Legal Issues in Jail

1
Legal Issues in Jail

• ISSDA Jail School
• Des Moines, Iowa
• September 19, 2006
• David VestalISAC General Counseldvestal_at_iowacoun
  ties.org(515) 244-7181

2
Disciplinary Segregation

• Putting a prisoner in segregation, even without
  cause, is not a constitutional violation.

3
Right to Marry

• The Supreme Court has concluded that prisoners
  have a constitutionally protected right to marry.
• Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 96, (1987)

4
Right to Outdoor Exercise

• There is no right to outdoor exercise.
• Campbell v. Cauthron, 623 F.2d 503, 507 (8th
  Cir.1980)

5
Right to Exercise Equipment

• The lack of exercise equipment does not
  constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
• Rhodes, v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 69 L. Ed. 2d
  59, 101 S. Ct. 2392 (1981)

6
Visitation

• Visitation is a privilege and within the
  correctional facility's province to administer as
  it sees fit.
• Burke v. Rudnick, 2000 WL 33339652 (D.N.D. 2000)

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Commissary

• "Because the county provided for the plaintiff's
  basic necessities (food, shelter, clothing,
  medical care, etc.), he had no protected property
  or liberty interest in commissary privileges."
• Poole v. Stubblefield, 2005 WL 2290450 (E.D.Mo.
  2005)

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Smoking

• Plaintiff complains that defendants will not
  allow him to smoke. There is no constitutional
  right to smoke in prison."
• Grass v. Sargent, 903 F.2d 1206, 1206 (8th Cir.
  1990)

9
Food

• Jail officials must provide a nutritionally
  adequate diet for prisoners.
• Divers v. Dep't of Corrections, 921 F.2d 191,
  194 (8th Cir. 1990)

10
Food Cont.

• The denial of food violates the constitutional
  rights of prisoners.
• Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 832, 114 S. Ct.
  1970, 128 L. Ed. 2d 811 (1994)

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Food Cont.

• Jails have a duty to provide their prisoners with
  nutritionally adequate food. But assuming that
  this is done, jail officials have the discretion
  to control its contents.
• Divers v. Department of Corr., 921 F.2d 191, 194
  (8th Cir. 1990)

12
Charging for Medical Care

• You can charge for medical care.
• You cannot refuse medical care because someone is
  unwilling or unable to pay for it.
• Taylor v Greenwell, D. Mo. 2005, Lexis 22373

13
Religious Services

• The state cannot compel or even encourage
  prisoners' attendance at religious services.
• Montano v. Hedgepeth, 120 F.3d 844, 850 n. 10
  (8th Cir. 1997)

14
Religious Services Cont.

• A jail cannot require prisoners to attend church
  services or participate in God-related programs
  like AA or NA
• Munson v Norris 8th Cir January 2006

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Religious Services Cont.

• "A prisoner need not be afforded his preferred
  means of practicing his religion as long as he is
  afforded sufficient means to do so.
• Murphy v Missouri Dept. of Corrections, 372 F.3d
  979, 983 (8th Cir. 2004)

16
Religious Services Cont.

• A prisoner is not entitled to a religious
  advisor whose beliefs are completely congruent
  with his own.
• Weir v. Nix, 114 F.3d 817, 820 (8th Cir. 1997)

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Threatening Language By Jail Staff

• Threatening words of jail staff, without more, do
  not invade a federally protected right.
• McDowell v. Jones, 990 F.2d 433, 434 (8th Cir.
  1993)

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Use of Force

• An 'actual injury' must be shown to support an
  excessive force claim under the Fourth Amendment.
• Hanig v. Lee, 415 F.3d 822, 824 (8th Cir. 2005)

19
Use of Force Cont.

• The basic question in use of force cases is
  "whether force was applied in a good faith effort
  to maintain or restore discipline or maliciously
  and sadistically to cause harm." Jones v.
  Shields, 207 F.3d 491, 495 (8th Cir. 2000)

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Use of Force Cont.

• Factors to be considered by a court in making
  the use of force determination include
• the need for the application of physical force
• the relationship between the need for physical
  force and the amount of force applied and
• the extent of the injury suffered by the
  prisoner.
• Jones v. Shields, 207 F.3d 491, 495 (8th Cir.
  2000)

21
Use of Force Cont.

• Limited use of the restraint board is not
  unreasonable, as long as it is only used for the
  amount of time necessary to restore order.
• Sanders v Zeller, U.S. Dist. Ct (N.D. Ia 2006)

22
Use of Force Cont.

• Incidents of property destruction are
  constitutionally valid reasons for restraining
  prisoners for short periods to prevent further
  damage.
• Hanks v Prachar, 8th Cir., August 2006

23
Jail Jobs

• Prisoners do not have a constitutional right to a
  particular jail job.
• Lomholt v. Holder, 287 F.3d 683, 684 (8th Cir.
  2002)

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Grievance Procedures

• No action shall be brought with respect to
  prison conditions under section 1983 by a
  prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other
  correctional facility until such administrative
  remedies as are available are exhausted.
• 42 U.S.C. 1997e(a)

25
Grievance Procedures Cont.

• It is well-settled that a prisoner has no
  constitutional right to an intra-prison grievance
  system and that the failure to investigate or
  respond to a prisoner's grievances is not
  actionable under 42 U.S.C 1983.
• Buckley v. Barlow, 997 F.2d 494, 495 (8th Cir.
  1993) 

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Grievance Procedures Cont.

• Only grievance procedures which are in reality
  available to a prisoner must be exhausted.
• Lyon v. Vande Krol, 305 F.3d 806, 808-09 (8th
  Cir. 2002)

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Prisoner Mail

• Jail officials do not commit constitutional
  violations by reading prisoners' outgoing
  non-privileged mail.
• Gassler v. Wood, 14 F.3d 406, 408 n.5 (8th Cir.
  1994)

28
Prisoner Mail Cont.

• An isolated, inadvertent instance of opening
  incoming confidential legal mail will not support
  a 1983 damage action. An isolated incident,
  without any evidence of improper motive or
  resulting interference with a prisoners right to
  counsel does not give rise to a constitutional
  violation.
• Gardner v. Howard, 109 F.3d 427, 431 (8th Cir.
  1997)

29
Personal Care Products

• The failure to regularly provide prisoners with
  toilet articles including soap, razors, combs,
  toothpaste, toilet paper, access to a mirror and
  sanitary napkins for female prisoners constitutes
  a denial of personal hygiene and sanitary living
  conditions.
• Atkins v. County of Orange, 372 F.Supp.2d 377
  (S.D.N.Y. 2005)

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Cell Searches

• A single search, even if legal papers were
  mistakenly misappropriated, does not constitute
  the kind of unnecessary and wanton infliction of
  pain which can violate the Eighth Amendment.
• Scher v. Engelke, 943 F.2d 921 (8th Cir. 1991)

31
Prisoner-On-Prisoner Violence

• The test in a prisoner-on-prisoner violence case
  is whether the jail staff was deliberately
  indifferent to "a known, excessive risk of
  serious harm" to the victim.
• Pagels v. Morrison, 335 F.3d 736, 740 (8th Cir.
  2003)

32
Personal Items

• Rules related to personal property of prisoners
  will be upheld unless prisoners can show that the
  rules are not reasonably related to a legitimate
  penological interest.
• McClinton v. ADC (8th Circuit Court of Appeals,
  Feb. 9, 2006)

33
Right to Sue

• Prisoner claims for injunctive relief to improve
  prison conditions are moot when the prisoner is
  transferred to another facility and is no longer
  subject to those conditions.
• Smith v. Hundley, 190 F.3d 852, 855 (8th Cir.
  1999)

34
Retaliation

• Jail staff cannot retaliate against a prisoner
  for his use of the jail grievance system.
• Pool v. Sebastian County, 418 F.3d 934, 942 (8th
  Cir. 2005)

35
Retaliation Cont.

• A jail can successfully defend a retaliatory
  discipline claim by showing "some evidence" that
  the prisoner actually committed a rule violation.
• Goff v. Burton, 7 F.3d 734, 739 (8th Cir. 1993)

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Deliberate Indifference

• For the prisoner to succeed in his claim that
  defendants were deliberately indifferent, he
  "must evidence (1) he suffered from a serious
  medical condition, (2) defendants knew of the
  condition, and (3) defendants deliberately
  disregarded the condition.
• Kitchen v. Miller, 343 F.Supp.2d 820, 823 (E.D.
  Mo. 2004)

37
Deliberate Indifference Cont.

• To show deliberate indifference, a prisoner must
  demonstrate that he suffered objectively serious
  medical needs, and the officials actually knew of
  but deliberately disregarded those needs.
• Dulany v. Carnahan, 132 F.3d 1234, 1239 (8th
  Cir. 1997)

38
Delays In Medication

• Deliberate indifference includes intentional
  interference with a prisoners prescribed
  treatment.
• Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104-05, 97 S.
  Ct. 285, 50 L. Ed. 2d 251 (1976) 

39
Delays In Medication Cont.

• The knowing failure to administer prescribed
  medicine can itself constitute deliberate
  indifference.
• Phillips v. Jasper County, 8th Circuit, February
  2006

40
Delays In Medication Cont.

• To prevail on deliberate-indifference claim, a
  prisoner must show he suffered from serious
  medical need that the jail staff knew of but
  ignored. Roberson v. Bradshaw, 198 F.3d 645, 647
  (8th Cir. 1999)

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• Legal Issues in Jail