WESTEFER v. SNYDER
725 F.Supp.2d 735 (2010)
United States District Court, S.D. Illinois.
July 20, 2010.
Doc. 482 (Testimony of Robert Felton) at 4. Finally, IDOC inmate Ronnie Carroll, who was confined at Tamms from July 1998 until July 2004 and who now is confined at Pontiac, testified that he has had no history of mental problems since he was transferred out of Tamms. Doc. 514 (Testimony of Ronnie Carroll) at 44. However, while he was confined at Tamms, Carroll testified,
I held a record there for while I was on suicide watch consecutive for like 57 days so, or 15-minute watches, a stripped out cell in the hospital with nothing but a gown and a little foam mat. I had a number of mental health issues at Tamms as far as suicidal thoughts, depression, a lot of mental health people and things of that nature.
Id. at 43-44. In fact, after mandatory supervised release (that is, parole) or discharge from IDOC custody, mental health problems are the most common reason that inmates are transferred out of Tamms. See Ten-Point Plan (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 7), Table 4.Importantly, unlike Carroll, who, as noted, has experienced no further mental problems since his transfer out of Tamms, a number of former inmates of Tamms testified that, due to the extreme isolation in which they were confined at the supermax prison, they have experienced ongoing mental difficulties even after their transfer out of Tamms to lower-security facilities where they have much freer access to other inmates. For example, Plaintiff Sparling, who spent six years and seven months at Tamms, testified that as a continuing result of his past confinement in the supermax prison he does not like to be around other people and that after he was transferred out of Tamms he found it difficult to adjust to sharing a cell with another inmate:
Q. Have you noticed any changes in yourself since you were at Tamms?
A. Whew, yeah.
Q. Tell us about that.
1. The Court notes that there is also a minimum security prison at Tamms; all references to Tamms in this Order are to the supermax prison there.
2. This perhaps is the place to note that this Order is intended to be a concise account of the bench trial conducted on the procedural due process claims in this case, and to that end only matters deemed by the Court to be credible, material, and relevant will be reported. The reader should presume that evidence omitted from the Court's findings of fact was considered by the Court to be irrelevant or in any event less persuasive than competing evidence. The Court notes in passing that, in addition to alleging violations of procedural due process, Plaintiffs Von Perbandt, Taylor, Sparling, Sorrentino, Santiago, V. Rodriguez, E. Rodriguez, Lasley, Knox, Horton, Harper, Felton, Combs, Clayton, Chapman, Burrell, Bivens, and Cunningham also assert claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that they were assigned by Defendants to the supermax prison at Tamms in retaliation for filing grievances and lawsuits and engaging in other protected activities challenging the conditions of their confinement, in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. These retaliation claims have been resolved in a series of jury trials, and they are not at issue here.
3. In fact, statistical data assembled by the IDOC shows that the average time served for the current population at Tamms is 73.4 months, or over six years. See Ten-Point Plan (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 7) at 6. Seventy of the 243 inmates (28.3%) have been at Tamms for at least ten years, and more than half have been at Tamms for over five years. See id. at 8. Over three-quarters (76.9%) or 190 of the inmates at Tamms have been there for over three years. See id., Table 4.
4. The Court recognizes that it is assuming here that, were work, education, and substance abuse programs available at Tamms, inmates of the supermax prison would participate in such programs. This assumption seems reasonable to the Court. Participation in such programs doubtless would be a happy alternative to the crushing monotony of being confined alone in a cell for up to twenty-four hours a day that currently is the lot of Tamms inmates. Also, it seems probable that Tamms inmates would welcome the opportunity to earn money by participating in work programs, in order to purchase small items like walkmans or arch supports that make life in a place like Tamms somewhat more bearable. See Doc. 433 (Testimony of Adolfo Rosario) at 50-51 (the witness, a Tamms inmate, complained that the shoes issued to him by Tamms correctional personnel lack arch supports, but he cannot purchase shoe inserts at the prison commissary because he is indigent and has no money to spend at the commissary).
5. Finally, although strictly speaking Point Two of IDOC Director Randle's Plan is not concerned with the issue of whether or not an inmate should be placed at Tamms, it is worth noting that Point Two protects inmates from spending an unnecessary amount of time in the supermax prison. Under the Plan, as already has been noted, upon arrival at Tamms new inmates of the supermax prison will be advised at orientation of the probable length of their stay at the prison, expressed as a range of possible terms of supermax confinement; further, inmates will work with counselors to ensure that they achieve the behavioral levels necessary to be transferred out of Tamms in the least possible time. See Ten-Point Plan (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 7) at 16; Doc. 522 (Randle Testimony) at 13-14.