Williams v. Hayman

• Decision Date: 17 June 2008
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 06-3705.
• Citation: 657 F.Supp.2d 488
• Parties: Eddie WILLIAMS, Plaintiff, v. George HAYMAN, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

Page 488

657 F.Supp.2d 488

Eddie WILLIAMS, Plaintiff, v. George HAYMAN, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 06-3705.

United States District Court, D. New Jersey.

June 17, 2008.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

John M. Armstrong, Esq., Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, Cherry Hill, NJ, for Plaintiff Eddie Williams.

Sarah Brie Campbell, Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of New Jersey, Department of Law & Public Safety, Trenton, NJ, for Defendants.

OPINION

SIMANDLE, District Judge:

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff filed the Complaint in this action while he was incarcerated at South Woods State Prison ("SWSP"), alleging that he was denied access to various programs and services at SWSP because he is deaf, which, he argues, violates Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12132 et seq. The defendants herein are George W. Hayman, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Corrections; Joseph D'Amico, Executive Director of the New Jersey Parole Board; Katherine MacFarland, Chief Administrator of SWSP; Amadou Jalloh, Assist Administrator of SWSP; Linda Everett, Parole Administrator of SWSP; Officer Prianccini; Linda Solanik, a social worker at SWSP; Cheryl Bard, a social worker at SWSP; and Dr. Banks, a psychiatrist at SWSP. Defendants have moved (1) to dismiss the complaint because Plaintiff allegedly failed to exhaust his administrative remedies as is required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act ("PLRA"), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a), and (2) for summary judgment on the grounds that Plaintiff was provided access to the programs and services in question, that the individual defendants are entitled to qualified immunity, and that Plaintiff is entitled neither to punitive nor compensatory damages. (Docket Item 27.)

The principal issues to be decided involve (1) whether a deaf inmate who has demonstrated himself to be incapable of clear written communication must nonetheless comply with the requirement of submitting a written administrative remedy form and exhausting the written administrative appeal process in order to comply with the PLRA's prerequisite to the inmate's filing of suit, and (2) whether individual governmental employees may be held liable under Title II of the ADA. The Court will also examine whether Plaintiff's evidence creates a genuine dispute of material fact whether Plaintiff's ADA rights have been violated by being precluded from participating in available prison programs on account of his hearing disability.

For the reasons set forth below, the Court will grant in part and deny in part Defendants' motion as follows: (1) the Court will grant the Individual Defendants' motion and dismiss them from this case; (2) Defendants' motion to dismiss Plaintiff's claim for punitive damages will be granted; and (3) the remainder of the relief sought in Defendants' motion will be denied.

II. BACKGROUND

A. The Alleged Denial of Services and Plaintiff's Complaint

The plaintiff, Eddie Williams, is a thirty-seven-year-old deaf man. (Brooks Aff. Ex. A 1; Villar Aff. Ex. B 3.) On November 13, 2005, Mr. Williams was sentenced to a three-year term of imprisonment for aggravated assault and was transferred to the custody of the New Jersey Department of Corrections ("NJDOC"). (Brooks Aff. Ex. A 1.) Mr. Williams was transferred to SWSP on December 13, 2005. (Id. at 5.) The day after Mr. Williams was transferred to SWSP, December 14, 2005, he completed an NJDOC form entitled "Request for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Inmates," on which he answered affirmatively to the question, "Will a sign language interpreter help us communicate effectively with you?" (Villar Aff. Ex. C.) Mr. Williams also indicated on the form that he wanted a "Telecommunication Device for the Deaf TDD/TTY with Light Signaler" and television captioning. (Id.) Mr. Williams signed the form, as did Defendant Cheryl Bard, an NJDOC social worker. (Id.)

On June 28, 2006, Mr. Williams wrote a letter to New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine complaining of his inability to participate in certain programs at SWSP on account of his disability.¹ (Dill Aff. Ex. A 1.) Mr. Williams' letter was referred to Karen Willoughby, Director of the Division of Operations at NJDOC, who wrote Mr. Williams a letter dated July 19, 2006 in which she informed him that "[i]nmates with hearing impairments are not precluded from" participating in the inmate programs offered at SWSP. (Id.) Ms. Willoughby's letter also made note of the fact that Mr. Williams had not yet participated in any such programs and that "the State Parole Board will look favorably upon your program participation when determining your suitability for parole release." (Id.)

Mr. Williams responded to Ms. Willoughby's letter in a letter dated July 28, 2006, in which he complained that he had been denied access to "a number of services due to [his] hearing impairment."² (Id. at 2.) Mr. Williams clarified that he had "continually requested programs" but that his requests had been ignored because SWSP could not afford to hire an interpreter, and that the social worker who conducted the behavior modification program was not an official interpreter. (Id. at 2-3.) Finally, Mr. Williams informed Ms. Willoughby that there were no "TTY phone systems" on his tier, noting that the other inmates had access to telephones "at any time."³ (Id. at 3.)

Ms. Willoughby responded in an August 15, 2006 letter, in which she stated that it was her understanding that social worker Cheryl Bard conducted Mr. Williams' behavior modification program and that Ms. Bard could communicate effectively with Mr. Williams with sign language. (Id. at 8.) With regard to Mr. Williams' complaint about access to the TTY system, Ms. Willoughby advised Mr. Williams that he could use the system between 8:45 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. and between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. on weekdays and noted that Mr. Williams had used the system twelve times in a two-month period. (Id.) Finally, Ms. Willoughby stated that Mr. Williams was to utilize SWSP's Inmate Remedy Form rather than corresponding directly with the NJDOC to address his concerns about access to SWSP programming and education. (Id.)

On August 16, 2006, Mr. Williams filed the instant Complaint [Docket Item 1]. The Complaint alleges that Mr. Williams sought to participate in "a multitude of social and educational programs (A/A, N/A, Behavior Modification) which all were denied because the social worker advised him [that] the prison would not and/or will not hire an interpreter because it was too expensive." (Id. at 5.) In the section of the civil rights complaint form directing the plaintiff to explain whether he has "sought informal or formal relief from the appropriate administrative officials regarding the acts complained of," Mr. Williams wrote the phrases "Institutional Remedy" and "Complaints Department of Corrections." (Id. at 3.)

On August 24, 2006, Mr. Williams submitted an Inmate Remedy Form to SWSP. His complaint form reads in its entirety: "Ms barb conducts a Behavior Modification Program with me And she is capable of communicationing efficiently with use of sign language I have to telling you that true but Ms barb have not certified of interpreter." (Villar Aff. Ex. B 7.) On August 28, 2006, Mr. Williams received a written response to the complaint on his Inmate Remedy Form, which read in full: "You are correct — Ms. Bard is not a Certified Interpreter. Behavior Modification is not a judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding that requires the use of a certified interpreter." (Id.)

After this action was commenced, Plaintiff deposed Ms. Bard about her ability to communicate with Plaintiff through sign language. At her deposition, Ms. Bard testified that before she endeavored to learn sign language, no one employed by the prison knew sign language; she stated that she "became curious [about sign language] because there was nobody here to help [hearing-disabled inmates]." (Bard Dep. 10.) Ms. Bard further testified that she took a sign language course and had a book on the subject, but was primarily "self-taught." (Id.) She indicated that her sign language vocabulary was limited, that she communicated with deaf inmates "the best that [she] could," and that she resorted to "finger spell[ing]" or communicating in writing when her sign language abilities proved insufficient. (Id. at 36-37.) Despite these apparent limitations, Ms. Bard testified that she was not aware of any occasions when Plaintiff did not appear to understand what she was trying to tell him, since they "would work it back and forth until [they] got to what he wanted." (Id. at 20.)

B. SWSP Policies

1. Access to SWSP Programs for Hearing-Disabled Inmates

In their submissions, Defendants have highlighted various SWSP policies that are relevant to this litigation. First, Defendants state that as a general matter, SWSP provides access to programs and services for hearing-disabled inmates. (Villar Aff. ¶ 9.) At three locations in the prison — the intake area, the court line, and the medical area — signs with the following text are posted:

Notice to Deaf & Hard of Hearing — You have the right to a sign language interpreter if one is required for you to effectively communicate with Corrections staff. If you are deaf or hard of hearing and require a sign language interpreter to communicate, please let us know.

(Id. at ¶ 10.) Copies of this notice are also provided to each inmate. (Id.) According to Defendants, SWSP staff communicate with hearing-impaired inmates using the inmate's preferred method of communication, including sign language, whenever possible. (Id. at ¶ 12.) If an inmate's preferred method of communication is sign language, then a "Certified Interpreter" is used to communicate with the inmate during all judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings, including parole, classification, and disciplinary proceedings.⁴ (Id. at ¶ 13.) SWSP does not use certified interpreters to communicate with deaf inmates...