Opinion ID: 415359
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: staffing

Text: 28 The prisoners also contend that staffing was inadequate and was thereby a cause of violence. In my view the prisoners have not discharged their burden to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that staffing was inadequate. Understaffing has been discussed extensively in several cases. The national average of inmates to guards in United States prisons is 5 to 1. Ruiz v. Estelle, 503 F.Supp. 1265, 1290 (S.D.Texas 1980), aff'd in part and rev'd in part, 679 F.2d 1115 (5th Cir.), amended in part and vacated in part, 688 F.2d 266 (5th Cir.1982). Any figure appreciably above that ratio has been held contributory to cruel and unusual prison conditions. In Ruiz v. Estelle, supra, 679 F.2d at 1140, for example, the Fifth Circuit determined that Texas state prisons had an unacceptably high inmate-to-guard ratio of 12.45 to 1. In Pugh v. Locke, supra, 406 F.Supp. at 322, 325, the ratio was 9.3 to 1--still grossly inadequate. 29 At Lorton there were 122 guards at Maximum in charge of some 400 prisoners. JA 151. The inmate-to-guard ratio was thus 3.27 to 1. This is much better than the national average of 5 to 1, not to mention the ratios in Ruiz and Pugh. As a matter of law, therefore, such a ratio was not woefully inadequate or so impermissibly high as to constitute sufficient evidence that constitutional standards were violated. My colleague seeks to term this an argument for an industry standard, with its well-known defect, but the Maximum figure is 34 percent better than what he would term the industry standard. And my colleague does not suggest any ratio he would find acceptable. His argument is totally lacking in specificity. Plaintiffs' evidence on understaffing, on which it bears the burden of proof, is obviously insufficient. Moreover, neither the prisoners nor my colleague have proven what the minimum standard is, and merely calling Maximum understaffed does not make it so. 30 Under D.C.Code Sec. 24-442, the District of Columbia owes prisoners the identical duty of reasonable care in the protection and safekeeping owed them under principles of common law negligence. Gaither v. District of Columbia, 333 A.2d 57, 60 (D.C.App.1975). Prison personnel are not, however, insurers of an inmate's safety. Matthews v. District of Columbia, 387 A.2d 731 (D.C.App.1978). Thus, the fact that an inmate is assaulted and sustains injuries does not, by itself, establish liability. District of Columbia v. Davis, 386 A.2d 1195, 1200 (D.C.App.1978). The [inmates] must establish by competent evidence a standard of care; that the defendant[s] violated that standard; and that such violation proximately caused injury to the [inmates]. Hughes v. District of Columbia, 425 A.2d 1299, 1302 (D.C.App.1981). The prisoners' evidence is insufficient to satisfy this standard. 31 The duty imposed on defendants requires the exercise of ordinary diligence to keep prisoners safe and free from harm. Jones v. United States, 534 F.2d 53, 54 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 978, 97 S.Ct. 487, 50 L.Ed.2d 586 (1976). Some antisocial behavior is to be expected in a prison environment; accordingly, the government is not an insurer of the safety of a prisoner, id.; Fleishour v. United States, 244 F.Supp. 762, 767-68 (N.D.Ill.1965), aff'd, 365 F.2d 126 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 987, 87 S.Ct. 597, 17 L.Ed.2d 448 (1966), or here, of the class of all prisoners in Maximum. The government's liability ultimately depends upon whether the risks it took were reasonable or unreasonable. Cowart v. United States, 617 F.2d 112, 116 (5th Cir.) (emphasis added), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 903, 101 S.Ct. 275, 66 L.Ed.2d 134 (1980). 11 To impose liability on the District and its officials also requires proof that their actions were the proximate and foreseeable cause of the alleged injuries. Id. As stated above, this necessary element of the case has not been proved. 32 Courts will not readily find negligence (or the official infliction of cruel and unusual punishment) from the presence of some risk, as is indicated by the so-called calculated risks test first articulated in Fleishour. There, the court recognized that it is the 33 standard practice in modern penal institutions to take calculated risks in various aspects of prison life, housing, work, recreation, religious worship and others, so that prisoners may learn to get along with other persons as part of the rehabilitation process. The result is, that from time to time, there occurs an episode such as that here involved in which the gamble is lost and another prisoner is injured. 34 244 F.Supp. at 767. See also Williams v. United States, supra, 384 F.Supp. at 584. Thus, in Fleishour, housing a number of inmates in one big room, a room in which there was a fire extinguisher on the wall, constituted a rehabilitative program that involved a calculated risk that excusably backfired. No finding of negligence was warranted--even in a case involving a single individual. 35 It is obvious from the record that the prison conditions here, to some extent, represent a calculated risk taken by preferring to allow more freedom rather than closer confinement. Were the officials negligent, or inflicting cruel and unusual punishment, in allowing the inmates at Maximum the freedom of movement that they enjoyed? If the result of allowing prisoners such freedom (with no overcrowding, a more than adequate staffing ratio of 3.27 to 1, and a not unacceptable prisoner assault average of fourteen or fifteen a year) were to be that District taxpayers must pay over a half a million dollars to the prisoners--many of whom cause the problems that exist--the eventual solution would probably be to increase greatly restrictions on prisoners' freedom of movement by creating a more controlled environment. Locking prisoners in their cells for greater periods of time might be one solution. Also, their ability to associate with other prisoners might be substantially curtailed. Such practices might also impede rehabilitation. Would plaintiffs welcome a remedy that required them to be confined to their cells for more substantial periods of time, to have their freedom to associate with other prisoners more severely restricted, or to have their movements otherwise hobbled? If they prevail in their lawsuit, such may be the result. 36 Considering all the evidence, it is my view that the choices Lorton made were reasonable and were made in the prisoners' interests. The result has been uncrowded living conditions, commendable freedom and a not unacceptable incidence of assaults. Prison officials do not have the luxury of selecting their clientele. There will always be a danger of assaults when the most dangerous and violent criminals are confined in a single section of a prison facility, as they must be. But unless prisons lock up such prisoners in individual cells and greatly restrict their freedom of movement within the facility, as was once the practice, such institutions must be permitted to take calculated risks. In my view, the evidence here is insufficient to support a finding that the risks in Maximum exceeded what was reasonable or that the conditions at Lorton  'involve[d] the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain.'  Rhodes v. Chapman, supra, 452 U.S. at 346, 101 S.Ct. at 2398 (quoting Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 173, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 2925, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976) (Stewart, Powell, Stevens, JJ.)). 37 I also have some difficulty agreeing to a new trial. A new trial will not change the facts that average assaults were only fourteen or fifteen a year, that the staffing ratio was 3.27 to 1, or that 400 inmates in Maximum do not establish overcrowding. Under the theory of the plaintiffs' complaint, these unchangeable facts substantially undercut the principal basis for their claims that the class was harmed as a result of pervasive negligence or that cruel and unusual punishment was officially inflicted on the class. It thus appears to me that unchangeable evidence as to vital elements of plaintiffs' complaint disproves their claims. I also have considerable difficulty in supporting a conclusion that money damages can be awarded to a class of prisoners in mass that includes many prisoners who are causing the conditions complained of and will not cooperate to help correct them. 12 38 I close with a summary statement regarding my colleague's separate opinion. He attacks what statistics are available, but substitutes nothing in their place. He exaggerates the violence, understates the staffing, misstates my opinion, and deems it proper to reward a class of inmates for causing violence whose alleged level is based substantially upon speculation on unreported assaults. The number of definite assaults that were actually recounted at trial does not add up to a constitutional violation; to hold that it does would trivialize constitutional violations. My colleague's reliance upon unreported assaults, and the assaults he assumes were committed after the period covered by the lawsuit, constitutes a tacit admission that the evidence of assaults in the record is insufficient to support the verdict. 39 However, as stated above, for reasons set forth in Judge Edwards' opinion for the court, I concur in vacating the judgment and remanding the case for a new trial. 40 As he indicates in his separate statement, Judge Robb shares the doubts expressed above that plaintiffs made a case in the District Court, but acquiesces in Judge Edwards' opinion for the Court. 41 Separate Statement of HARRY T. EDWARDS, Circuit Judge: 42 Though he concurs in the foregoing Opinion for the Court, Judge MacKinnon has written separately, 1 expressing his individual view that there may not have been adequate evidence presented at trial to support the verdicts rendered. Though, before the District Court, appellants routinely moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, they have not argued on appeal the question of the sufficiency of the evidence. In these circumstances, it seems to me not only unnecessary but unwise for this court to discuss the adequacy of the evidentiary foundation for the decisions reached below. My reluctance to engage in such an inquiry is overcome, however, by my sense of the importance of not allowing some of the statements in the Concurring Opinion to pass uncontested. I, therefore, offer my own separate statement in order to prevent the creation of any misimpressions regarding the content of the legal doctrines governing permissible conditions of incarceration and to dispel any doubts concerning the sufficiency of the evidence adduced below. 43