Court Eases Curbs on Isolating Convicts : Says Prison Administrators, Not Judges, Must Run Facilities

Saying that “prison administrators, not courts, must run prisons,” an appeals court has substantially weakened a federal judge’s restrictions on placing and keeping inmates in the lockup units of San Quentin and Folsom state prisons.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that prisoners have no right to a formal hearing to challenge their lockup, can be housed in lockup based on an official’s subjective assessment of dangers in the prison and cannot be removed by court order if there is “some evidence” to justify the placement.

The court overturned a 1984 decision by U.S. District Judge Stanley A. Weigel giving a monitor whom he had appointed the power to order prisoners released from lockup, subject to an appeal to Weigel, if the monitor found their placement unjustified. The monitor has ordered release of about two dozen inmates into the general prison population, but nearly all have remained in lockup pending the state’s appeal.

Also reversed was a Weigel order that inmates in lockup be given access to work programs. The appeals court said “enforced idleness” is not a constitutional violation.

‘Discretionary State Functions’

Weigel’s rulings gave prisoners more protection than they were entitled to, said the opinion by Judge Robert R. Beezer for a three-judge panel. He said the need to restrict court orders to “enforcement of minimum constitutional rights is especially great when federal judicial relief threatens to usurp such highly discretionary state functions.”

The ruling “will return control of segregation units at San Quentin and Folsom to administration officials,” Deputy Atty. Gen. Paul D. Gifford said.

Bernard Zimmerman, one of the lawyers representing prisoners in the 13-year-old suit, said he and his colleagues particularly disagree with the ruling’s cutback of hearing procedures and the authority of the prison monitor. He said an appeal is planned.

The ruling affects between 2,000 and 2,500 prisoners who spend nearly all their time in high-security, 50-square-foot cells that are separated from the main prison population. Inmates are placed in lockup for various reasons, including prison infractions, gang affiliation and personal protection.

Weigel, who had previously forbidden placement of more than one man in a lockup cell, ruled in October, 1984, that conditions in the cells violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. He ordered a series of improvements, which the state largely did not appeal.