WESTEFER v. SNYDER
725 F.Supp.2d 735 (2010)
United States District Court, S.D. Illinois.
July 20, 2010.
Prospective relief in any civil action with respect to prison conditions shall extend no further than necessary to correct the violation of the Federal right of a particular plaintiff or plaintiffs. The court shall not grant or approve any prospective relief unless the court finds that such relief is narrowly drawn, extends no further than necessary to correct the violation of the Federal right, and is the least intrusive means necessary to correct
the violation of the Federal right. The court shall give substantial weight to any adverse impact on public safety or the operation of a criminal justice system caused by the relief. 18 U.S.C. § 3626(a)(1)(A). The Court fails to see how an order prohibiting prison administrators from transferring to Tamms either IDOC inmates involved in gang activity before 1996 or IDOC inmates who committed a disciplinary infraction over a year before their transfer conforms to the requirement of narrowly-tailored relief under both Sandin and the PLRA.
The Court sums up as follows. The Court concludes that, in general, Point One of IDOC Director Randle's Ten-Point Plan adequately protects the liberty interest of IDOC inmates in avoiding confinement at Tamms, but concludes also that Point One of the Plan must be modified in two respects: first, inmates placed at Tamms must receive advance notice in writing of the reason for their placement at least forty-eight hours before a transfer review hearing regarding their placement at Tamms; second, all inmates assigned to Tamms in disciplinary segregation must receive a transfer review hearing, including inmates assigned to disciplinary segregation before the date of entry of this Order. Specifically, inmates who are currently housed at Tamms, and who were transferred to Tamms in disciplinary segregation prior to entry of the Court's order, shall be granted a transfer review hearing that complies with the procedure set out in Section 505.60 of Title 20 of the Illinois Administrative Code within 180 days of the date of entry of this Order. Priority for the said hearings shall be given to those IDOC inmates transferred to Tamms in disciplinary segregation the longest. Transfer review hearings for all IDOC inmates transferred to Tamms in disciplinary segregation who have been at Tamms for more than five years shall be completed within ninety days of the date of entry of this Order. The Court believes that Point One of IDOC Director Randle's Ten-Point Plan, as modified in this Order, constitutes narrowly-drawn equitable relief in this case consistent with the requirements of the PLRA. Accordingly, the Court will enter an appropriate injunction consistent with the findings of fact and conclusions of law set forth in this Order.
6. Declaratory ReliefThe Court next addresses the issue of whether Plaintiffs and the class have shown an entitlement to declaratory relief. Specifically, Plaintiffs and the class request that the Court enter an order requiring that the fact that a particular IDOC inmate had at one time been assigned to Tamms be expunged from the inmate's record. Plaintiffs and the class reason that, because the IDOC has hitherto employed procedures that afford IDOC inmates inadequate due process in assigning such inmates to Tamms, prior assignments to Tamms should not be reflected in the prison records of inmates. The Court does not agree and concludes that Plaintiffs and the class have failed to show an entitlement to the requested declaratory relief. Counsel for Plaintiffs and the class have adduced some anecdotal evidence that inmates who have been assigned to Tamms are treated differently and worse after being transferred out of the supermax prison than are inmates who have never been placed at Tamms. For example, Plaintiff Knox testified that, after being transferred out of Tamms, he was assigned incorrectly to a high-aggression cellhouse at Menard, although in fact his aggression level is low. See Doc. 417 (Knox Testimony) at 37. Similarly, Plaintiff Clayton testified that, following his transfer out of Tamms, he has been discriminated
against by IDOC personnel at the Big Muddy Correctional Center: Q. Once you got to Big Muddy were you treated differently than other prisoners because you had been 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.