segregation may determine whether meaningful access has been denied is well taken but premature. At this point plaintiffs are arguing that for any period both the denial of direct library access and the reliance on ill-trained inmate clerks are constitutionally repugnant. If, after discovery, this position is shown to be too ambitious, this court has sufficient discretion to tailor the class.
Similarly, it appears that segregated inmates in some facilities such as Stateville and perhaps Menard may have some, albeit limited, access to the prison library. Plaintiffs, however, complain that even inmates in these institutions do not have open stack privileges but must rely upon a guard to bring books to them in a cage built in the library. They also complain that the administration of the library systems in these institutions is characterized by favoritism and inefficiency, severely curtailing library access for some inmates. Factual differences do not doom a class action where there is a common legal question faced by all class members. Here, the particulars of each segregated inmate's access to legal resources falls into several easily discernible institutional patterns and these patterns in turn present common legal questions. If necessary, the scope of the class can later be limited. While the factual development of conditions at Stateville and Pontiac is sketchy, the defendants have made it evident that the systems have substantial similarities and are responsive to departmentwide policy.
The typicality requirement is satisfied if the named representative's claims have the same essential characteristics as the claims of the class at large. De La Fuente v. Stokely-Van Camp, Inc., 713 F.2d 225, 232 (7th Cir.1983). Plaintiffs claim they are being denied meaningful access to the courts by defendants' refusal to provide them with direct access to the prison libraries and by defendants' use of allegedly ill-trained, inadequately supervised, outnumbered, and dependent inmate law clerks. This legal theory is common to all members of the class and overrides any factual distinctions between the claims of the plaintiffs and those of the class members. Id.
The adequacy of the class representative "turns on the proposed representative's interest in the outcome and the capability of his counsel." Lewis v. Tully, 99 F.R.D. 632, 644 (N.D.Ill.1983). Plaintiffs have every likelihood of being confined in segregation until well after the conclusion of even the most protracted lawsuit. Their pursuit of this lawsuit will alone ensure that they share an interest with other inmates in segregation in seeking greater access to legal resources. Plaintiffs' counsel are obviously capable.
Defendants also argue that class certification is inappropriate here because plaintiffs' claims have been or are being addressed in other litigation. In Hanrahan v. Lane, 80 C 2982 (N.D.Ill. 12/21/84), Judge Leighton ruled that inmates had not established that conditions at Joliet Correctional Center constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The Hanrahan decision, however, did not address the access to prison library issue. Wren v. Lane, No. 83 C 2382, pending before Judge Baker in the Central District of Illinois, attacks delays facing general population inmates who seek access to the prison library. This case, in contrast, involves inmates in segregation who have no right of direct access to the library and must rely exclusively upon inmate clerks.
Shango v. Jurich, No. 74 C 3598, pending before Judge Shadur, involves the Stateville institution and more closely covers the issues raised in this lawsuit. Though the precise claims raised by plaintiffs here have not been raised in Shango, one issue being litigated in that case is whether the operation of the prison library effectively denies segregated inmates meaningful access to the courts.
The similarity between Shango and this case is insufficient to bar class certification. First, defendants have not filed a motion for relatedness or consolidation. Second, Shango is directed at a single institution while plaintiffs' complaint is directed against all Illinois maximum security prisons. In fact, Judge Shadur has refused to extend to Menard the terms of a consent decree that covered some of the access to court issues raised in Shango. Third, Walters and Ganci are not members of the Shango class and thus have no opportunity to litigate their somewhat different claims. See Madyun v. Thompson, 657 F.2d 868, 871-72 (7th Cir.1981). In sum, the res judicata effect of Wren and Shango, if any, is best...
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Walters v. Edgar, 97-2722
...found that their right of access had indeed been infringed. Walters v. Edgar, 900 F.Supp. 197 (N.D.Ill.1995) (see also Walters v. Thompson, 615 F.Supp. 330 (N.D.Ill.1985), finding infringement but denying a preliminary injunction). But after the Supreme Court decided Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S......
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Washington v. Meachum
...with attorney constitutionally sufficient because state is not required to provide best manner of access); see also Walters v. Thompson, 615 F.Supp. 330, 340 (N.D.Ill.1985) (lack of telephonic access to counsel may not deprive inmates of access to courts if inmates have access to law Provid......
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DeMallory v. Cullen
...access to a law library they must be provided with assistance by trained, skilled, and independent legal personnel." Walters v. Thompson, 615 F.Supp. 330, 340 (N.D.Ill.1985). The defendants justify the restrictions on DeMallory's access to legal assistance on the grounds that he and other i......
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Reutcke v. Dahm
...unless they first have access to adequate legal resources or advice. See id., 430 U.S. at 824-25, 97 S.Ct. at 1496; Walters v. Thompson, 615 F.Supp. 330, 338 (N.D.Ill.1985). As the Fourth Circuit has Because an inmate is unable to discover his rights when library access or other access to t......