Wright v. N.Y. State Dep't of Corr. & Cmty. Supervision

• Decision Date: 29 July 2016
• Docket Number: Docket No. 15-3168-cv,August Term, 2015
• Parties: Nathaniel Wright, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Anthony Annucci, Acting Commissioner of Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Charles Kelly, Jr., Superintendent; Marcy Correctional Facility, Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

831 F.3d 64

Nathaniel Wright, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Anthony Annucci, Acting Commissioner of Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Charles Kelly, Jr., Superintendent; Marcy Correctional Facility, Defendants–Appellees.^*

Docket No. 15-3168-cv

August Term, 2015

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: February 18, 2016

Decided: July 29, 2016

Joshua T. Cotter , Legal Services of Central New York, Inc., Syracuse, NY, for Plaintiff–Appellant.

Kate H. Nepveu , Assistant Solicitor General (Barbara D. Underwood, Solicitor General & Andrea Oser, Deputy Solicitor General, on the brief), for Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General of the State of New York, Albany, NY, for Defendants–Appellees.

Cliff Zucker , Disability Advocates, Inc., Albany, NY, for Amicus Curiae.

Before: Winter, Hall, and Droney, Circuit Judges.

Winter and Hall, Circuit Judges:

Appellant Nathaniel Wright, a mobility-impaired inmate who suffers from cerebral palsy

and scoliosis, brought suit against the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and certain of its officers (collectively, “DOCCS”) under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (“RA”) seeking declaratory and injunctive relief allowing him to use his motorized wheelchair within DOCCS facilities. Wright makes three arguments: (1) DOCCS's mobility assistance program is not a reasonable accommodation for his disability, (2) allowing him to use his motorized wheelchair would not unduly burden DOCCS, and (3) DOCCS's blanket ban on motorized wheelchairs violates the ADA and RA. After discovery, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of DOCCS and determined that the mobility assistance program gives Wright meaningful access to prison programs, benefits, and services.

We hold that the district court erred by granting summary judgment in favor of DOCCS because there is a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether the mobility assistance program provides Wright meaningful access to DOCCS services and as to whether allowing Wright the use of his motorized wheelchair would unduly burden DOCCS. In arriving at this conclusion, we further hold that DOCCS's blanket ban on motorized wheelchairs—without an individualized inquiry into the risks of allowing a mobility-impaired inmate to use his or her motorized wheelchair—violates the ADA and the RA. We therefore vacate the grant of summary judgment and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

BACKGROUND

Wright has lived with cerebral palsy

and scoliosis all his life. As a result of cerebral palsy, Wright's legs are severely deformed. He can walk only for very short distances and only with the aid of a cane. Since April 2012, Wright has been incarcerated in various New York state jails and prisons. For twenty years prior to incarceration, however, he enjoyed a self-sufficient life through the use of a doctor-prescribed, and Medicaid-provided, motorized wheelchair. His expressed need to continue using his motorized wheelchair while in prison is the impetus for this lawsuit.

Wright was initially incarcerated in Monroe County Jail, where he was allowed to use his motorized wheelchair in the general population without incident. In October 2012, he was transferred to DOCCS custody at the Elmira Correctional Facility (“Elmira”). After a prison nurse practitioner examined him, Wright was deemed to have a “permanent limitation,” given a medical restriction permit, and allowed to use his motorized wheelchair while in the infirmary ward. Joint App'x at 49. After a brief two-week stay at Elmira, Wright was transferred to Marcy Correctional Facility (“Marcy”). About a year later Wright was transferred to Franklin Correctional Facility (“Franklin”) where he remains incarcerated. Wright's claims are premised on his time at both Marcy and Franklin.

Upon arrival at Marcy, DOCCS personnel seized Wright's motorized wheelchair and provided him with a manual wheelchair

and a quad cane. Wright was also provided knee pads and was allowed to use his customized chair cushion with his DOCCS-issued manual wheelchair. DOCCS informed Wright that he would be assigned an inmate mobility aide to move him around the facility. Shortly after his motorized wheelchair was confiscated, Wright filed a prison grievance seeking “reasonable accommodations needed to get around the facility independently (i.e. [his] power wheelchair).” Id. at 23. Marcy Superintendent Kelly denied the grievance, finding that Wright's needs were already met. Superintendent Kelly also declared that, because “the possession/use of a motorized wheelchair in a correctional setting includes numerous safety & security issues, Departmental policy is to preclude the use of such items by offenders.” Id. This decision was later upheld on appeal by DOCCS's Central Office Review Committee (“CORC”), which noted that “the motorized wheelchair was appropriately denied for legitimate security concerns regarding the strength of the battery, massive amount of wiring, etc.” Id. at 25. CORC stated that Wright's needs were already being reasonably accommodated because he had been given a manual wheelchair and was “assigned another inmate who is programmed as a mobility aide to assist him with daily living activities and movement within the facility.” Id.

DOCCS has a blanket policy that precludes the use of motorized wheelchairs by inmates. Mobility-impaired inmates who cannot propel themselves in a manual wheelchair must rely upon inmate mobility aides to move throughout the facility and to attend programs and services. At Marcy, Wright was assigned a specific mobility aide who knew Wright's general schedule and for whom other aides would substitute as necessary. At Franklin, however, Wright was not assigned specific mobility aides; instead, he received assistance from a pool of trained inmates. Franklin provides four trained mobility aides for each mobility-impaired inmate. In both facilities Wright could utilize mobility aides only if he put in a request for assistance with “Housing Unit Officers well in advance.” Id. at 308.

Wright alleges that the mobility assistance program does not provide him meaningful access to prison programs and services. According to Wright, his disability is such that he is only able to move himself in a manual wheelchair for short periods of time and for short distances because using a manual wheelchair causes him physical pain. As a result, he is almost entirely dependent on the mobility assistance program, which he attests is unreliable and ineffective.

For example, Wright, at times, has had to ask as many as six mobility aides for help before finding a willing aide. On multiple occasions he has been unable to go to the law library and missed morning sick calls, doctor appointments, and meals. Late at night, he often does not “bother” the mobility aides and instead attempts to propel himself to the bathroom. Joint App'x at 155. Even though his cell is about thirty feet from the bathroom, making this trip on his own causes him a great deal of pain, and, on more than one occasion, he has defecated or urinated on himself. Wright has been unable to perform a number of jobs that he would otherwise be able to perform if he had access to his motorized wheelchair, including being a part of the lawn and grounds crew. Finally, Wright avoids recreational time in the yard because he fears he would be unable to escape quickly in the event of a prison fight, and when he is forced to spend recreational time in the yard, he is physically and socially isolated because no inmates are willing to push him around.

While Wright has testified that the mobility assistance program has caused him, among other things, indignity and embarrassment, he has never filed a grievance identifying a specific aide who refused to push him. He did file one grievance at Franklin alleging that he missed a doctor's appointment because no mobility aide was willing to push him. An investigation later found, however, that Wright missed this appointment as a result of a facility inmate count, not because a mobility aide was unavailable. According to Wright, he has chosen not to identify shirking mobility aides because a person in his “condition [ ] can't afford being labeled a snitch.” Joint App'x at 189.

On May 15, 2013, Wright commenced this action, alleging that DOCCS discriminated against him and failed to provide him with a reasonable accommodation in violation of the ADA and the RA. On July 1, 2013, he moved for a preliminary injunction seeking the return of his motorized wheelchair pending a determination of his suit on the merits. The District Court denied the motion. We affirmed this decision by summary order, determining that “the District Court did not abuse its discretion in denying Wright's preliminary injunction.” Wright v. Dep't of Corr. & Cmty. Supervision, 568 Fed.Appx. 53, 55 (2d Cir. 2014). We declined, however, to give a “view on the merits” of Wright's ADA and RA claims and “encourage[d] the District Court to consider whether DOCCS is an outlier among state prison systems in denying prisoners the use of motorized wheelchairs.” Id.

On July 3, 2014, Wright filed a second amended complaint “seek[ing] declaratory and injunctive relief to compel [DOCCS] to allow [Wright the] use of his personal motorized wheelchair within DOCCS facilities.” Joint App'x at 63. Wright set forth evidence that thirty state prison systems and the Federal Bureau of Prisons allow mobility-impaired inmates to use motorized wheelchairs, at the very least, on a case-by-case basis. Only eleven states, including New York, have a blanket ban on the use of motorized wheelchairs.

DOCCS employees outlined a number of security concerns with motorized wheelchairs beyond their potential use as a weapon, including the following: (1) motorized wheelchairs are heavy, weighing...