Sands v. Wainwright

357 F. Supp. 1062, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15519
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedJanuary 5, 1973
DocketCiv. 71-339
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 357 F. Supp. 1062 (Sands v. Wainwright) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sands v. Wainwright, 357 F. Supp. 1062, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15519 (M.D. Fla. 1973).

Opinion

ORDER AND OPINION OF COURT

CHARLES R. SCOTT, District Judge.

On May 12, 1971, plaintiff John A. Sands, an inmate incarcerated at the Florida State Prison 1 at Raiford, Florida, caused to be filed in the Clerk’s office of this Court a pro se, handwritten petition which he characterized and denominated as a “writ of habeas corpus for relief and full compensation”. The petition, however, was in effect a civil complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging violations of his civil rights. This Court on its own motion and in accordance with the pre-trial stipulation filed herein June 29, 1972, here treats the pro se petition as a civil complaint seeking declaratory relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2201. This Court is satisfied that jurisdiction exists. 42 U.S.C. § 1983; 28 U.S.C. §§ 1343(3) and 1343(4); 28 U.S.C. § 2201.

In his complaint the plaintiff Sands (sometimes hereinafter plaintiff and sometimes hereinafter Sands) raises basic issues regarding whether the prison disciplinary proceedings to which he was subjected afforded procedural due process to him and whether these proceedings deprived him of rights secured by the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. This Court is of the firm opinion, hereinafter expressed, that the plaintiff was not afforded procedural due process and hereinafter declares the rights and other legal relations of the parties.

Subsequent to the initiation by the pro se plaintiff of this litigation, this Court sua sponte appointed three lawyers to represent him: James M. Russ, Esquire, and Michael F. Cycmanick, Esquire, of Orlando, Florida, and Walter Stedeford, Esquire, of Jacksonville, Florida.

The Court considers this to be a significant case. Since the Florida State Prison is located within the Jacksonville Division of the Middle District of Florida, many “prisoner” civil rights suits are filed here each year. At the present rate there will be about three hundred (300) of these suits alone filed in this Division this calendar year. Although the issues presented are as varied as the methodology of the various pro se plaintiffs who seek to raise them, a recurrent theme is the prison disciplinary system which the several plaintiffs countless times allege to be constitutionally defective. This consideration, when coupled with the hereinafter noted recent devel *1069 opments in this area of the law, explains the attention afforded this case.

I. FACTS

Plaintiff John A. Sands, a black man, is a thirty-one year old inmate who has spent the greater portion of his adult life in the prison institutions of the State of Florida. He is presently serving a fifteen year sentence for the crime of breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony. Previously, he was incarcerated for the crimes of armed robbery and attempt to escape. 2 When he first entered prison, Sands was only nineteen years of age. 3

Sands had spent some time while a teen-age boy in institutional homes. As a result of fighting and aggressive behavior at one of these, he ultimately had to be transferred to another correctional institution. While at these institutions, Sands received no mail or visitors, and the staff “. . . could locate no interested relatives to provide him a home.” 4

Within several months of his entering the Florida State Prison on April 19, 1960, Sands was involved in the first of many incidents which resulted in disciplinary action. The prison file documents at least eleven (11) incidents which have resulted in some type of formal disciplinary action. 5 Additionally, *1070 it is clear that Sands has been placed in administrative segregation under disciplináry circumstances. For example, in a Report of Administrative Segregation dated December 17, 1971, the “institutional Disciplinary Committee” assigned Sands to administrative segregation status for his alleged involvement in a racial incident in the- East Unit School. Further, the Court notes that, as is indicated within a section of his prison record denominated as “Punishment Record”, the prison authority apparently itself not only at least sometimes considers confinement in administrative segregation to be punishment but also assignment to the East Unit itself as a form of punishment. 6

*1071 Sands filed this ease as a result of a disciplinary report dated November 16, 1970, in which he was charged with “assault on other inmates” and “creating a racial disturbance”.I. ***** 7 The parties have *1072 stipulated and admitted the following facts: 8

(a) On November 16, 1970, the petitioner was furnished with a written disciplinary report signed by school instructor Michael Schallern charging the petitioner with the offenses of (1) assaulting other inmates, and (2) creating a racial disturbance.
(b) On November 17, 1970, the petitioner was taken from maximum security to stand trial before the East Unit Disciplinary Committee on these charges. Disciplinary committee action was postponed to November 20, 1970.
(c) On November 20, 1970, the disciplinary committee was again convened and the petitioner was brought before it. The petitioner generally alleged that he was not guilty of the charge. After denying petitioner’s request for his “rights”, the petitioner was found guilty of the charges. The committee took one hundred and twenty (120) days of gain time from his record and ordered that he be confined in punitive segregation on a special diet. The petitioner was confined to punitive segregation on Q-Wing of the East Unit and held there on the special diet for twenty-eight (28) days. The petitioner was thereafter placed in a maximum security wing, and at the time of filing the instant proceedings, had not been released to open population on the East Unit.
(d) The petitioner wasn’t provided with an attorney or legal counsel in connection with these proceedings and wasn’t advised of his right to be protected from compulsory self-incrimination.

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Bluebook (online)
357 F. Supp. 1062, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15519, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sands-v-wainwright-flmd-1973.