Knight v. Thompson

• Decision Date: 05 August 2015
• Docket Number: No. 12–11926.,12–11926.
• Citation: 797 F.3d 934
• Parties: Ricky KNIGHT, Franklin Irvin, et al., Plaintiffs–Appellants, Thomas Otter Adams, suing individually and on behalf of a class of persons similarly situated, Billy Two Feathers Jones, suing individually and on behalf of a class of persons similarly situated, et al., Consol., Plaintiffs–Appellants, v. Leslie THOMPSON, in his individual capacity, Donald Parker, et al., Defendants–Appellees, William S. Stricker, Ellen Ruth Leonard, et al. individually and in their official capacity, Consol., Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

797 F.3d 934

Ricky KNIGHT, Franklin Irvin, et al., Plaintiffs–Appellants

Thomas Otter Adams, suing individually and on behalf of a class of persons similarly situated, Billy Two Feathers Jones, suing individually and on behalf of a class of persons similarly situated, et al., Consol., Plaintiffs–Appellants

v.Leslie THOMPSON, in his individual capacity, Donald Parker, et al., Defendants–Appellees

William S. Stricker, Ellen Ruth Leonard, et al. individually and in their official capacity, Consol., Defendants–Appellees.

No. 12–11926.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

Aug. 5, 2015.

Mark Sabel, Sabel Law Firm, LLC, Montgomery, AL, Peter Sean Fruin, Maynard Cooper & Gale, PC, Birmingham, AL, for Plaintiffs–Appellants.

Joseph D. Steadman, Dodson & Steadman, PC, Mobile, AL, Kim Tobias Thomas, Luther J. Strange, III, Alabama Department of Corrections, Andrew Weldon Redd, Alabama Department of Transportation, Montgomery, AL, for Defendants–Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

Before HULL and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges, and SCHLESINGER^* , District Judge.

Opinion

SCHLESINGER, District Judge:

Plaintiffs–Appellants (hereinafter “Plaintiffs”) are male inmates in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections (“ADOC”). They wish to wear their hair unshorn in accordance with the dictates of their Native American religion, but an ADOC policy forbids them from doing so. Plaintiffs brought this suit against the ADOC and several other defendants (collectively “ADOC”), challenging the ADOC's hair-length policy on various constitutional grounds and under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (“RLUIPA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000cc et seq. The United States has intervened on Plaintiffs' behalf. After a full evidentiary hearing and bench trial, the District Court made several findings of fact and entered judgment in favor of the ADOC. Because the ADOC carried its RLUIPA burden to demonstrate that its hair-length policy is the least restrictive means of furthering its compelling governmental interests, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

The ADOC requires all male prison inmates to wear a “regular hair cut,” defined as “off neck and ears.” Dkt. 471. The ADOC does not grant any exemptions to this policy, religious or otherwise. Dkt. 474 p. 146. Plaintiffs seek a complete religion-based exemption to the male hair-length policy.¹ Plaintiffs seek this exemption because wearing long hair is a central tenet of their religious faith. No plaintiff is a maximum-security inmate.

A. Procedural History

This is the third time that this case has come before this Court. Plaintiffs initially filed suit on November 24, 1993, challenging on various constitutional grounds and under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”) the ADOC's policies restricting hair length and prohibiting sweat lodge ceremonies. After entry of summary judgment for the ADOC, Plaintiffs appealed to this Court. Dkt. 218. During that appeal's pendency, Congress responded to the Supreme Court's partial invalidation of the RFRA by enacting the RLUIPA, and this Court therefore remanded this case to allow Plaintiffs to amend their complaint. Dkt. 235. After Plaintiffs amended the complaint to add claims under the RLUIPA and the Parties engaged in a brief period of additional discovery, the District Court again granted summary judgment to the ADOC. Dkt. 317.

Plaintiffs appealed again, and this Court affirmed the judgment of the District Court as to all but Plaintiffs' hair-length restriction claims. As to the hair-length claims, however, this Court concluded:

[O]n the present record factual issues exist as to whether, inter alia, the defendants' total ban on the wearing of long hair and denial of an exemption to the plaintiffs based on their Native American religion is “the least restrictive means of furthering [the defendants'] compelling governmental interest[s]” in security, discipline, hygiene and safety within the prisons and in the public's safety in the event of escapes and alteration of appearances. In addition, we note that the evidentiary record relating to the hair-length claims is over ten years old and that, in the intervening time, prison staffing and administration, prison safety and security, and the prison population in Alabama have changed.

Lathan v. Thompson, 251 Fed.Appx. 665, 667 (11th Cir.2007) (internal citation omitted, second and third alterations in original). This Court, therefore, vacated the District Court's judgment as to the hair-length claims and remanded the case for a full evidentiary hearing and bench trial, “following which the district court shall make detailed findings of fact and conclusions of law.” Id.

B. The Evidentiary Hearing and Bench Trial on Remand

On remand, Magistrate Judge Charles S. Coody held an evidentiary hearing and bench trial. Dkts. 471, 474–76. Plaintiffs proffered undisputed testimony regarding the burden that the ADOC hair-length policy placed on their religious practices. They also presented undisputed testimony that a strong majority of U.S. jurisdictions permit inmates to wear long hair, either generally or as an accommodation for religious inmates.² A witness for Plaintiffs skilled in the use of Photoshop, a computer program used to digitally alter images, testified that corrections officers could easily be trained to alter inmate images to assist in the identification of escaped long-haired inmates. Finally, George Sullivan, Plaintiffs' main witness, testified that his tours and audits of 170 correctional facilities and extensive past employment experience in several prison systems that permit long hair led him to conclude that the ADOC does not need to deny religious exemptions to accomplish its stated goals for its short-hair policy. In support of his conclusion, Sullivan opined that inmates have many other locations where they can more easily store contraband (e.g., socks, stitching areas in clothes, gloves, jackets, etc.), long hair does not impede inmate identification, and long hair does not pose any health risks if inmates follow basic hygiene procedures. Dkt. 474 at pp. 121–38, 143–44; Dkt. 475 at pp. 6–29, 118–58; Dkt. 476 at pp. 7–9, 11–29.

The ADOC's witnesses nonetheless asserted that its policy is necessary to accomplish several compelling goals, including the prevention of contraband, facilitation of inmate identification (both during the usual course of prison business and after escapes), maintenance of good hygiene and health, and facilitation of prison discipline through uniformity. Aside from figures demonstrating that Alabama's prisons have become increasingly over-crowded, under-funded, and under-staffed in recent years, the ADOC's witnesses offered little statistical evidence to support their claims. But they did offer elucidating expert opinions, lay testimony, and anecdotal evidence based on their decades of combined experience as corrections officers.

For example, Warden Grantt Culliver testified that permitting long hair would slow the process of searching inmates for contraband, increase the risk that inmates could grab each other by the hair during fights, and give inmates an additional location to hide small items like handcuff keys on their person. He also testified that granting religious exemptions to Native American inmates would erode discipline and likely cause the ADOC's over-worked staff to stop enforcing the policy against non-exempt inmates. As to hygiene, Culliver recounted an incident in which an inmate developed a fungus on his scalp that remained hidden from view until his hair was cut. Dkt. 474 at pp. 124–32, 144–46, 162–68.

Gwendolyn Mosley, institutional coordinator of the ADOC's southern region and past warden of various ADOC institutions, similarly testified that the hair-length restrictions reduce inmates' ability to hide contraband, assist inmate identification, reduce the time and difficulty of conducting shake-downs and searches, and prevent inmates from pulling each other's hair during fights. She further testified that exempting only certain inmates from the policy would allow them to identify as a special group and form gangs, eroding order and control. Finally, like Warden Culliver, Mosley testified that the grooming policy promotes health and hygiene. Dkt. 475 at pp. 5–10, 16–38.

Warden Tony Patterson echoed many of Culliver's and Mosley's concerns about Plaintiffs' requested exemption from the short-hair policy. Patterson testified that the hair-length policy facilitates the detection of contraband and assists with prompt inmate identification, both during day-to-day operations and in the event of an escape. He further testified that a generally applicable policy with no exemptions fosters discipline, and if the ADOC were required to grant exemptions, officers would have trouble enforcing the policy due to the difficulty of readily identifying which inmates are entitled to the exemption. Finally, Patterson testified concerning a September 2008 escape of two inmates, whose subsequent capture was accomplished by distributing pictures of the inmates to the public. Dkt. 475 at pp. 92–97, 103–05.

However, it was Ronald Angelone, former director of several state prison systems, who provided the most thorough defense of the ADOC's hair length policy. While serving as the director of Virginia's then-chaotic prison system, Angelone had begun enforcing, in response to security and health concerns, an exceptionless grooming policy for male inmates that required all haircuts to be one inch or shorter.³ Angelone specified several reasons for why he chose to enforce the grooming policy, chief among which was the 1999 escape of a “very dangerous” Virginia prison inmate who had cut his hair to alter his appearance. The inmate was discovered three or four days after his escape, but the haircut had so significantly changed his appearance that Angelone would not have been able to identify him from the photograph that...