WESTEFER v. SNYDER
725 F.Supp.2d 735 (2010)
United States District Court, S.D. Illinois.
July 20, 2010.
Doc. 417 (Sorrentino Testimony) at 47-48. Similarly, Plaintiff Sparling testified that, at his initial transfer review hearing following his transfer from Menard to Tamms in administrative detention, he was asked by one correctional officer on Sparling's transfer review committee who Sparling had "piss[ed] off" at Menard so as to be assigned to Tamms. Doc. 513 (Sparling Testimony) at 11. The officer's question suggests that even the members of the transfer review committee at Sparling's initial transfer review hearing did not know the reason why Sparling was assigned to Tamms.
Finally, after their transfer review hearing inmates receive only a summary notice stating that they have been appropriately placed at Tamms; they are not told what evidence was relied upon in making the decision, nor is the reason they were sent to Tamms explained. For example, the only explanation Plaintiff Sparling was given as to why he remained in confinement at Tamms for over six years was that he was "[p]roperly placed." Doc. 513 (Sparling Testimony) at 11. See also Doc. 482 (V. Rodriguez Testimony) at 21 (the witness, who has been confined at Tamms for more than ten years, testified that the only explanation he was given for his assignment to Tamms was that he was "properly placed"). The Court concludes that the existing transfer review procedure for inmates placed at Tamms in administrative detention status fails adequately to protect the due process rights of such inmates.
5. IDOC Director Randle's Ten-Point PlanHaving concluded that existing IDOC procedures for assigning inmates to Tamms are constitutionally inadequate, the Court turns next to consideration of certain provisions of IDOC Director Randle's Ten-Point Plan and the adequacy of the Ten-Point Plan to protect the due process
liberty interest of IDOC inmates in avoiding confinement at the supermax prison. The Ten-Point Plan, which, as discussed, has been approved by the Governor of Illinois but which has not yet been implemented in IDOC regulations, makes certain important changes to the way inmates are assigned to Tamms in light of the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Wilkinson. By way of introduction, the Plan notes the current IDOC procedure concerning transfer review hearings for Tamms inmates: Inmates and advocacy groups have voiced concern regarding the process for informing inmates at Tamms [Closed Maximum Security Unit ("CMAX")], including informing them of the reason for placement. Currently under 20 Illinois Administrative Code, Chapter 1, Subchapter e—Operations Part 505, Closed Maximum Security Facility, a Transfer Review Hearing is to be conducted within ten working days of the inmate's placement at Tamms CMAX in administrative detention status or at the expiration of his disciplinary segregation term. Administrative Directive 05.02.110, Placement at Closed Maximum Security Facility, provides that the Chief Administrative Officer is to appoint members of the Transfer Review Committee.
Ten-Point Plan (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 7) at 14. The Plan then notes the need for changes in IDOC policies for assigning inmates to Tamms:
The Department would make a series of changes in the official policy describing the Transfer Review Hearing process and within the established timelines for placing an inmate at Tamms CMAX. The proposed changes to the pertinent Department Rules and Administrative Directives are underlined within the text below. Further, the proposed procedures for conducting a Transfer Review Hearing follow the official policy changes. Note that the official filing of a grievance and the associated review policies will allow inmates to appeal the transfer to "supermax" to the Department Chief Legal Counsel, and not the Administrative Review Board.
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.