Justia Federal District Court Opinions

Before ALDISERT, Chief Judge, SEITZ, ADAMS, GIBBONS, HUNTER, WEIS, GARTH, HIGGINBOTHAM, SLOVITER, BECKER, Circuit Judges, and TEITELBAUM, District Judge.*

The petition for rehearing filed by appellees Ronald J. Marks and Jay C. Waldman in the above entitled case having been submitted to the judges who participated in the decision of this court, 755 F.2d 338, and to all the other available circuit judges of the circuit in regular active service, and no judge who concurred in the decision having asked for rehearing, and a majority of the circuit judges of the circuit in regular active service not having voted for rehearing by the court in banc, the petition for rehearing is denied.

Circuit Judges ADAMS, HUNTER, WEIS, GARTH and BECKER would grant the petition for rehearing.

Circuit Judge ADAMS dissents from the denial of the petition for rehearing in banc because he believes that this case raises important questions regarding the scope of the Younger abstention doctrine, and because it appears that the state court proceedings involving the Philadelphia County Prison system are being conducted in good faith and with due haste.

The petition for rehearing filed by City Appellees in the above entitled case having been submitted to the judges who participated in the decision of this court and to all the other available circuit judges of the circuit in regular active service, and no judge who concurred in the decision having asked for rehearing, and a majority of the circuit judges of the circuit in regular active service not having voted for rehearing by the court in banc, the petition for rehearing is denied.

Circuit Judges ADAMS, HUNTER, WEIS, GARTH and BECKER would grant the petition for rehearing.

Judge Adams dissents from the denial of the petition for rehearing in banc because he believes that this case raises important questions regarding the scope of the Younger abstention doctrine, and because it appears that the state court proceedings involving the Philadelphia County prison system are being conducted in good faith and with due haste.

GARTH, Circuit Judge, dissenting from the Court's denial of the City of Philadelphia's Petition for Rehearing:

My dissent from the refusal of the majority to order Williams v. Red Bank Board of Education, 662 F.2d 1008, 1009 (3d Cir.1981) abstention was grounded on the principle that Federal courts should not take over, manage and operate city or state prisons when the state courts are enforcing all constitutional--including federal constitutional--requirements. At the time that I dissented from the panel opinion, I wrote:

The pleadings clearly reveal that since March 15, 1976, the Court of Common Pleas has not only imposed corrective measures on the Commonwealth Prison Administration, but has done so continuously through various consent decrees. As recently as June 22, 1984, additional orders have been entered by the state courts. For a federal court to step in and ignore the state's own corrective proceedings is, so far as I am concerned, as inappropriate and wrong as it is for a federal court to run state hospitals, see Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 104 S.Ct. , 908 [79 L.Ed.2d 67] (1984); Youngberg v. Romeo, 457 U.S. 307 [102 S.Ct. 2452, 73 L.Ed.2d 28] (1982), or schools, see Williams v. Red Bank Board of Education, 662 F.2d 1008, (3d Cir.1981). This is so particularly where the state court's have been strictly enforcing federal constitutional mandates.

The Petition for Rehearing that followed the filing of our opinions in Harris pointed out that Jackson v. Hendrick, No. 71-2437, slip op., (C.P.Phila. April 7, 1972), which resulted in a consent decree, affirmed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 457 Pa. 405, 321 A.2d 603 (1974), "... was originally brought as a broad challenge to conditions in the Philadelphia prisons, ... including ... overcrowding.... The case extends to every detention or prison facility within the city ... In recent years, the Jackson court has focused intensely on overcrowding.

"The supervision by the Jackson court has been active, and has involved not only the court but also the full time work of a master appointed by the court. During 1984, the Jackson court has taken the following steps:

City Appellees' Petition for Reconsideration in Banc.

The record before the panel of this court did not disclose the State Court's activities and orders after June, 1984. The Petition for Rehearing now reveals the following:

Thus, not only have the lower state courts in Pennsylvania been actively engaged in controlling and supervising the prison population and prison conditions of the Philadelphia County prisons, but it now appears that effective November 21, 1984, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court itself has taken over all proceedings filed in such actions. More importantly, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has directed compliance with court orders concerning: (1) construction of new facilities, (2) population caps, (3) release of prisoners, and (4) conditions of confinement including double and triple celling.

These are the very issues involved in the federal proceeding before us and, as the Petition for Rehearing observes, unless Williams' abstention is ordered, the overall state court review of the Philadelphia County prisons will be subject to conflicting and contrary determinations respecting each of these vital state concerns. Accordingly, as a matter of federal court policy, I suggest that the panel majority has erred in its failure to acknowledge considerations of comity due the Commonwealth.

Moreover, as a matter of law, the majority's analysis of the Williams abstention doctrine, and its failure to apply Williams here, is just plain wrong and indefensible. Perhaps an incorrect analysis which leads to an unhappy result may be overlooked or tolerated in private litigation where the stakes and the property interests are not too high. Where, however, the result of a distorted reading of Supreme Court and Third Circuit precedents leads to the very federal intrusion into state concerns that the Supreme Court and considerations of comity have counseled against, then I suggest we have exceeded our functions by far.

In this case, the Pennsylvania state courts have been overseeing and supervising the Philadelphia County Prisons since 1972. A special master is in place. Fines and other coercive means have been employed to correct a system that, as Chief Justice Nix of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently held, "... results from the fact that past successive city administrations have avoided the inevitability of providing additional facilities through rationalization, dilatoriness and procrastination." Jackson v. Hendrick, No. 180 E.D.Misc.Docket 1984 (Pa., October 17, 1984).

The attention that has been given to prison problems in Philadelphia County prisons is further evidenced by the observation of Chief Justice Nix of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that