Opinion ID: 789359
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Defendants' Response.

Text: 17 Gander Hill receives approximately 18,000 admissions per year, and the defendants maintain that neither Taylor nor the warden have any control over that number. The officials concede that triple-celling is used at Gander Hill, and that this forces some detainees to sleep on a floor mattress. However, they deny that the mattresses are adjacent to toilets. Officials claim that there is ample room to arrange a mattress so that the toilet is at the resident's foot and several feet away. Thus, say the defendants, there is no reason for anyone to worry about unsanitary and unhealthy conditions as a result of sleeping on the floor. They draw support for their position from the deposition testimony of detainees Moon and Wilson. 18 Moon testified in relevant part as follows: 19 I chose to sleep with my head towards the window and my feet towards the toilet. Let's say, from my waist down where their beds are. Because if I slept the other way, and somebody used the bathroom, I would have to worry about him standing over top of me and water and urine splashing over me. 20 The officials note that Moon did not say that urine and feces splashed on him as plaintiffs' claim suggests. Rather, he only said that he worried about that happening. Moon also stated that he could address that concern by simply sleeping with his head away from the toilet. 21 Defendants also cite the exchange during detainee Wilson's deposition that defendants claim further demonstrates that plaintiffs' claims are exaggerated: 22 Q: So it is your contention that you're not being treated like a human being? 23 A: On that west side? Yes, sir. If you got to sleep down beside the toilet and feces and you got to use the bathroom when the C.O. not come in and there's a couple other inmates in there with you; yes. Yes. Food cold. Whew. Yes. 24 Officials point out that Wilson did not say that urine and feces splashed on him either. Rather, he said that he had to sleep down beside the toilet and feces. The defendants argue that it can be assumed that any feces remained inside the toilet and they note that Wilson's testimony is not to the contrary. The defendants also point out that even if one assumes Wilson was sleeping with his head next to the toilet, the record does not explain why he chose to sleep in that position when he apparently did not have to. 25 Moreover, according to the defendants, the detainees who must sleep on floor mattresses are not near the toilets in any event. In his affidavit, Acting Deputy Warden Phelps claims that most mattresses in cells in the West Wing of Gander Hill are two and one-half feet from the toilet. Although plaintiffs estimate that distance, Phelps actually measured it and Moon's testimony is not inconsistent with Phelps' testimony because Moon did not specify a distance. Moreover, defendants point out that the record further undermines plaintiffs' claims of disease because Moon's deposition is the only record of disease and he only testified that he caught a cold. 26 As noted earlier, the plaintiffs allude to official records that purportedly documented allegations regarding old and dirty mattresses. The defendants claim that this is a distortion. According to defendants, plaintiffs fail to mention that those mattresses were replaced after prison officials realized the condition the old mattresses were in. 27 The defendants refute Ketchum's ADA claim by noting that Ketchum never suffered any injury while in the care of the DOC and that Ketchum's own physician disapproved his placement on the kidney transplant list. According to the defendants, the plaintiffs admitted in the district court that Ketchum's own physician and the prison health care provider told Ketchum that he was not eligible for the National Transplant List. Furthermore, defendants claim that Ketchum admitted that the Chief of the Bureau of Prisons told him that the DOC would pay for a transplant if the doctors said it was medically necessary.