Court Opinion

ID: 9477901
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:34:27.643299+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:07.118831
License: Public Domain

FLAUM, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the result.
I must reluctantly concur in the judgment of the court, and therefore write separately. The defendants’ litigation strategy in a case of significant public importance has dictated the outcome that we are required to affirm. Their inappropriate form of advocacy and intransigence regarding efforts to effectuate a remedy compel us to uphold an opinion which sweeps very *886broadly. Indeed, defendants have brought upon themselves the burden of affording to protective custody inmates rights which are not necessarily indicated by recent Supreme Court precedent.
Although the record clearly establishes that the inadequate library privileges allowed to plaintiffs unconstitutionally restrict their right of access to the courts, in my judgment plaintiffs’ success on their other claims was far from inevitable. The protective custody inmates’ first amendment and due process arguments about the scope of their rights to religious services, vocational and educational programs, jobs, recreation, and living conditions called for a more reasoned rebuttal. But the prison officials were unwilling (or impervious to the need) to articulate credible justifications for their perhaps permissible treatment of these inmates. The defendants apparently failed to advance effectively the lack of reasonable and feasible alternatives. Although we customarily defer to their professional judgment in matters of administration, prison officials whose actions are challenged cannot avoid court scrutiny by reflexive, rote assertions that existing conditions are dictated by security concerns and that the cost of change is prohibitive.
The defendants’ and their witnesses’ approach caused the district judge to find them utterly lacking in credibility. They appear to have ushered the district court into virtually insulating his findings from review; as the majority points out, we may rarely hold such credibility determinations clearly erroneous. We may never ascertain to what extent these findings were “punitive.” The defendants certainly invited them by failing to engage the court in any persuasive discussion of penological objectives and alternatives. It is discouraging, to say the least, that a most critical state agency has been found so sorely wanting as a litigant by a United States District Court. See Williams v. Lane, 646 F.Supp. 1379, 1402-05 (N.D.Ill.1986).
In particular, the defendants’ stance once the court decided their liability made the extreme remedy affirmed today almost inevitable. In the opinion of the district judge, the defendants made no substantial attempt at good faith compliance with the court’s directives once liability was established. By refusing to meaningfully comply with the district court’s request for aid in fashioning a remedy, defendants ensured a harsher result than would otherwise have been warranted. While the appointment of a special master to implement the court’s directives is an extraordinary and disfavored recourse, the defendants and their counsel forced the district judge’s hand.
Courts must of course recognize their limited competence in the troubled and complicated area of prison administration. However, prison administrators alleged to have violated inmates’ rights must meet such challenges with edifying and illuminating rejoinders drawn from their unique expertise, not with the modest responses advanced in this litigation.