Court Opinion

ID: 9468378
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:13:23.581056+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:50.603119
License: Public Domain

WINTER, Chief Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I agree that, except with respect to the portion of the order which directs the transfer of fifty state prisoners to the United States Bureau of Prisons, the judgment in No. 81-6347 should be reversed, but I think *430that the case should be remanded for further proceedings rather than entry of an order approving Maryland’s proposals to institute additional double celling and double bunking. I also agree that the judgment of civil contempt in No. 81-6368 should be reversed. I am in full accord with the direction to consolidate these cases and assign them to a single judge, but I would direct further that any other pending or future litigation concerning Maryland’s penal institutions should also be consolidated with these cases. I write separately because I am constrained to comment more fully on some of the issues where I am in agreement with the majority, and of course I must state my reasons where I disagree.
I.
Rhodes v. Chapman, - U.S. -, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981) and Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979) both stand for the proposition, as the majority correctly points out, that double celling is not per se unconstitutional. However, neither stands for the converse, i. e., that double celling is never unconstitutional. Rather, in both cases the Supreme Court recognized that under a totality of circumstances the confinement of prisoners may constitute a violation of the Eighth Amendment when those circumstances are “cruel and unusual under contemporary standards of decency.” Rhodes v. Chapman, - U.S. at -, 101 S.Ct. at 2399. It would seem obvious that double celling is a factor in the totality of circumstances to be measured by contemporary standards of decency.
Neither Rhodes v. Chapman nor Bell v. Wolfish constituted any change in the law of this circuit with reference to double celling or the housing of prisoners in general. In those cases the Court applied the legal principle that we had followed in Johnson v. Levine, 588 F.2d 1378 (4 Cir. 1978) and Hite v. Leeke, 564 F.2d 670 (4 Cir. 1977): double celling is not per se unconstitutional either as a deprivation of due process or as cruel and unusual punishment and is only one factor to be considered when other consequences of overcrowding create deprivations or impose unusual restrictions and disadvantages on the prison population. In Johnson, in which we reviewed and affirmed conclusions of Eighth Amendment violations in the Maryland House of Correction and two other Maryland penal institutions, we identified the other consequences revealed by the record in that case as limited opportunities for recreation, limited opportunities for instruction and rehabilitation, overtaxed medical facilities and staffs, complication of the maintenance of sanitation, interference with reasonable meal service, and contribution to a high level of violence and psychological injury to some prisoners. In holding that the district courts correctly concluded that the Eighth Amendment had been transgressed, we added that “[ojvercrowding, with all of its consequences, can reach such proportions that the impact of the aggregate effect amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.” 588 F.2d at 1380-81.
In the light of Rhodes, Bell and our own decisions, I have no doubt that the order of the district court in No. 81-6347 must be vacated to the extent that it prohibited double celling at the new Jessup Annex. That facility is a new one, and the district court denied Maryland’s request for permission to double cell primarily on the ground that double celling “is not an acceptable solution to the problem of overcrowding in Maryland’s prisons” and that this principle applies “to new as well as old prison buildings.” The district court’s rationale was thus substantially that double celling is per se unconstitutional. But this is not the law. The district court may prohibit double celling at the new Jessup Annex only if it finds, on an appropriate record, that the totality of the circumstances of confinement, of which double celling is only one factor, offends contemporary standards of decency. No such record was developed with regard to the new Jessup Annex and no such findings were made by the district court with respect thereto. It is therefore manifest that further proceedings are required. But, by the same token, the fact that the facility is new should not lead us to *431require the district court to allow double celling without a more precise evidentiary showing on the part of the state. Unlike the majority, I cannot read this record as demonstrating that the new Jessup Annex is indistinguishable from the prison facility considered in Rhodes with respect to which the Court held that double celling was not constitutionally prohibited. In Rhodes, the district judge visited the prison facility at issue and considered evidence at a trial of the effect of double celling on the prison’s food, air, visitation procedure, plumbing, library, training programs, and health care. See Chapman v. Rhodes, 434 F.Supp. 1007 (S.D. Ohio 1977), aff’d without published opinion, 624 F.2d 1099 (6 Cir. 1980), rev’d, - U.S. -, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981). There is no similar evidence in the existing record regarding the conditions at the Jessup Annex. There are simply too many pertinent factors, e. g., food service facilities, medical facilities, recreational and exercise facilities, about that facility, both whether they exist and when they will become operative, which are unknown to permit the majority’s hasty conclusion.
If it stood alone, I would affirm the portion of the district court’s order in No. 81-6347 which prohibits double bunking at the Maryland House of Correction (MHC) and the consequent increase in inmate population. It is true that Maryland proved a good faith effort to reduce the prison population at MHC and an unforeseen and uncontrollable increase in prison population with a compelling need for more prisoner beds. But the fact remains that under a totality of the circumstances test the district court found that MHC was unconstitutionally overcrowded, Johnson v. Levine, 450 F.Supp. 648 (D.Md.1978), and we affirmed that finding, 588 F.2d 1378 (4 Cir. 1978). Maryland, in this record, has not shown such a change in the various factors applicable to the prior finding with respect to MHC that this finding may be quickly disregarded.
But, of course, the prohibition against double bunking at MHC was not the sole provision of the district court’s order in No. 81-6347. As I have stated, I would vacate at least one other provision of that order, and in recognition that there is a relationship between what I would vacate and what I would otherwise be prepared to affirm, I would conclude to vacate the prohibition against double bunking and remand this aspect of the case for further consideration. Remand will also have the beneficial effect of affording Maryland an opportunity to show correction of those adverse factors at MHC which led to the earlier conclusion that confinement there violated the Eighth Amendment. I stress, however, that the burden of proof in this regard is on Maryland as a result of the prior adjudication.
II.
I am in accord with the majority in vacating the finding of contempt in No. 81-6368. I do not find, however, in the majority opinion any expression of the reasons for this action, and hence I give expression to my own views.
The finding of civil contempt and the appointment of a special master to collect and administer the fines imposed followed closely upon the district court’s denial of Maryland’s motion to relieve it of the provisions of the consent decree under which Maryland agreed to end double celling at the Maryland Correctional Institution at Hagerstown (MCI-H). The state did not appeal from denial of its motion to modify although it presented compelling reasons, e., its inability to complete new facilities and the unprecedented growth in prison population, why modification should have been permitted absent a showing under a totality of circumstances test that confinement at MCI-H at that prisoner population level would offend contemporary standards of decency. The state appealed only from the finding of civil contempt and the appointment of the special master.
On this record I am almost impelled to the conclusion that a finding of civil contempt would not be sustainable under the familiar principle that one is not in contempt by reason of the mere failure to achieve an objective if one has been reason*432ably diligent and energetic in attempting to accomplish what was ordered. See, e. g., Sekaquaptewa v. MacDonald, 544 F.2d 396, 406 (9 Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 931, 97 S.Ct. 1550, 51 L.Ed.2d 774 (1977); Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority v. Amalgamated Transit Union, 531 F.2d 617, 621 (D.C.Cir.1976). In short I am inclined to think that the record shows that Maryland has taken all reasonable steps to eliminate overcrowding at MCI-H and has failed to achieve that objective as a result of circumstances beyond its control. The district court did not find any disregard or willful defiance of the consent decree. Indeed it practically acknowledged that Maryland had not acted in any manner contemptuously of its decree. But the district court made no specific findings of fact with respect to Maryland’s proferred defense and hence its finding of contempt cannot stand because of its failure to comply with Fed.R. Civ.P. 52(a). See Metropolitan Washington Authority v. Amalgamated Transit Union, supra.
On remand no useful purpose would be served by a retrial of the contempt case. The state’s motion for modification of the consent order should be reconsidered in light of our reversal in No. 81-6347 of the district court’s order prohibiting the state from implementing its plan to end overcrowding at the various Maryland penal institutions and in light of the need to consider MCI — H as part of the state’s overall prison scheme, rather than in isolation. The latter purpose will be partially served by the majority’s salutary direction to consolidate this case with No. 81-6347.
III.
On this record I would affirm the portion of the district court’s order in No. 81-6347 which directs the transfer of fifty state prisoners to the United States Bureau of Prisons. The record, as I read it, shows that Maryland’s prison population has reached the level where its prison facilities are sorely overtaxed even if it be subsequently found that confinement therein does not amount to a violation of the Eighth Amendment. Because I think that the record does show that Maryland’s plan for double celling and double bunking, if permitted, will not sufficiently relieve the problem of overcrowding, I would not make affirmance conditional as the majority has done. Rather, in affirming, I would authorize the district court to reconsider and modify, despite affirmance, this aspect of its order as part of an overall plan to reduce overcrowding if it should find that the transfers are not required.
IV.
Finally, I express my agreement, with the majority’s direction to consolidate these separate cases and to have them assigned to a single district judge. But I would direct that any other pending litigation as well as any future litigation which may be instituted in which there is a claim that confinement at any Maryland penal institution would violate the Eighth Amendment be also consolidated in the same proceeding and assigned to the same district judge. More is at stake than merely a saving of judicial time and the convenience of the parties. While it is true that Maryland’s penal institutions are classified with respect to the types of offenders which are lodged therein and the gravity of their offenses, there is a single system of penal institutions and the various institutions are to some extent fungible. Thus the overall solution of any unconstitutional overcrowding must proceed initially from a consideration of both Maryland’s overall need for places of confinement and Maryland’s entire existing facilities. Previous appeals to this court amply demonstrate that the problem is not capable of solution on the basis of separate consideration of separate institutions.
For these reasons I concur in part and, respectfully, dissent in part.
Circuit Judge BUTZNER and Circuit Judge JAMES DICKSON PHILLIPS authorize me to say that they join in this opinion.