AELE LAW LIBRARY OF CASE SUMMARIES:
Corrections Law for
Jails, Prisons and Detention Facilities
Housing
Monthly Law Journal Article: Racial
Classifications and Inmate Housing Assignments, 2010
(1) AELE Mo. L. J. 301.
An inmate claimed that his free exercise
of religion rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use
and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. 2000cc et seq. were
violated because he was prohibited from consuming wine during communion,
he was required to work on the Sabbath, and he was housed with non-Christian
and anti-Christian cellmates, including an active Satanist. He further
asserted a claim for deliberate indifference to his medical needs. A federal
appeals court found that the plaintiff successfully alleged facts sufficient
to go forward on his Sabbath and cell assignment claims, and the fact that
he received some medical treatment for some of his various symptoms did
not defeat his deliberate indifference claim when he alleged that some
symptoms were not treated at all. The appeals court reversed the summary
dismissal of the wine communion claim, as the plaintiff did not have the
opportunity to submit a brief on whether the wine ban substantially burdened
the exercise of his religion and the record did not show that the total
ban on wine consumption during communion was the least restrictive means
of furthering the prison's asserted security interest. Jehovah v. Clarke,
#13-7529, 2015 U.S. App. Lexis 11818 (4th Cir.).
A California prison's refusal to accommodate
an Aryan Christian Odinist prisoner's request that he be classified an
ineligible to be housed with a cellmate of a different race did not violate
his religious free exercise rights under either the First Amendment or
the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C.
2000cc et seq. Denying a religious exemption to the prison's classification
scheme was the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling interest
in complying with constitutional restrictions on racial segregation. Walker
v. Beard, #12-17460, 2015 U.S. App. Lexis 10255 (9th Cir.).
A federal appeals
court rejected a prisoner's argument that he had a right, under the Ninth
Amendment, to choose his own cellmate. Additionally, the plaintiff prisoner
acknowledged that he had subsequently been placed with an acceptable cellmate.
Murray v. Bledsoe, #10-4397, 2011 U.S. App. Lexis 11702 (3rd Cir.).
Editor's Note: Two previous cases
holding that prisoners have no constitutional right to choose their cellmates
are Harris v. Greer, #83-2575, 750 F.2d 617 (7th Cir.1984); and Cole v.
Benson, #85-1051, 760 F.2d 226 (8th Cir.1985) (per curiam)
A California inmate sued prison officials
who allegedly assigned him a cellmate based on race. At the time this occurred,
however, the court ruled, it was not yet clearly established that a policy
of considering race in making such cell assignments was a violation of
equal protection. Instead, it was regarded as "undoubtedly a legitimate
penological interest" related to prison security, a concept later
overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court in Johnson v. California, #03-636,
543 U.S. 499 (2005) (holding strict scrutiny should be applied to such
racial classifications). Prison officials were therefore entitled to qualified
immunity from liability. The court rejected the argument that various international
treaties prohibiting racial segregation were enough so that prison officials
should have known their policy was unlawful, noting that such treaties
did not provide for an individual cause of action for violations. The prisoner
was also not entitled to injunctive relief, as the prison has stopped using
race as a factor in housing prisoners, and the plaintiff has been transferred
to a dormitory facility. Mayweathers v. Woodford, #08-56835, 2010 U.S.
App. Lexis 17464 (Unpub. 9th Cir.).
The use of race as a factor in assigning
cellmates on the basis of concern about gang and racial violence was supported
by legitimate safety and security interests. The plaintiff prisoner failed
to show that prison employees should have known that their use of race
in this manner was unlawful under international treaties or the equal protection
clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Mayweathers v. Hickman, Case No. 05cv0713,
2008 U.S. Dist. Lexis 85154 (S.D. Ca.).
Housing a Muslim prisoner in a cell with
a non-Muslim did not constitute a "substantial burden" to his
exercise of his religious beliefs in violation of the Religious Land Use
& Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000
cc-1 or the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act, 51 Okl. St. Ann. Sec. 253.
Prisoner could pray several times during the day outside his cell and having
to pray, once a day, while locked down with this cellmate only had an "incidental"
effect on his practice of his religion. Policy of randomly assigning cellmates
was reasonably related to a legitimate penological objective of preventing
racial or religious discrimination in cell assignments. Steele v. Guilfeyle,
No. 97,997, 76 P.3d 99 (Okla. Civ. App. Div. 1 2003). [N/R]