WESTEFER v. SNYDER
725 F.Supp.2d 735 (2010)
United States District Court, S.D. Illinois.
July 20, 2010.
Q. Just hands?
A. Yeah, just hands, arms, you know. You could buy a mirror. You could buy a mirror, a plastic mirror, you could stick your mirror out and look at them and conversate all night.
Doc. 433 (Bell Testimony) at 33. Again, the conditions of confinement in barred cells at Pontiac as described in the testimony before the Court are in sharp contrast to the conditions of confinement at Tamms, where, as already has been discussed, inmates can communicate between cells only with great difficulty, and there is no way for an inmate to see, much less touch, an inmate in another cell with whom he may be trying to communicate.
In addition to the much greater freedom to communicate and otherwise interact with other inmates that segregation inmates at Pontiac enjoy in comparison to Tamms inmates, there are other important differences between segregation at Pontiac and confinement at Tamms. For example, Larry Strickland testified that although inmates in segregation at Pontiac do not go to church services per se, church groups are permitted on the gallery, and sing with the inmates or engage in similar group activities. See Doc. 514 (Strickland Testimony) at 14. Also, Strickland is able to attend group therapy with other Pontiac inmates for anger management, substance abuse, and similar issues, in contrast, of course, to Tamms where, as already has been discussed, no substance abuse programs are available and only inmates in J-pod are permitted to participate to a limited degree in congregate counseling. See id. at 16. With respect to yard, in segregation at Pontiac, as already has been noted, yard time takes place in dog cages, but during yard a segregation inmate in a cage can communicate with inmates in neighboring cages. When a segregation inmate at Pontiac completes his segregation sentence, he can attend yard with other inmates, and the exercise yard at Pontiac features equipment such as weights and card tables. See id. (Carroll Testimony) at 38. Concerning telephone privileges, in contrast to Tamms, where as discussed inmates have no telephone privileges save with respect to legal calls and emergencies, Rodney Guthrie testified that inmates in A grade and B grade in segregation at Pontiac are allowed to receive one telephone call per month. See id. (Guthrie Testimony) at 20. Similarly, Ronnie Carroll, who as already has been noted was never permitted to use the telephone during his six-year confinement at Tamms, testified that he was able to use the telephone to talk to his family as soon
as he was transferred to segregation at Pontiac. See id. (Carroll Testimony) at 40. Concerning visits, the strict limitations on visits imposed at Tamms are not in place at Pontiac. "The visits at Tamms,. . . you had to get like prior approval for two weeks through internal affairs," Ronnie Carroll testified, but in segregation at Pontiac "as long as the person is on the visiting list they can show up on any visiting day at any time and you can go up and visit them." Doc. 514 (Carroll Testimony) at 41. Alex Pearson testified that, although visits to inmates in segregation at Pontiac are non-contact, they nonetheless are more satisfactory than inmate visits at Tamms:
Q. Are visits different here than they were at Tamms—
A. Yes.
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.