WESTEFER v. SNYDER
725 F.Supp.2d 735 (2010)
United States District Court, S.D. Illinois.
July 20, 2010.
Q. All right. What was the difference there [Pontiac] and here?
A. Um, well, you had more contact with people. Not physical contact but you had social contact with people. You had—
Q. What do you mean by that?
A. Well, the cells were bars. You know, you could reach out, you know, you could touch a person's hand which was a significant difference. If you have never—if you have been—if you have been isolated for so long, just putting your hands on another human being was like . . . wow. You know the feeling if you ever been thirsty and you just drink a cold glass of water. It's like that. It's strange at first but it's—well, it's free.
Doc. 433 (Bell Testimony) at 30-31. It is apparent to the Court that, as IDOC Director Randle testified, confinement at Tamms and segregation at a maximum security prison like Pontiac are "two different things." Doc. 522 (Randle Testimony) at 18. The Court concludes that conditions at Tamms are significantly more restrictive than confinement in segregation at Pontiac. Accordingly, the Court finds that, assuming arguendo that conditions in segregation at Pontiac are a proper baseline for measuring whether conditions at Tamms give rise to a liberty interest in avoiding placement at the supermax prison, conditions at Tamms comprise atypical and significant hardship in comparison to conditions in segregation at Pontiac.
c. Conditions at Menard and StatevilleAs already has been noted, Plaintiffs propose conditions in the general population at Menard and Stateville as a proper baseline for measuring whether conditions of confinement at Tamms impose atypical and significant hardship in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life so as to give rise to a due process liberty interest in avoiding confinement at Tamms. Defendants have stipulated that inmates at Tamms are subjected to restrictions which are atypical and significant in comparison to conditions in the general population at
Illinois maximum security prisons such as Menard and Stateville. See Doc. 417 (Transcript of Day 1 of Bench Trial) at 17. Accordingly, the Court finds that conditions at Tamms impose atypical and significant hardship in comparison to conditions in the general population at Menard and Stateville.
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.