Cameron v. Tomes

CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedApril 1, 1993
Docket92-1343
StatusPublished

This text of Cameron v. Tomes (Cameron v. Tomes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cameron v. Tomes, (1st Cir. 1993).

Opinion

USCA1 Opinion


March 31, 1993 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT
____________________

No. 92-1343

ROBERT E. CAMERON,

Plaintiff, Appellee,

v.

HENRY TOMES, ET AL.,

Defendants, Appellants.

____________________

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Robert E. Keeton, U.S. District Judge]
___________________

____________________

Before

Selya, Circuit Judge,
_____________
Coffin, Senior Circuit Judge,
____________________
and Boudin, Circuit Judge.
_____________

____________________

Elisabeth J. Medvedow, Assistant Attorney General, Commonwealth
______________________
of Massachusetts, with whom Scott Harshbarger, Attorney General,
__________________
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, was on brief for appellant.
David M. Rocchio with whom Robert D. Keefe, Mark G. Matuschak,
_________________ ________________ _________________
and Hale and Dorr were on brief for appellee.
_____________

____________________

March 31, 1993
____________________

BOUDIN, Circuit Judge. This case was brought by Robert
_____________

Cameron, who is currently detained in the Massachusetts

Treatment Center for the Sexually Dangerous ("the Treatment

Center"). The defendants, whom we refer to as "the state,"

are officials who are responsible for the Treatment Center.

In substance, Cameron complains that his conditions of

confinement violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth

Amendment and his asserted constitutional "right to

treatment."

After a bench trial the district court granted

injunctive relief and the state appealed. We modify the

injunction in accordance with this opinion and, with certain

clarifications, otherwise affirm most of the relief ordered

by the district court. Our decision is based upon the

district court's findings but rests upon somewhat different

legal grounds.

I. THE FACTS AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

On December 13, 1978, Cameron was convicted in Vermont

of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and sexual

assault--apparently attempted rape--and sentenced to a term

of six to twenty years. He was then extradited to

Massachusetts and convicted on September 12, 1979, for

assault with intent to rape, kidnapping, and other crimes,

and sentenced to a term of ten to twenty years, commencing

after the Vermont sentence. On being paroled by Vermont on

-2-
-2-

July 12, 1982, Cameron began serving his Massachusetts

sentence, which at the time of trial was set to expire in the

year 2002.1

After serving several years in a Massachusetts prison,

Cameron on November 14, 1985, was adjudged by the

Massachusetts Superior Court to be a sexually dangerous

person under M.G.L. c. 123A, and committed to the Treatment

Center for a period of one day to life. The occasion for the

commitment is not described. The Treatment Center, one of

several facilities located at MCI Bridgewater, has a

checkered history, much of it embroiled in litigation, e.g.,
___

Langton v. Johnston, 928 F.2d 1206 (1st Cir. 1991), and
_______ ________

M.G.L. c. 123A itself has an uncertain future.2 Most of the

Treatment Center's inhabitants have underlying criminal

convictions, and it is administered jointly by the

Departments of Mental Health and Corrections to address both

the medical and security aims of the Center. Cameron's stay

____________________

1The district court opinion recites that the
Massachusetts sentence ended in February 1992; but the
parties advise us that Cameron's release date at the time of
trial was 2002. Cameron's brief says that this period may be
shortened by good time credits and possible parole.

2The statute is one of the so-called sexual psychopath
laws enacted in the 1940s in a number of states. See C.
___
Tenney, Sex, Sanity and Stupidity in Massachusetts, 42 B.U.L.
__________________________________________
Rev. 1 (1962). In 1990, the Massachusetts legislature
curtailed new admissions into the Treatment Center. See
___
Langton, 928 F.2d at 1209.
_______

-3-
-3-

at the Treatment Center appears to have been even more

unhappy than normal.

Although the parties agree on little else, it appears

that Cameron who is 50 years old and a Vietnam veteran

suffers from severe psychological disorders. In the words of

the district court, "Cameron suffers from a borderline or

mixed personality disorder and post-traumatic stress

disorder. There is also no dispute that as a result . . . he

may often act in a paranoid and confrontational manner."

Cameron v. Tomes, 783 F. Supp. 1511, 1517 (D. Mass. 1992).
_______ _____

Psychological treatment is available at the Treatment Center-

-indeed, its availability is provided for under a consent

judgment entered many years ago3--but Cameron found what was

offered unsuitable until 1989 when he established a working

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