Ruggiero v. County of Orange

• Decision Date: 18 October 2006
• Docket Number: Docket No. 05-4774-cv.
• Citation: 467 F.3d 170
• Parties: Frank RUGGIERO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF ORANGE, H. Frank Bigger, in his official and individual capacities, Lieutenant Williams, Sergeant Weed, in their official and individual capacities, Sergeant Carreri, in his official and individual capacities, Officer Losavio, in his official and individual capacities, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

467 F.3d 170

Frank RUGGIERO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF ORANGE, H. Frank Bigger, in his official and individual capacities, Lieutenant Williams, Sergeant Weed, in their official and individual capacities, Sergeant Carreri, in his official and individual capacities, Officer Losavio, in his official and individual capacities, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 05-4774-cv.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: April 26, 2006.

Decided: October 18, 2006.

Christopher D. Watkins, Thornton, Bergstein & Ullrich, LLP (Stephen Bergstein, on the brief), Chester, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Hyun Chin Kim, Assistant County Attorney (David L. Darwin, County Attorney, on the brief), Goshen, NY, for the County of Orange and Defendants in their Official Capacities.

Ralph Puglielle, Drake, Sommers, Loeb, Tarshis, Catania, Liberth, Mahon & Milligram PLLC, (Stephen J. Gaba, on the brief), Newburgh, NY, for Defendants in their Individual Capacities.

Before KEARSE, WALKER and SACK, Circuit Judges.

JOHN M. WALKER, JR., Circuit Judge.

Frank Ruggiero alleges that he was subjected to excessive force by corrections officers on multiple occasions during his incarceration at Orange County Correctional Facility ("OCCF"). He did not file a formal grievance as to any of these incidents. Ruggiero filed this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging constitutional violations while he was confined at the Willard Drug Treatment Campus ("Willard") for violating his parole. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Stephen C. Robinson, Judge) granted Defendants-Appellants' motion for summary judgment on the basis that Ruggiero had failed to exhaust available administrative remedies as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act, Pub.L. No. 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321 (1996) ("PLRA" or "the Act"). Ruggiero argues on appeal that this requirement did not 3 apply to him because, when he filed his complaint, he was not a prisoner in "any jail, prison, or other correctional facility." 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). Ruggiero argues further that, even if he was required to exhaust, his failure to do so is excused because (1) he reported his mistreatment during an interview with investigators looking into an assault on another inmate and (2) he was not provided in a timely fashion with the inmate handbook that explains the grievance procedures at OCCF.

BACKGROUND

Ruggiero describes several incidents in which he says correctional officers at OCCF employed excessive force against him between June 2000 and May 2001. At a point soon after the June 2000 incident, he hired counsel to represent him.

In the course of investigating an August 2000 incident involving an altercation between Ruggiero and another inmate, officers from the Sheriff's Department interviewed Ruggiero in September 2000. Ruggiero told these officers about some of the mistreatment he complains about in this case, and the officers asked him if he would like to be placed in protective custody. Ruggiero tentatively declined the offer, informing the officers that he wanted to consult his attorney before deciding.

After talking to his attorney, Ruggiero accepted the officers' offer to transfer him to another part of OCCF. Instead of a transfer within OCCF, Ruggiero was transferred to Riker's Island. He unsuccessfully opposed this transfer by seeking an injunction against the transfer in state court, alleging that the transfer was a retaliatory act for his complaints about mistreatment to the investigators. Ruggiero alleges that, upon his return to OCCF about a month later, he was subjected to further harassment, threats, and mistreatment.

There is no dispute that, at all relevant times, there was an inmate grievance procedure in place at OCCF and that Ruggiero never filed a grievance related to any of the mistreatment of which he complains. The inmate grievance procedure is contained in the inmate handbook that is provided to each inmate upon arrival at OCCF. Despite signing a form indicating his receipt of an inmate handbook on five separate occasions from August 1997 until October 1999, Ruggiero claims that he was not provided with a copy of the handbook until March 2001.

In May 2001, Ruggiero was released on parole from OCCF, but in October, he violated his parole and was confined to Willard, a secure drug treatment facility, where he remained until March 2003. While at Willard, Ruggiero filed the complaint in this suit.

The district court granted summary judgment to Defendants-Appellees based on Ruggiero's failure to exhaust his administrative remedies as required by the PLRA. Ruggiero v. County of Orange, 386 F.Supp.2d 434, 437 (S.D.N.Y.2005). This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

We review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo, Anderson v. Recore, 446 F.3d 324, 328 (2d Cir.2006), affirming when, construing all evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, id., "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law," Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c).

In 1996, as part of the PLRA, Congress enacted a provision intended to "invigorate[ ] the exhaustion prescription" for prisoners. Porter v. Nussle, 534 U.S. 516, 524, 122 S.Ct. 983, 152 L.Ed.2d 12 (2002). Section 803 of the PLRA, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a), provides that

[n]o action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under section 1983 of this title ... by a prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted.

This exhaustion requirement applies to excessive-force claims such as Ruggiero's as well as other complaints about general conditions of prison life. Porter, 534 U.S. at 532, 122 S.Ct. 983. At the time of the alleged abuses claimed by Ruggiero, this circuit did not require exhaustion of claims related to single instances of mistreatment. Nussle v. Willette, 224 F.3d 95 (2d Cir.2000), rev'd, Porter v. Nussle, 534 U.S. 516, 122 S.Ct. 983, 152 L.Ed.2d 12. But in February 2002 Porter made it clear that claims such as Ruggiero's were subject to the exhaustion requirement. Ruggiero's complaint was filed a year later.

I. Whether Exhaustion is Required for One Who is Confined at a Drug Treatment Facility

On appeal, Ruggiero does not contest either that he was a "prisoner" as defined in 42 U.S.C. § 1997e or that he was "confined" at Willard when he filed his complaint. He argues, however, that Willard does not qualify as "any jail, prison, or other correctional facility" because drug treatment centers are expressly exempt from the definition of "correctional facility" under New York state law.

Section 2 of New York's Correction Law defines a "correctional facility" as including "[a]ny place operated by the [Department of Corrections] and designated by the commissioner as a place for the confinement of persons under sentence of imprisonment." N.Y. Correct. Law § 2(4)(a). Only mental institutions are excluded from this broad definition. Id. § 2(4)(b). Section 2 specifies that the definitions contained within it apply throughout New York's Correction Law unless expressly stated. Id. § 2. So under section 2, it is not at all clear that Willard would not qualify as a "correctional facility" according to New York law.

Ruggiero, however, points to section 70(1)(c) in Article 4 of New York's Correction Law, which provides that drug treatment campuses are exempt from the definition of "correctional facility." Id. § 70(1)(c). Article 4 governs the establishment of correctional facilities, the commitment of individuals to the Department of Corrections, and the custody of inmates. Id. §§ 70 to 79-b. For these purposes, it is understandable that New York would want to differentiate between various types of facilities. But it does not necessarily follow that the exclusion is applicable to the entirety of New York's Correction Law. As noted, section 2 explicitly states that its definitions apply throughout the Correction Law absent an express statement to the contrary. And because section 70, at least arguably, cannot reach more broadly than the article in which it is contained, Ruggiero's contention based on that provision that Willard is not a correctional facility under New York law is open to question. However, for this appeal we will assume that under New York state law Willard is not a "correctional facility."

Turning to federal law, Section 803 of the PLRA does not define what is meant by "any jail, prison, or other correctional facility." We have no inclination, however, to look to New York state law for this meaning. There is no indication that Congress intended state law to govern the question or that the PLRA's exhaustion requirement should vary from state to state. The Act is intended "to eliminate unwarranted federal-court interference with the administration of prisons," Woodford v. Ngo, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 126 S.Ct. 2378, 2387, 165 L.Ed.2d 368 (2006), "to reduce the quantity and improve the quality of prisoner suits," Porter, 534 U.S. at 524, 122 S.Ct. 983, and "to ... afford[ ] corrections officials time and opportunity to address complaints internally before allowing the initiation of a federal case," id. at 525, 122 S.Ct. 983. These overarching goals are universal; they do not change from state to state. Nor do they logically depend on how particular facilities are characterized under various state laws. The definitions of "correctional facility" under different state laws are unrelated to the purposes underlying the PLRA and therefore do not determine whether the exhaustion requirement applies in any given institution.

Two other courts of appeals have read the phrase "any jail, prison, or other correctional facility" in § 1997e expansively. See Witzke v. Femal, 376 F.3d 744 (7th Cir.2004); Alexander S. v. Boyd, 113 F.3d 1373 (4th Cir.1997). In Witzke, the Seventh Circuit, faced with our question, whether a prisoner...