Williams v. Ramos, 95-1106

• Decision Date: 09 November 1995
• Docket Number: No. 95-1106,95-1106
• Citation: 71 F.3d 1246
• Parties: James E. WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Anthony RAMOS, Theopolas Smith, and Robert Griffen, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1246

71 F.3d 1246

James E. WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Anthony RAMOS, Theopolas Smith, and Robert Griffen Defendants-Appellees.

No. 95-1106.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Submitted Nov. 9, 1995. ^*

Decided Nov. 13, 1995.

Opinion Published Dec. 7, 1995. ^**

James E. Williams, pro se.

Jessie Wang-Grimm, Office of the Attorney General, Chicago, IL, for Anthony Ramos, Theopolas Smith, Robert Griffen.

Before CUMMINGS, KANNE, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

James Earl Williams filed suit for due process and Eighth Amendment violations against officials at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois. ¹ The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants on Williams's due process claim and dismissed his Eighth Amendment claim. Williams appeals. We affirm.

I. Due Process

We review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Smith v. Shawnee Library System, 60 F.3d 317, 320 (7th Cir.1995). Summary judgment is appropriate when the district court determines from the pleadings, affidavits, and other submissions that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); see Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). Although we review all facts and inferences in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, to avoid summary judgment that party must supply evidence sufficient to allow a jury to render a verdict in his favor. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248-49, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510-11, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

Williams contends that his due process rights were violated when he was held in disciplinary segregation for nineteen days longer than the maximum punishment period. The defendants state that Williams was not in disciplinary segregation; rather, he was in the Segregation Unit either voluntarily or under administrative segregation. We conclude that the question need not be resolved because, in this case, even if Williams was in segregation for disciplinary reasons the district court's grant of summary judgment should be affirmed.

There is some dispute about the exact sequence of events. Williams was placed in segregation after he refused his cell assignment and remained there voluntarily until September 10, 1993. The defendants claim that on September 10 Williams again refused to transfer out of the Segregation Unit; Williams says that he was not offered the opportunity to do so. On September 13, Williams was injured and transferred to the Health Care Unit, where he remained until September 20. Upon his release he was returned to the Segregation Unit, where he remained until October 7, 1993. ² Williams claims that he was held in the Segregation Unit without due process for nineteen days (the period between September 20 and October 7). ³

When a plaintiff brings an action under Sec. 1983 for procedural due process violations, he must show that the state deprived him of a constitutionally protected interest in "life, liberty, or property" without due process of law. Zinermon v. Burch, 494 U.S. 113, 125, 110 S.Ct. 975, 983, 108 L.Ed.2d 100 (1990) (citing Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 537, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 1914, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981)). A prisoner has no liberty interest in remaining in the general prison population. Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 467-68, 103 S.Ct. 864, 868-70, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983); Meriwether v. Faulkner, 821 F.2d 408, 414 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 935, 108 S.Ct. 311, 98 L.Ed.2d 269 (1987); see also Sandin v. Conner, --- U.S. ----, ---- - ----, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 2300-01, 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995). In fact, absent a constitutional, statutory, or regulatory bar, "a prisoner may be transferred for any reason, or for no reason at all." Williams v. Faulkner, 837 F.2d 304, 309 (7th Cir.1988), aff'd sub nom. Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 109 S.Ct. 1827, 104 L.Ed.2d 338 (1989). Therefore, if the defendants are correct, Williams would have no liberty interest because he was in administrative or investigatory, not disciplinary, segregation.

Williams argues, however, that he was in disciplinary segregation, and that the district court failed to recognize the liberty interest afforded him by Illinois state regulations that govern prison disciplinary procedures. Specifically, he claims that Illinois law permits a maximum of fifteen days in segregation as punishment for disobeying a direct order, and that defendant Ramos held him in segregation beyond that time. This argument is countered by the recent Supreme Court case of Sandin v. Conner, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995), which shifts the creation of liberty interests away from the language of regulations and toward the nature of the deprivation a prisoner suffers.

The Due Process Clause does not necessarily protect prisoners against the imposition of disciplinary segregation. Id. at ---- - ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2300-01. Sandin recognizes that a state may create a liberty interest, but limits such state-created liberty interests to "freedom from restraint which, while not exceeding the sentence in such an unexpected manner as to give rise to protection by the Due Process Clause of its own force ... nonetheless imposes atypical and significant hardship on the inmate in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life." Id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2300.

Thus, in the disciplinary segregation context, there is no liberty interest without an "atypical, significant" deprivation. Id. In Sandin, the Supreme Court held that an inmate (Conner) who received as punishment thirty days in segregation did not establish a liberty interest sufficient to invoke a right to due process. It relied upon three factors in determining that Conner possessed no liberty interest: 1) disciplinary segregation was little different from discretionary forms of segregation; 2) comparison between Conner's confinement and conditions in the general population showed that Conner suffered no "major disruption in his environment"; and 3) the length of Conner's sentence was not affected. Id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2301.

The essential facts of this case as Williams states them are virtually indistinguishable from Sandin. Williams claims that, in violation of state procedures, he was held in disciplinary segregation for nineteen days. Like the Supreme Court in Sandin, under these circumstances we find no "atypical, significant deprivation," and thus no liberty interest.

Williams argues that his confinement was significantly more onerous than life in the general population. He says that he was locked in a closed-front cell twenty-four hours a day, he was not allowed to participate in activities available to the general population or non-segregated inmates housed in the same area, he was handcuffed whenever he left his cell, ⁴ and he lacked much contact with other inmates or staff. We do not believe, however, that his catalogue of harms greatly exceeds what one could expect from prison life generally, ⁵ as "[l]awful imprisonment necessarily makes unavailable many rights and privileges of the ordinary citizen, 'a retraction justified by the considerations underlying our penal system.' " Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 555, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2974, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974). Moreover, previously Williams, as he admits, would have refused to leave the Segregation Unit, and he neglects to tell us how the conditions he voluntarily accepted in August and early September were different from or better than the conditions that prevailed during the period of which he complains. As the Supreme Court noted in Sandin, "Conner's own expectations have at times reflected a personal preference for the quietude of the Special Holding Unit. Although we do not think a prisoner's subjective expectations dispositive of the liberty interest analysis, it does provide some evidence that the conditions suffered were expected within the contour of the actual sentence imposed." Id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2301 n. 9. Furthermore, there is no indication that persons in disciplinary segregation receive treatment substantially different than that given persons in discretionary types of segregation. See 20 Ill.Admin.Code Sec. 504.630 (Investigative Confinement), Sec. 504.660 (Administrative Detention) (both referring to disciplinary confinement standards as benchmarks). Finally, the length of Williams's sentence was not affected.

Where there is no liberty interest, there can be no due process violation. Because the defendants must prevail as a matter of law, summary judgment was proper.

II. Eighth Amendment

The district court dismissed Williams's Eighth Amendment claim for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). We review such a dismissal de novo. Murphy v. Walker, 51 F.3d 714, 717 (7th Cir.1995). We accept the complaint's well-pleaded factual allegations as true and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff. Arazie v. Mullane, 2 F.3d 1456, 1465 (7th Cir.1993). The complaint should not be dismissed unless "it appears beyond doubt that the [non-movant] can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief." Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 101-102, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957).

Williams was transferred from the Segregation Unit to the Protective Custody Unit on October 7, 1993. Upon his arrival, he showed to defendants Smith and Griffen a medical certificate which stated that Williams should be assigned a lower bunk. ⁶ There were no available low bunks in the unit, and defendants refused to reassign another inmate so that Williams could have a low bunk. When Williams protested, he was told that he could either accept the offered cell assignment or be returned to the Segregation Unit. He refused the cell assignment. Williams maintains that, by refusing to assign him a low bunk, defendants have...