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AIDS/HIV Related

****Editor's Case Alert****

     A settlement of a lawsuit ending the segregation of HIV-positive prisoners in Alabama correctional facilities has been approved by a federal trial court. Female prisoners who are HIV-positive are now integrated into the general prison population and the same will be true of male positive prisoners in 2014. $1.3 million in legal fees and costs was also awarded to be paid by the state. The prior segregation policy was found to violate federal disability discrimination statutes. The ruling leaves South Carolina as the only state still segregating HIV positive prisoners. Henderson v. Thomas, #2:11cv224, 2013 U.S. Dist. Lexis 140098 (M.D. Ala.).

Disability Discrimination: Prisoners

     A former Arizona state prisoner with a disability stemming from a prior ankle injury claimed that a private company for which he picked tomatoes as part of a convict labor force failed to reasonably accommodate his disability. The lawsuit was properly dismissed, as the relationship was not one of employment for purposes of federal disability discrimination statutes. Additionally, the defendant company did not receive federal funds. Summary judgment for state defendants was improperly granted, however, as they could be liable for any disability discrimination committed by the contractor. Castle v. Eurofresh, Inc., #11-17947, 2013 U.S. App. Lexis 19521 (9th Cir.).

     Disabled California state prisoners and parolees sued the state seeking an injunction requiring more accommodations of various disabilities. The trial court issued a series of orders requiring the state to implement a previously negotiated County Jail Plan for disabled prisoners and parolees. A federal appeals court rejected the state's argument that these orders conflicted with recent amendments to the state penal code designed to alleviate overcrowding in state prisons or required more of the defendants than was needed to assist in remedying disability discrimination violations for which they had responsibilities. Armstrong v. Brown, #12-16018, 2013 U.S. App. Lexis 20323 (9th Cir.).

First Amendment

     A man civilly committed as a sexually violent person claimed that the facility's director violated his First Amendment freedom by enforcing a policy limiting all residents from copying a newsletter he had produced that was critical of conditions, policies, and personnel at the facility and which he claimed had previously had a disruptive effect. After the litigation had begun, but before the trial court granted summary judgment for th defendant director, a new and stricter policy was adopted. The federal appeals court vacated the ruling, holding that the trial court should consider the constitutionality of the revised policy along with the previous one, to avoid "piecemeal adjudication." Pesci v. Budz, #12-11144, 2013 U.S. App. Lexis 19446 (11th Cir.).

Parole

     A paroled sex offender filed a federal civil rights lawsuit challenging two conditions of his parole: a residency restriction and a requirement that he submit to aq type of electronic monitoring incorporating a GPS device. A federal appeals court held that the fact that his conviction or sentence had not been overturned or set aside did not bar his federal civil rights lawsuit because it was not a collateral attack on either the fact of his confinement as a parolee or on his underlying conviction or sentence. He only challenged two parole conditions, both of which were imposed through an exercise of discretion. His success in the lawsuit would not result in a speedier release from parole, nor would it imply the invalidity of his conviction. Thornton v. Brown, #11-56146, 724 F.3d 1255 (9th Cir. 2013).

Prison Litigation Reform Act: Three Strikes Rule

     A prisoner claimed that the defendant prison officials were responsible fot using excessive force against him on several occasions. After the lawsuit was dismissed, he appealed, and sought an order giving him the trial transcript for free on the basis of poverty. Denying this request, the appeals court noted that he was not--and could not--proceed as a pauper because he had "three strikes (meritless lawsuits), and the exception for prisoners in imminent danger of serious physical injury did not apply. Maus v. Baker, #13-2420, 2013 U.S. App. Lexis 18661 (7th Cir.).

Prisoner Assault: By Inmates

     A prisoner acting as his own lawyer filed a lawsuit claiming that jail officials willfully failed to stop other prisoners from attacking him. The trial judge held a "merit-review hearing" with the plaintiff over the phone, and then dismissed the lawsuit for failing to state a claim. There was no transcript of the hearing. A federal appeals court reversed, characterizing what the trial judge did as an "inquisitorial" procedure not allowed under U.S. law. While a judge may dismiss a lawsuit deemed frivolous, but when the validity of an asserted claim depends on the accuracy of factual allegations, as it did here, and an oral hearing is required, it must be carried out in a manner governed by trial procedures. While the judge would be permitted to interview a plaintiff acting as his own attorney if he needed to do so to clarify an unclear complaint, he should not turn such an interview into a cross-examination that attempts to elicit admissions. Williams v. Wahner, #12-1886, 2013 U.S. App. Lexis 20116 (7th Cir.).

Prisoner Death/Injury

     After a woman's son died at a county jail from multiple drug intoxication, she sued two correctional officers for failing to prevent the death. One officer was entitled to qualified immunity as he did not have any subjective knowledge of the fact that the prisoner needed medical attention, and therefore could not have acted with deliberate indifference. A second officer, however, under the alleged circumstances he confronted, should have realized that a constitutional violation would occur if he deliberately ignored the need for medical attention, so he was not entitled to qualified immunity. Thompson v. King, #12-3450, 2013 U.S. App. Lexis 19363 (8th Cir.).

Religion

     A Muslim prisoner claimed that three state prison officials substantially burdened his religious freedom in violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) by disciplining him for harassment and making statements of a personal nature to a staff member when he gave a Quran to one of them following an incident. A federal appeals court rejected claims against the state officials in their official capacity as the statute does not authorize claims for money damages against state officials. Claims against them in their individual capacities were also rejected as no such private right of action against individual state officials is created. Washington v. Gonyea, #11-980, 2013 U.S. App. Lexis 18759 (2nd Cir.).

Retaliation

     Summary judgment was properly granted for a defendant prison official on a prisoner's unlawful retaliation claim. The prisoner's action in serving the prison official with a lawsuit summons and complaint on behalf of another prisoner was not constitutionally protected activity either on the basis of the right of access to the courts or the First Amendment. Blaisdell v. Frappiea, #10-16845, 2013 U.S. App. Lexis18782 (9th Cir.).

Sexual Harassment

     A female correctional officer who worked in a sex offender unit at a youth correctional facility claimed that a male prisoner targeted her for sexual harassment, including open masturbation and various threats. She quit her job and sued the facility for a hostile work environment, sexual harassment, and retaliation. Upholding a judgment for the defendant on all claims, the Montana Supreme Court found that the defendant had extended and held open an offer of a transfer to a different unit to the plaintiff for approximately one year before she quit and that it also promptly and reasonably offered a solution to end the inmate's harassment of her by making the transfer available. Puskas v. Pine Hills Youth Corr. Facility, #DA 12-0515, 2013 MT 223, 371 Mont. 259, 2013 Mont. Lexis 313.

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       Statistics: Corrections Statistics by State. National Institute of Corrections (NIC).

Reference:

     • Abbreviations of Law Reports, laws and agencies used in our publications.

     • AELE's list of recently-noted jail and prisoner law resources.