WESTEFER v. SNYDER
725 F.Supp.2d 735 (2010)
United States District Court, S.D. Illinois.
July 20, 2010.
3. Inmates transferred to Tamms CMAX in Administrative Detention status shall appear before the Transfer Review Committee whenever possible within ten days of placement to participate in a Transfer Review Hearing.
4. Inmates transferred to Tamms CMAX in Disciplinary Segregation status or Investigative status shall appear before the Transfer Review Committee whenever possible within thirty days of placement or at the conclusion of pending disciplinary proceedings, whichever is later.
5. All inmates transferred to the Tamms CMAX in any status (Administrative Detention status, Disciplinary Segregation status, or Investigative status) shall be notified by the Transfer Review Committee in writing of the reason they are being considered for placement at Tamms CMAX at least forty-eight hours in advance of their Transfer Review Hearing.
6. Consistent with the procedure set out in Section 505.60 of Title 20 of the Illinois Administrative Code, an inmate placed at Tamms CMAX shall be afforded the opportunity to appear at the Transfer Review Hearing to refute the stated reason for placement at Tamms CMAX, to make statements relevant to the inmate's placement at Tamms CMAX, and to present relevant documents. The inmate may also request that the Transfer Review Committee interview persons with relevant information.
7. Inmates who are currently housed at Tamms CMAX, and who were transferred to Tamms CMAX in Disciplinary Segregation status prior to the date of 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 Transfer Review Hearings shall be given to those IDOC inmates transferred to Tamms in Disciplinary Segregation status the longest. Transfer Review Hearings for all IDOC inmates transferred to Tamms in Disciplinary Segregation status who have been at Tamms CMAX for more than five years shall be completed within ninety days of the date of entry of this Order. 8. In determining whether to recommend continued placement in Administrative Detention status at Tamms CMAX, the Transfer Review Committee may consider, among other matters, the factors set forth in Section 505.40(d) of Title 20 of the Illinois Administrative Code (the safety and security of the facility, the public, or any person, an inmate's disciplinary and behavioral history, reports and recommendations concerning the inmate, the feasibility of a transfer to another facility, medical concerns, and mental health concerns).
9. An audio digital recording shall be made of all Transfer Review Hearings and shall be retained by the Illinois Department of Corrections pursuant to that agency's standard record retention policy.
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.