Delaney v. DeTella

• Citation: 256 F.3d 679
• Decision Date: 09 July 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-4145,00-4145
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2001) GLEN DELANEY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. GEORGE DeTELLA, GLENN MALONE, CHRISTOPHER HUGHES, EUGENE McADORY, CLARENCE WRIGHT, DONALD BURNS, and DAVID WALKER, Defendants-Appellants
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 679

256 F.3d 679 (7th Cir. 2001)

GLEN DELANEY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. GEORGE DeTELLA, GLENN MALONE, CHRISTOPHER HUGHES, EUGENE McADORY, CLARENCE WRIGHT, DONALD BURNS, and DAVID WALKER, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 00-4145

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued June 4, 2001

Decided July 9, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 98 C 4476--David H. Coar, Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before RIPPLE, EVANS, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

EVANS, Circuit Judge.

Glen Delaney, an inmate at Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois, filed this suit under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983 alleging an Eighth Amendment violation for being denied all out-of-cell exercise opportunities for 6 months. The defendants, six guards and the prison warden, filed a motion for summary judgment asserting a qualified immunity defense. District Judge David H. Coar denied the motion and the defendants appeal.

In January 1995, Delaney was placed in Stateville's segregation unit. While in segregation, he was allowed 5 hours of out-of-cell exercise time (yard privileges) per week as called for by a prison regulation.¹

In the spring of 1996, Stateville instituted a "lockdown" for the purpose of reviewing security measures, conducting a "shakedown" of inmates, and redesigning prisoner cells. The lockdown continued for just over 6 months, and during this time Delaney was denied all out-of-cell exercise. His movements were restricted to a once a week shower, three family visits (one in April, one in May, and one in June), and two brief trips to the prison's medical unit. During these excursions he was shackled and chained to the inmate in front and behind him. A trip to either the medical unit or the visitation center took around 10 minutes.

The segregation cells are small and cramped, measuring only about 122 inches by 43 to 56 inches. During the 6-month lockdown, Delaney says he repeatedly spoke with the correctional officer defendants (McAdory, Malone, Hughes, Walker, Burns, and Wright) about getting yard privileges so he could exercise. He also filed a grievance with Warden George DeTella. However, no out-of-cell exercise opportunities were offered to Delaney or, for that matter, to any other segregated inmates during the long lockdown.

As a result of being denied an opportunity to exercise for over 6 months, Delaney contends he suffered from migraines, heartburn, stomach cramps, neck pains, constipation, lethargy, and depression. Although he received some medication for his ailments, he requested medical attention from more senior personnel and filed grievances against several prison medical technicians.

Before Judge Coar, the defendants argued that penological interests justified the 6-month denial of exercise privileges and that guards (but not Warden DeTella) were not personally involved in the lockdown decision. On appeal, the defendants shift their focus, arguing primarily that Delaney did not suffer a serious injury and that even if he did, they were not told of the severity of his complaint.

We have jurisdiction over an interlocutory appeal from a denial of qualified immunity only when no factual issues need be resolved. Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299, 308 (1996); Levenstein v. Salafsky, 164 F.3d 345, 346 (7th Cir. 1998). We must review the district court's denial of qualified immunity de novo, considering all undisputed facts in the light most favorable to Delaney. Khuans v. School Dist. 110, 123 F.3d 1010, 1013 (7th Cir. 1997).

In reviewing the affirmative defense of qualified immunity, we apply a two-step approach. As a threshold issue, we determine if Delaney has asserted a violation of a constitutional right. County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833, 841 n. 5 (1998); Kitzman-Kelley v. Warner, 203 F.3d 454, 457 (7th Cir. 2000). We next consider whether the right was clearly established at the time the alleged violation occurred. Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603, 609, 119 S. Ct. 1692, 1697 (1999). Thus, the judge-made qualified immunity doctrine serves to protect government officials from insubstantial suits based on unforeseeable changes in the law. See Crawford-El v. Britton, 523 U.S. 574, 590 (1998).

Whether the first prong of a qualified immunity defense, as outlined by the Court in Lewis, is a mandatory step or merely a recommendation remains, to some extent, a bit of an open question. See Hudson v. Hall, 231 F.3d 1289, 1296 f.5 (11th Cir. 2000); Kalka v. Hawk, 215 F.3d 90 (D.C. Cir. 2000); Horne v. Coughlin, 191 F.3d 244 (2nd Cir. 1999). However, in recent cases where the Supreme Court considered qualified immunity defenses on summary judgment, Saucier v. Katz, 121 S.Ct. 2151, (2001), Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603, and Conn v. Gabbert, 526 U.S. 286, 119 S. Ct. 1292 (1999), it first addressed if a constitutional violation was asserted before moving on to the question of whether it was "clearly established" at the time of the alleged violation.

These cases, however, require only that a plaintiff allege a constitutional deprivation; thus we are required to determine only whether Delaney's allegations, if true, state a claim of deprivation. Wilson, 526 U.S. at 609; Conn, 526 U.S. at 290; see also Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 232 (1991) (prior to deciding if right is "clearly established," must determine if constitutional claim is asserted at all and this determination is "purely legal").

An Eighth Amendment claim has two components-- objective and subjective. To satisfy the objective component, "the deprivation alleged must be, objectively, 'sufficiently serious.'" Henderson v. Sheahan, 196 F.3d 839, 845 (7th Cir. 1999) (citing Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 834 (1994)). "Therefore, 'extreme deprivations are required to make out a conditions-of-confinement claim.'" Id. (quoting Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1, 9 (1992)).

The subjective component relates to a defendant's state of mind and requires a showing of deliberate indifference. At a minimum in a case like this, an inmate must allege "actual knowledge of impending harm easily preventable." Jack son v. Duckworth, 955 F.2d 21, 22 (7th Cir. 1992) (quoting Duckworth v. Franzen, 780 F.2d 645, 653 (7th Cir. 1985)). "A failure of prison officials to act in such circumstances suggests that the officials actually want the prisoner to suffer the harm." Id.

Delaney contends that to deny a segregated inmate all out-of-cell exercise opportunities for 6 months constitutes an objectively serious deprivation of a basic human need. In determining whether an act or omission constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, the Eighth Amendment provides little guidance. Thus, courts have added substance to its meager admonishment by consulting the "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society." Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 346 (1981). Thus, conditions which may have been acceptable long ago may be considered unnecessarily cruel in light of our growing understanding of human needs and the changing norms of our society. Davenport v. DeRobertis, 844 F.2d 1310, 1315 (1988) ("The conditions in which prisoners are housed, like the poverty line, is a function of a society's standard of living. As that standard rises, the standard of minimum decency of prison conditions, like the poverty line, rises too."). While the Constitution does not require that prisons be comfortable, prison conditions do violate the Constitution where they "deprive inmates of the minimal civilized measure of life's necessities." Rhodes, 452 U.S. at 347. Therefore, we consider whether a complete denial of reasonable exercise opportunities for 6 months falls below contemporary standards.

In recent years we have not only acknowledged that a lack of exercise can rise to a constitutional violation, French v. Owen, 777 F.2d 1250, 1255 (7th Cir. 1986), but have concluded that "exercise is now regarded in many quarters as an indispensable component of preventive medicine." Anderson v. Romero, 72 F.3d 518, 528 (7th Cir. 1995). Given current norms, exercise is no longer considered an optional form of recreation, but is instead a necessary requirement for physical and mental well- being.

Although we have recognized the value of exercise and its medicinal effects, we have also consistently held that short- term denials of exercise may be inevitable in the prison context and are not so detrimental as to constitute a constitutional deprivation. Thomas v. Ramos, 130 F.3d 754, 764 (7th Cir. 1997) (70-day denial permissible); Harris v. Fleming, 839 F.2d 1232, 1236 (7th Cir. 1988) (28-day denial not deprivation); Shelby County Jail Inmates v. Westlake, 798 F.2d 1085, 1089 (7th Cir. 1986) (limited recreational activities sufficient, where average prison stay was 10 days or less); Caldwell v. Miller, 790 F.2d 589, 601 (7th Cir. 1986) (no deprivation where exercise was denied for 30 days, but then allowed one hour indoor exercise for next 6 months); but see Antonelli v. Sheahan, 81 F.3d 1422, 1432 (7th Cir. 1996) (viable constitutional claim where prisoner denied recreational opportunities for 7 weeks); Jamison-Bey v. Thieret, 867 F.2d 1046, 1048 (1989) (reversing summary judgment for prison officials where segregated prisoner denied exercise for 101 days).

Here, both in duration and severity, the nature of Delaney's alleged deprivation was significant and serious, and apparently no alternatives were made available to mitigate the effects of the deprivation. We recently noted that segregation is akin to solitary confinement and that such confinement, uninterrupted by opportunities for out- of-cell exercise "could reasonably be described as cruel and, by reference to the current norms of American prisons, unusual." Pearson v. Ramos, 237 F.3d 881, 884 (7th Cir. 2001). Except for limited calisthenics inside his small cell, the defendants do not argue that Delaney had any other recreational...