Bono v. Saxbe

527 F. Supp. 1187
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedSeptember 30, 1981
DocketCiv. 74-81-E
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 527 F. Supp. 1187 (Bono v. Saxbe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bono v. Saxbe, 527 F. Supp. 1187 (S.D. Ill. 1981).

Opinion

ORDER

FOREMAN, Chief Judge:

Before the Court is plaintiffs’ Motion for Rule to Show Cause why defendants should not be held in contempt for allegedly violating this Court’s order in Bono v. Saxbe, 450 F.Supp. 934 (E.D.Ill.1978) and 462 F.Supp. 146 (E.D.Ill.1978). This motion concerns defendants’ use of a particular kind of cell in the Control Unit (H-Unit) at the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois. H-Unit is divided into four ranges, labeled A, B, C and D, each of which contains eighteen (18) single inmate cells. As set forth in the order recorded at 450 F.Supp. 934, 937 (E.D.Ill.1978), each cell has three walls and a steel bar front. On A and D Range, and on ten cells of B Range, numbers 9 through 18, there exists a wall constructed of steel and plexiglass approximately three feet beyond the steel bars. The side walls of the cell come forward to meet this outer wall. On April 19,1978, when the original Bono order was handed down, the outer walls of A and D Range cells contained one large plexiglass window in the stationary portion of the wall, and a door containing two plexiglass windows with a steel bar grill recessed three feet from the outer wall. (See photo, Exhibit 5, appended.) The outer walls of cells number 9 through 18 on B Range contained one small plexiglass window and the steel door of the outer wall had two small windows about eye level. (See photo, Exhibit 1, appended.) These cells on B Range, numbers 9 through 18, were given the term “boxcars” since, standing inside one when the outer door of which had been closed, a person could liken the experience to standing inside a closed freight car. 1

The Court, in its April 19, 1978 order, enjoined the “nonconsensual placement” of an inmate in a “boxcar” type cell. 450 F.Supp. at 948 (Number 5). In discussing the boxcar cells, this Court stated:

The most odious characteristic, however, was the closed-front cell, the boxcar. An inmate would spend nearly every minute of every day in his cell, cut off from any contact with the outside world — even the limited “outside world” of the incarcerated felon. The inmate’s existence was limited by the space of his cell and the approximately three feet beyond the cell bars, at which point the outer wall was erected. These walls contained but a small window in the door. Even though the inmate could express a preference as to whether the outer door would be open or closed, the correctional officer had the final say in the matter.
The sensory deprivation occasioned by use of the boxcars, along with the lack of any idea about what could be done to be released from the control unit, resulted in both mental and physical deterioration. Simultaneously, unnecessary pain and suffering was the result. Finally, no justification for the use of the boxcars was even offered at trial.
Modern technological advances are capable of rendering medieval tortures such as the rack and screw obsolete. The potential for psychological and physiological torture is boundless — thus, the emerging role of the Eighth Amendment in our *1189 society. A society which takes pride in its commitment to the preservation of human rights must be ever vigilant to protect those rights. It cannot countenance any infringement on those rights which could create inroads into our ordered sense of decency. Accordingly, on the record before it, the Court finds that use of the closed front cells, the boxcars, violates society’s standards of humanity and dignity, and results in the infliction of unnecessary pain and suffering. Thus, it is violative of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The continued, nonconsensual use of a closed front cell is immediately enjoined.

450 F.Supp. at 946—47. In the order, the word “boxcar” was never specifically defined. Looking in retrospect, plaintiffs construed the word “boxcar” to mean every cell on A and D Range and cells 9 through 18 on B Range, that is, every cell with a steel and plexiglass outer wall and door. The defendants on the other hand read the opinion to enjoin only the use of cells on B Range, numbers 9 through 18.

For clarification of the intent of the Court’s order of April 19, 1978, 450 F.Supp. 934, wherein at page 948 at paragraph 5, the Court ordered “the nonconsensual placement in a ‘boxcar’ type cell is enjoined,” the intended meaning of this was to apply to all closed front cells, whether on A, B or D Range.

In order to avoid further possible confusion and because of the modification of the cells on B Range to make them substantially similar to the cells on A and D Range, the Court will in the future refrain from the use of the term “boxcar” and instead use the term “closed front cell.”

CONTEMPT AND CLOSED FRONT CELLS

The specific matter before this Court is the issue of whether defendants are in contempt for their alleged violation of this Court’s order in Bono v. Saxbe, supra, in view of defendants’ present use of closed front cells on B Range in cells number 9 through 18. In the interest of establishing a final and an authoritative rule of law on the constitutionality under the Eighth Amendment of defendants’ use of the closed front cells on B Range, the Court will consider that issue in passing on the contempt issue.

Crucial to the contempt matter is defendants’ logic in determining that their resumed nonconsensual use of the closed front cells number 9 through 18 on B Range complied with the order of this Court. In order to deal with the mandate of Bono, the Bureau of Prisons undertook a $4,800 reconstruction of the outer walls and doors of cells 9 through 18 on B Range. Their efforts resulted in two large windows in the door. (See photo, Exhibit 8, appended.)

Defendants then began to use these closed front cells on B Range again, but the use was limited to disciplinary segregation within H-Unit. As a rule, the outer door was to remain open, but could be closed in the H-Unit manager’s discretion for “administrative” reasons. For example, the outer doors of all those cells on B Range would be closed when an inmate was moved on or off the range. In addition, the throwing of food, water or human waste out onto the range would occasion closing the outer door of the cells. The duration of the closing in this second situation lay within the H-Unit manager’s discretion.

Defendants apparently reasoned that the increased light available by the enlargement of the plexiglass windows in the door of the closed front cells on B Range (See photo, Exhibit 8, appended), along with the new procedure whereby the outer door was closed only for administrative reasons, leapt all constitutional hurdles preventing non-consensual closure of the outer doors of those cells.

In time, plaintiffs filed their Motion for a Rule to Show Cause why a contempt citation should not issue. Relying on this Court’s order of April 19, 1978, and testimony of inmates that when the outer door is closed, ventilation in the cells is minimal and efforts to communicate with staff go virtually without notice, plaintiffs argue *1190 that the contempt of Marion officials for the order of this Court is a foregone conclusion. Defendants, on the other hand, assert that

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Bluebook (online)
527 F. Supp. 1187, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bono-v-saxbe-ilsd-1981.