WESTEFER v. SNYDER
725 F.Supp.2d 735 (2010)
United States District Court, S.D. Illinois.
July 20, 2010.
One of the concerns that was expressed to me during my tour at [Tamms] by the inmates was that in a lot of cases they did not know or they said they weren't told how long they could expect to stay. What we've said in the 10 Point Plan is that we will give the offender a range. Once they've been approved for placement in Tamms what I expect staff to do is, based on how long a person has been there for a similar offense, based on correctional professional judgment, to tell the person a range of time that they can expect to be at Tamms.
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Now from there what we expect the staff to do is tell the offender how they can impact that one to three years and make it closer to one year rather than the three years by getting involved in programming, by their interactions with staff, by not getting conduct reports, by engaging in program activities when they have an opportunity. All of those things can help a person get closer to the lower end of that range rather than the longer end of that range. And,
again, this is an estimate based on our staff's professional judgment, based on the offense that they committed to get placed at Tamms, and how long we think they will be there. Q. Will the inmate get feedback after that on whether or not they're meeting their goals or whether they fall short?
A. That would come at those 90 day reviews they give them feedback and tell them how they've done in the past 90 days, what they need to work on, what they may need to get involved in, what staff have been saying about their interactions with staff, their attitudes and behaviors, those things happen during those 90 day reviews.
Doc. 522 (Randle Testimony) at 13-14. In the Ten-Point Plan the IDOC effectively concedes that, hitherto, inmates arriving at Tamms have not been advised of how long they will be at the supermax prison and how they can work to be transferred out of the prison. The second Wilkinson factor relevant to the question of whether IDOC inmates have a due process liberty interest in avoiding assignment to Tamms, the indefinite duration of placement at the supermax prison, weighs in favor of a finding that IDOC inmates have such an interest.
c. Effect of Placement at Tamms on Length of Sentence
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.