Howe v. Hughes

Plaintiffs-civil detainees under Illinois Sexually Dangerous Persons Act at Big Muddy Correctional Center filed section 1983 action, alleging that their continued detention violated their Due Process rights, since treatment plan offered by defendants that was used to determine whether they were sufficiently rehabbed from their disorders so as to allow for their release was constitutionally deficient. Record showed that defendants offered one-hour core group therapy session one time per week, while expert testified that minimum core therapy group sessions should be five hours per week. Moreover, while defendant offered offense-specific and didactic therapy groups, said groups were on hold at time of lawsuit. While Dist. Ct. entered permanent injunction requiring defendants to provide 7.5 hours of core group therapy per week, to reinstate all offense-specific and didactic therapy groups pn weekly basis, and to employ different independent evaluator of detainees’ progress on plan, Ct. of Appeals found that remand was required, since instant injunction was overbroad under Prison Litigation Review Act, where injunction required defendants to provide more services than was constitutionally required. This is so, because: (1) expert testimony indicated that five hours per week for core group therapy was constitutional minimum of what was required to be provided; (2) injunction did not provide defendants with flexibility to determine which offense-specific or didactic therapy sessions should be offered on weekly basis; and (3) record did not support requirement that defendants employ different independent evaluator.