Randall Shield Wolf Trapp et al.
n1 v.
Lawrence Dubois et al.
n2
n1 William Whitefeather Durfee, Robert Fish, Rubin Jett, James Crow Feather
Manley, Bernard R. Bailey, Sr., and Christopher Bousquet
n2 John Marshall, P.J. Chalapatas, Michael Dorian
95-0779
SUPERIOR COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS, AT WORCESTER
May 4, 2000, Decided
May 8, 2000, Filed
MEMORANDUM OF DECISION UPON COMPLAINT
INTRODUCTION
Plaintiffs, members of the Native American
Spiritual Awareness Council and
inmates at the North Central
Correctional Institution at Gardner (NCCI, Gardner), have brought this suit seeking,
inter alia, the opportunity to engage in
religious activities within
purification
lodges (Lodges). n1 Defendants have resisted plaintiffs' claims, asserting, in the main, that
security concerns justify their reluctance to permit the construction and
employment of a
lodge on the premises of NCCI, Gardner.
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n1 Plaintiffs also sought relief with respect to their possession of certain
religious articles, in eliminating criteria for
membership in their Council and in obtaining compensatory damages and costs. Their demand
for the right to employ
ceremonial items was satisfied by the issuance of preliminary injunctions, their concerns
in connection with defendants' limitation of
membership in the Council were relieved by agreement between the parties and,
for the
reasons stated infra. damages and costs will not be awarded. The parties have agreed that the
sole issue remaining centers upon the lawfulness of defendants' refusal to
permit members of the Council to
construct and use a
lodge within NCCI, Gardner.
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A bench trial commenced on December 14, 1999 in the Worcester Superior Court.
Testimony was offered, documentary evidence was received and memoranda of law
were, in lieu of closing arguments, solicited from counsel. The memoranda were
received on January 14, 2000 (plaintiffs) and March 2, 2000 (defendants). The
matter is now ripe for decision.
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. The parties having stipulated to the sincerity of defendants' commitment to
the
spiritual and
salutary properties of
purification
lodge
rites, this Court accepts the
bona fides and religiosity of plaintiffs' belief system.
2. The
rites commonly engaged in a
purification
lodge
result in a mental and emotional cleansing of participants who occasionally
experience a sense of, as they express it, rebirth.
3. A similar, though less
spiritually elevating, experience is available in other
ceremonials, such as
"prayer
circles,"
"smudging,"
meditation and pipe smoking, which involve community-focused spirituality, inhalation of
sweet grasses and communications. Those
ceremonials provide the participants with revelations of truth, a measure of
spiritual healing and introspection, and an opportunity for bonding with others similarly situated. Defendants have not impeded the attendance at
"circles" and other
ceremonials and have provided some of the items (sweet grasses, sage, herbs etc.) employed
in such
rites. At present, NCCI, Gardner permits regular
smudgings,
circles, Winter and Spring solstice feasts and the wearing of
religious artifacts that do not possess
"gang" significance.
4. A
purification
lodge is generally twelve feet in diameter; its frame is
composed of bent willow poles; its outer skin is
composed of material (blankets and tarpaulins) that is non-porous as befits a structure
intended to avoid out-leaks of heat and smoke. There are no windows in the
lodge and the activities within are wholly
unobservable by those without.
5. The usual
ceremony in a
lodge requires that stones be heated to 2000 degrees F at a wood-fed fire pit a
short distance from the entrance and transported, by
metal rakes and shovels, into the
lodge. The rocks glow to a bright red hue and heat the interior of the
purification
lodge to about 150 degrees F, thus accounting for its less elegant sobriquet,
"sweat
lodge." The
ceremonial activities within the
lodge may occupy up to four to five hours. The extreme heat and smoke inhalation enable the participants in the
ceremony
"to move into other worlds" and
"to
follow the path."
6. Although defendants had, in the past, limited
inmate
membership in the Council to those who could demonstrate their Native American
heritage, no such institutional limitations are now in force because, since 1991, the
Council ceased discrimination and has welcomed all
inmates, regardless of ethnicity, to
membership. Thus, the exclusionism that concerned defendants is now a thing of the past
and defendants no longer seek to cull the Council's rolls.
7. NCCI, Gardner was originally designed and built as a State Hospital. Its
construct was not intended to provide security and its metamorphosis into a
correctional institution has required adjustments which do not provide optimum assurance
that the traditional objectives of a maximum security facility can be
appropriately maintained at Gardner.
Accordingly, although the
inmate population of NCCI, Gardner, is regarded as one presenting
"security risks," the facility possesses certain physical deficits that are not compatible with
the character of the population.
n2
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n2 NCCI, Gardner Is a
"Level 4" institution. By comparison, the security levels of MCI, Cedar Junction, and
MCI, Souza-Baranowski--both of which are regarded as the most secure facilities
in the Commonwealth--are rated as
"Level 6."
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DISCUSSION
Because many of the disputes that prompted claims in the Complaint have been
resolved by pre-trial
injunctive relief, waivers and agreements between the parties, there remains for resolution only
the dispute over the defendants' refusal to permit plaintiffs to employ a
purification
lodge, and its usual rituals, in the practice of their
religion. The contest implicates provisions of both the United States Constitution and
the Massachusetts Constitution. The former bars impingement upon an
inmate's exercise of his or her
religion unless the restriction is
"reasonably related to legitimate
penological interests."
Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 89, 96 L. Ed. 2d 64, 107 S. Ct. 2254 (1987). See also
Employment Div. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 108 L. Ed. 2d 876, 110 S. Ct. 1595 (1990);
O'Lone v. Estate of Shabazz, 482 U.S. 342, 96 L. Ed. 2d 282, 107 S. Ct. 2400 (1987). The latter protects an
inmate's
religious observations unless the state's burdening of his or her practices is justified
by
"compelling interests" and is
"tailored
narrowly" to accomplish those interests.
Attorney General v. Desilets, 418 Mass. 316, 320-21, 636 N.E.2d 233 (1994).
Under neither constitutional theory, however, may the instant plaintiffs
prevail. On the facts found at bar, there is indeed a
reasonable relation between the defendants' prohibition of
purification
lodge activities and legitimate
penological interests, and the prohibition is both justified
by cogent governmental imperatives and crafted to impact only those practices
which threaten that interest.
This Court is persuaded that the Commonwealth has a surpassing interest in
diminishing the opportunities for mischief that abound in
purification
lodge
ceremonies where heated rocks and
metal implements are employed out of view of
correctional officers. And, if we factor into the analysis the likely disorienting effects
of inhalants that permit the participants to
"move into other worlds," there is little doubt that, were the institutional authorities to allow such
ceremonies, the potential for disruption of the
orderly conduct of institutional business would become reality. n3 When assayed by
both the
"reasonable relation" test--pursuant to which First Amendment challenges are addressed--and the more
plaintiff-friendly
"furtherance of a compelling governmental interest" and
"least restrictive alternative" litmus--to which Massachusetts freedom of
religion constitutional disputes are subjected--the plaintiffs' cause does not succeed.
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n3 The Court is aware that evidence was
presented by plaintiffs to the effect that
purification
lodge
ceremonies have been permitted without untoward results in other jurisdictions. Such
evidence is not compelling, however, because, in each of the foreign instances
cited by plaintiffs, the circumstances were significantly unlike those that
obtain at bar. That is, the NCCI, Gardner, circumstances--maximum security
population,
"gang" organizations present, physical plant not designed to serve as a
correctional facility,
et cetera--were not replicated in the cited instances and, accordingly, those references
possess little, if any, probative value for the resolution of the instant
matter.
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Doubtless there is a reasonable nexus, on the facts at bar, between the
prohibition of
ceremonial uses of
purification
lodges and the legitimate
penological objective of internal security.
So too, the prohibition plainly advances the Commonwealth's compelling
interest in avoiding threats to
orderly management and the integrity of the institution and does so in a manner that
is, in the circumstances,
minimally burdensome upon plaintiffs'
religious rights. To itemize the properties of the
purification
lodge
rite--red hot stones,
metal rakes and shovels, activities
unobservable for four to five hours--is to demonstrate its patent incongruity with accepted
notions of institutional security and safety. And, conceding that the
alternatives permitted by defendants--to wit,
prayer
circles,
smudging,
meditation, pipe smoking,
et cetera--are not as
spiritually efficacious as is the
purification
lodge
rite, defendants'
preclusion of
lodge
ceremonies remains a reasonable,
narrowly conceived effort to serve the Commonwealth's transcendent interest in the
effectiveness of its
correctional programs, the safety of its
inmates and the common good that is, at bottom, the objective of all social
initiatives.
In sum, this Court determines that, although plaintiffs' identification with
their cultural
heritage and their devotion to their
religious belief system is indisputably sincere
and affords them the opportunity for
salutary,
spiritual achievement, defendants'
preclusion, at
NCCI, Gardner, of
purification
lodges and the
ceremonies conducted therein survives plaintiffs' protests brought under the United
States and Commonwealth Constitutions. Given the extraordinary risks posed by
the
purification
lodge
rites and noting the alternative forms of
religious expression available to plaintiffs, the Court is persuaded that the
preclusion at bar is reasonably related to the legitimate objectives of defendants'
authority, is justified by the Commonwealth's interests in
penological security and does not unduly burden plaintiffs' constitutional rights to
practice their
religion.
CONCLUSION
With respect to the several
prayers for relief presented by plaintiff's complaint, the Court concludes that:
A. Judgment shall enter, upon
Prayers 1, 2 and 3, in accordance with the
injunctive relief heretofore granted by the Court;
B. Judgment shall enter, upon
Prayers 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10, for defendants for the
reasons stated
supra;
C. Judgment shall enter, upon
Prayers 7 and 8, in accordance with
injunctive relief heretofore granted by this Court.
Daniel F. Toomey
Justice
of the Superior Court
DATED: May 4, 2000