Calhoun v. Detella

• Decision Date: 13 February 2003
• Docket Number: No. 98-2894.,98-2894.
• Citation: 319 F.3d 936
• Parties: Tyrone CALHOUN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. George E. DETELLA, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

319 F.3d 936

Tyrone CALHOUN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. George E. DETELLA, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 98-2894.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued September 13, 2001.

Decided February 13, 2003.

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Chad R. Anderson (argued), Thomas L. Shriner, Jr., Foley & Lardner, Milwaukee, WI, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

James E. Ryan, Office of Atty. General, Chicago, IL, for Defendants.

Bryan J. Rose (argued), Office of Atty. General Civil Appeals Div., Chicago, IL, for James E. Ryan.

Before RIPPLE, ROVNER, and EVANS, Circuit Judges.

ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

Illinois prisoner Tyrone Calhoun sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging in relevant part that prison employees at the Stateville Correctional Center conducted a deliberately harassing strip search in front of female guards that constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Relying on 28 U.S.C. § 1915A, the district court sua sponte dismissed Calhoun's complaint prior to service for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Calhoun appeals, and we vacate the dismissal of his Eighth Amendment claims and remand for further proceedings.

According to his amended complaint, prison guards removed Calhoun from his cell and escorted him from the prison's segregation unit to an open telephone area of the day room to conduct a strip search. When they reached the day room, Calhoun pleaded for the guards to take him to a more private area, but the guards ordered him to strip directly in front of several female guards who had no official role in conducting the search. Calhoun contends that he was forced to remove his clothing even after informing the guards that such a search, absent emergency circumstances, would violate the federal constitution, state law, and prison regulations. Further, he alleges that during the search the male and female officers laughed at him, made "sexual ribald comments," forced him to perform "provocative acts," and "pointed their sticks towards his anal area" while he bent over and spread his buttocks to permit visual inspection for contraband. Moreover, Calhoun contends, then-warden George DeTella and an assistant warden observed the search but took no corrective action. Finally, Calhoun alleges that the search constituted "sexual harassment," and that after his "traumatic experience" he sought psychological treatment, but did not receive the help he needed. He requested compensatory and punitive damages and injunctive and declaratory relief, as well as "such other relief as it may appear plaintiff is entitled."

In screening and dismissing the amended complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A, the district court reasoned that Calhoun's suit was precluded by 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e) because he alleges only psychological, and not physical injury. Calhoun timely moved to alter or amend the judgment, pointing out that § 1997e(e) does not foreclose injunctive and declaratory relief. See Zehner v. Trigg, 133 F.3d 459, 462-63 (7th Cir.1997); Davis v. Dist. of Columbia, 158 F.3d 1342, 1346 (D.C.Cir.1998). The district court denied the motion, concluding that the amended complaint did not allege grounds for either injunctive or declaratory relief. Calhoun appealed, and we appointed counsel to represent him.

In his amended complaint Calhoun asserts that the strip search violated Illinois law and various constitutional guarantees, but on appeal he pursues only the Eighth Amendment claim and has thus abandoned the others. See Duncan v. Wis. Dep't of Health & Family Servs., 166 F.3d 930, 934 (7th Cir.1999). He argues that the allegations in his amended complaint state a viable Eighth Amendment claim, and that even absent physical injury § 1997e(e) does not preclude him from recovering nominal and punitive damages for the constitutional violation. He concedes, however, that § 1997e(e) bars his recovery of compensatory damages for mental and emotional harm, and that his claims for declaratory and injunctive relief are now moot because he was transferred from Stateville to the Pontiac Correctional Facility during the pendency of this appeal. See Higgason v. Farley, 83 F.3d 807, 811 (7th Cir.1996).

We review dismissals under § 1915A for failure to state a claim de novo, viewing all allegations in the complaint as true and in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Zimmerman v. Tribble, 226 F.3d 568, 571 (7th Cir.2000). With this standard in mind, we must first determine whether Calhoun's allegations, that prison guards purposefully demeaned and sexually harassed him while strip searching him in front of female officers, are sufficient to state a claim of cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

There is no question that strip searches may be unpleasant, humiliating, and embarrassing to prisoners, but not every psychological discomfort a prisoner endures amounts to a constitutional violation. For example, the strip search of a male prisoner in front of female officers, if conducted for a legitimate penological purpose, would fail to rise to the level of an Eighth Amendment violation. See Johnson v. Phelan, 69 F.3d 144, 150-51 (7th Cir.1995). Instead, the Eighth Amendment prohibits unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain, thus forbidding punishment that is "so totally without penological justification that it results in the gratuitous infliction of suffering." Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 173, 183, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976). Such gratuitous infliction of pain always violates contemporary standards of decency and need not produce serious injury in order to violate the Eighth Amendment. See Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1, 9, 112 S.Ct. 995, 117 L.Ed.2d 156 (1992). Moreover, physical injury need not result for the punishment to state a cause of action, for the wanton infliction of psychological pain is also prohibited. See id. at 16, 112 S.Ct. 995 (Blackmun, J., concurring); Delaney v. DeTella, 256 F.3d 679, 685 (7th Cir.2001); Babcock v. White, 102 F.3d 267, 273 (7th Cir.1996). Accordingly, to state an Eighth Amendment claim Calhoun must show that the strip search in question was not merely a legitimate search conducted in the presence of female correctional officers, but instead a search conducted in a harassing manner intended to humiliate and inflict psychological pain. See Peckham v. Wis. Dep't of Corr., 141 F.3d 694, 697 (7th Cir.1998); Johnson, 69 F.3d at 147.

The Attorney General of Illinois, who appears as amicus curiae in support of the defendants, urges us to conclude that Calhoun failed to state a claim because, although he objected to the manner in which the guards conducted the search, he never explicitly alleged that the guards searched him for an illegitimate purpose. But the Federal Rules provide a liberal system of notice pleading, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 8, and Calhoun's complaint includes enough to give the defendants fair notice of his Eighth Amendment claim and the grounds upon which his claim rests. See Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence & Coordination Unit, 507 U.S. 163, 168, 113 S.Ct. 1160, 122 L.Ed.2d 517 (1993); Payton v. Kane County, 308 F.3d 673, 676 (7th Cir.2002). Calhoun alleges that the officers sexually harassed him through behavior unrelated to legitimate prison needs. In particular, he alleges that the guards made "ribald comments" and sexually explicit gestures during the search, and that they forced him to perform sexually provocative acts. Furthermore, he alleges that the female guards present during the search were neither mere passersby nor performing the legitimate penological function of conducting or monitoring the search; they were instead invited spectators. These allegations, if true, can only lead to the conclusion that the prison guards conducted the strip search in a manner designed to demean and humiliate Calhoun, and we therefore conclude that he sufficiently states a claim under the Eighth Amendment. See Johnson, 69 F.3d at 147.

Because Calhoun does not claim to have suffered a physical injury, we must next consider whether § 1997e(e) precludes his suit altogether by barring him from seeking recovery of nominal and punitive damages for the alleged Eighth Amendment violation. Section 1997e(e) provides that "[n]o Federal civil action may be brought by a prisoner ... for mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody without a prior showing of physical injury." 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e). The Attorney General argues that a plain reading of § 1997e(e) bars Calhoun's suit entirely, reasoning that the statute makes a showing of physical injury a filing prerequisite for every civil rights lawsuit involving mental or emotional injury. We cannot agree. This contention if taken to its logical extreme would give prison officials free reign to maliciously and sadistically inflict psychological torture on prisoners, so long as they take care not to inflict any physical injury in the process.

Clearly this argument sweeps too broadly, and there is no longer room for the position the Attorney General espouses. As we have observed before and reemphasize here, "[i]t would be a serious mistake to interpret section 1997e(e) to require a showing of physical injury in all prisoner civil rights suits." Robinson v. Page, 170 F.3d 747, 748 (7th Cir.1999). On several occasions we have explained that § 1997e(e) may limit the relief available to prisoners who cannot allege a physical injury, but it does not bar their lawsuits altogether. See Cassidy v. Ind. Dep't of Corr., 199 F.3d 374, 376-77 (7th Cir.2000) (damages for mental and emotional injuries barred, but prisoner may pursue all other claims for damages); Zehner, 133 F.3d at 462 (injunctive relief available). As its title suggests, § 1997e(e) is a "limitation on recovery." Accordingly, physical injury is merely a predicate for an award of damages for mental or emotional injury, not a filing prerequisite for the federal civil action itself. See ...