Yeskey v. Com. of Pa. Dept. of Corrections

Citation118 F.3d 168
Decision Date10 July 1997
Docket NumberNo. 96-7292,96-7292
Parties6 A.D. Cases 1693, 23 A.D.D. 83, 10 NDLR P 194 Ronald R. YESKEY, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; Joseph D. Lehman; Jeffrey A. Beard, Ph.D.; Jeffrey K. Ditty; Does Number 1 Through 20, Inclusive, Appellees.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (3rd Circuit)

L. Abraham Smith (Argued), Greensburg, PA, for Appellant.

Thomas W. Corbett, Jr., Attorney General, R. Douglas Sherman (Argued), Deputy Attorney General, Calvin R. Koons, Senior Deputy Attorney General, John G. Knorr, III, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Office of Attorney General, Harrisburg, PA, for Appellees.

Before: BECKER and ROTH, Circuit Judges, and BARRY, District Judge. *

OPINION OF THE COURT

BECKER, Circuit Judge.

Ronald R. Yeskey is a Pennsylvania prison inmate who was denied admission to the Pennsylvania Department of Correction's Motivational Boot Camp program because of a history of hypertension, despite the recommendation of the sentencing judge that he be placed therein. 1 Yeskey brought suit in the district court under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., alleging that his exclusion from the program violated that enactment. 2

The district court dismissed Yeskey's complaint, Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6), holding that the ADA is inapplicable to state prisons. The question of the applicability of the ADA to prisons is an important one, especially in view of the increased number of inmates, including many older, hearing-impaired, and HIV-positive inmates, in the nation's jails. See generally Ira P. Robbins, George Bush's America Meets Dante's Inferno: The Americans with Disabilities Act in Prison, 15 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. 49, 56-63 (1996). For the reasons that follow, we reverse. 3

I.

Because this appeal turns on statutory construction, we begin with the text of the relevant statute, or more precisely, statutes. Although Yeskey only invoked the ADA, our discussion necessarily involves Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794(a). Section 504, the first federal statute to provide broad prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of disability, applies only to programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. Title II of the ADA, the broader statute, enacted in 1990, extends these protections and prohibitions to all state and local government programs and activities, regardless of whether they receive federal financial assistance. Congress has directed that Title II of the ADA be interpreted in a manner consistent with Section 504, 42 U.S.C. § 12134(b), 12201(a), 4 and all the leading cases take up the statutes together, as will we.

The substantive provisions of the statutes are similar. Section 504 provides in pertinent part:

No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States ... shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance or under any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency[.]

29 U.S.C. § 794(a).

Title II of the ADA provides in pertinent part:

no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the Services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity.

42 U.S.C. § 12132.

The statutory definition of "[p]rogram or activity" in Section 504 indicates that the terms were intended to be all-encompassing. They include "all of the operations of--(1)(A) a department, agency, special purpose district, or other instrumentality of a State or of a local government ... any part of which is extended Federal financial assistance." 29 U.S.C. § 794(b) (emphasis added). It is hard to imagine how state correctional programs would not fall within this broad definition.

Moreover, a word in a statute "must be given its 'ordinary or natural' meaning," see Bailey v. United States, 516 U.S. 137, ----, 116 S.Ct. 501, 506, 133 L.Ed.2d 472 (1995), and the ordinary meanings of "activity" and "program" clearly encompass those that take place in prisons. "Activity" means, inter alia, "natural or normal function or operation," and includes the "duties or function" of "an organizational unit for performing a specific function." Webster's Third New International Dictionary 22(1986). "Program" is defined as "a plan of procedure: a schedule or system under which action may be taken toward a desired goal." Id. at 1812. Certainly, operating a prison facility falls within the "duties or functions" of local government authorities. Moreover, Title II's definition of a "public entity" clearly encompasses a state or local correctional facility or authority: "any department, agency, ... or other instrumentality of a State or States or local government[.]" 42 U.S.C. § 12131(1)(B) (emphasis added).

This conclusion is bolstered by the Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations implementing both Section 504 and Title II of the ADA. These regulations were expressly authorized by Congress, 29 U.S.C. § 794(a); 42 U.S.C. §§ 12134(a), 12206, and, in view of Congress' delegation, the DOJ's regulations should be accorded "controlling weight unless [they are] 'arbitrary, capricious, or manifestly contrary to the statute,' "Babbitt v. Sweet Home Chapter of Communities for a Great Oregon, 515 U.S. 687, ----, 115 S.Ct. 2407, 2418, 132 L.Ed.2d 597 (1995). The same is true of the preamble or commentary accompanying the regulations since both are part of the DOJ's official interpretation of the legislation. Thomas Jefferson Univ. v. Shalala, 512 U.S. 504, 510-12, 114 S.Ct. 2381, 2386, 129 L.Ed.2d 405 (1994). DOJ interprets both Section 504 and Title II of the ADA to apply to correctional facilities.

The regulations promulgated by DOJ to enforce Section 504 define the kinds of programs and benefits that should be afforded to individuals with disabilities on a nondiscriminatory basis. The regulations define "program" to mean "the operations of the agency or organizational unit of government receiving or substantially benefiting from the Federal assistance awarded, e.g., a police department or department of corrections." 28 C.F.R. § 42.540(h) (1996) (emphasis added). The term "[b]enefit" includes "provision of services, financial aid or disposition (i.e., treatment, handling, decision, sentencing, confinement, or other prescription of conduct)." Id. § 42.540(j) (emphasis added). The appendix to the regulations, attached to the Final Rule (45 Fed.Reg. 37620, 37630 (1980)), makes clear that services and programs provided by detention and correctional agencies and facilities are covered by Section 504. This coverage is broad, and includes "jails, prisons, reformatories and training schools, work camps, reception and diagnostic centers, pre-release and work release facilities, and community-based facilities." Id.

The appendix further provides that those facilities designated for use by persons with disabilities are "required to make structural modifications to accommodate detainees or prisoners in wheelchairs." Id. The DOJ regulations applicable to federally conducted programs also make it clear that institutions administered by the Federal Bureau of Prisons are subject to Section 504. See 28 C.F.R. § 39.170(d)(1)(ii) (Section 504 complaint procedure for inmates of federal penal institutions); id. pt. 39, Editorial Note, at 675 (Section 504 regulations requiring nondiscrimination in programs or activities of the Department of Justice apply to the Federal Bureau of Prisons); id. at 676 (federally conducted program is "anything a Federal agency does").

The regulations promulgated under Title II of the ADA afford similar protections to persons with disabilities who are incarcerated in prisons, or otherwise institutionalized by the state or its instrumentalities, regardless of the public institution's receipt of federal financial assistance. The regulations state that the statute's coverage extends to "all services, programs, and activities provided or made available by public entities." Id. § 35.102(a). This broad language is intended to "appl[y] to anything a public entity does." Id. pt. 35, app. A, subpt. A at 456. As part of its regulatory obligations under Title II, the DOJ is designated as the agency responsible for coordinating the compliance activities of public entities that administer "[a]ll programs, services, and regulatory activities relating to law enforcement, public safety, and the administration of justice, including courts and correctional institutions." Id. § 35.190(b)(6). The preamble to the ADA regulations also refers explicitly to prisons, stating that, where an individual with disabilities "is an inmate of a custodial or correctional institution," the entity is required to provide "assistance in toileting, eating, or dressing to [that] individual[ ]." Id. pt. 35, app. A at 468. 5

In sum, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Title II of the ADA, and the specific provisions in the DOJ's regulations listing correctional facilities or departments as covered entities confirm that the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA apply to state and locally-operated correctional facilities.

II.

The weight of judicial authority also supports our conclusion that the ADA applies to prison programs. In Crawford v. Indiana Department of Corrections, 115 F.3d 481 (7th Cir.1997), the Seventh Circuit held that Title II of the ADA applied to state prisons in the case of a blind, former state prisoner who sought damages resulting from his exclusion from a variety of programs, activities, and facilities at the prison that were routinely available to the prison's population, including educational programs, the library, and the dining hall. Accord Duffy v. Riveland, 98 F.3d 447, 455 ...

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