Brooks v. Buscher, s. 94-1797

• Decision Date: 27 July 1995
• Docket Number: Nos. 94-1797,94-1798,s. 94-1797
• Citation: 62 F.3d 176
• Parties: Billy Joe BROOKS, Plaintiff-Appellant, Cross-Appellee, v. Alfred E. BUSCHER, D.A. Riegel, Assistant Warden, Stuart Lakin, Joe Scribner, Keith Cole, Jeffrey Kidd, Billy Hewitt, Claude Willis, J.D. Vieregge, and Mike Gitcum, Defendants-Appellees, and Assistant Warden Shields and Garey J. Ahler, Defendants-Appellees, Cross-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 176

62 F.3d 176

Billy Joe BROOKS, Plaintiff-Appellant, Cross-Appellee, v. Alfred E. BUSCHER, D.A. Riegel, Assistant Warden, Stuart Lakin, Joe Scribner, Keith Cole, Jeffrey Kidd Billy Hewitt, Claude Willis, J.D Vieregge, and Mike Gitcum Defendants-Appellees and Assistant Warden Shields and Garey J. Ahler, Defendants-Appellees, Cross-Appellants.

Nos. 94-1797, 94-1798.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued March 29, 1995.

Decided July 27, 1995.

James W. Erwin (argued), Gary Mayes, and Bill B. Dorothy, Thompson & Mitchell, St. Louis, MO, for plaintiff.

Terrence T. Rock, Asst. Atty. Gen., Office of the Atty. Gen., Springfield, IL and Daniel N. Malato, Asst. Atty. Gen. (argued), Office of the Atty. Gen. Civ. Appeals Div., Chicago IL, for defendants.

Before CUMMINGS and KANNE, Circuit Judges, and WALTER, District Judge. ^*

KANNE, Circuit Judge.

Billy Joe Brooks is a prison inmate who wanted to use the prison law library. Because he was a threat to others, prison officials gave him only indirect access to the library. Brooks sued, claiming the limitations on access to the library violated his right of access to the courts. The district court entered judgment in his favor; we reverse.

I. Background

Billy Joe Brooks is a "circuit rider" in the Illinois prison system. ¹ Unlike the old custom of judges riding circuit from town to town to administer justice, Brooks rides his circuit from prison to prison because he is a violent and predatory inmate. Officially known as the Temporary Disciplinary Transfer program, the circuit rider program shuffles among Illinois prisons those inmates who pose threats to prison order, so that they may not put down roots and exercise too much influence at one correctional facility. Typically, circuit riders are gang leaders or inmates who have repeatedly broken the rules and who pose an extreme threat to prison safety and discipline.

Prison officials placed Brooks in the segregation unit at the Vandalia Correctional Center (VCC) from May 18, 1988, to June 8, 1988, exactly three weeks. VCC is a medium security prison; only those prisoners in the segregation unit are considered maximum security inmates. Prisoners in the segregation unit are allowed one hour of exercise and one shower per week and may possess very few items. Brooks amply repaid prison officials' lack of confidence in him. While at VCC, he "was disciplined on a regular basis for throwing food and urine at correctional officers." He also threw a liquid, perhaps urine, on the prison librarian (the person who, as we shall see, was his link to the prison library). He threw food trays and his shoes at the guards. Moreover, Brooks stopped up his toilet and flooded the gallery, so prison officials cut water flow to his cell and restored it only for short periods to allow him to flush and use the wash basin.

After Brooks had thrown urine several times on guards, prison officials decided to remove from his cell the containers he was using to hold the urine. Prison guards put together an extraction team, a group of several shielded and padded guards who wrestle belligerent and uncooperative inmates such as Brooks to the ground and handcuff them. Brooks was extracted from his cell and immediately transferred to another prison, ending his brief yet eventful stay at VCC.

Brooks, a frequent and accomplished litigator, nearly immediately filed suit against a battery of defendants. ² He alleged that while he was at VCC, prison officials violated his right of access to the courts, placed him in inhumane conditions and used excessive force amounting to cruel and unusual punishment, and discriminated against him because of his race. The district court, acting through a magistrate judge, held a bench trial on the access to courts claim and the cruel and unusual punishment claim. The district court found for the defendants on the cruel and unusual punishment claim. However, it found that prison officials had denied Brooks his right of access to the courts, but awarded only nominal damages. Brooks appeals from the award of only nominal damages; the defendants cross-appeal from the judgment that they are liable at all.

II. Analysis

We review the district court's findings of fact for clear error. Shango v. Jurich, 965 F.2d 289, 291 (7th Cir.1992). No party disputes the district court's findings of fact, however. We also use the clear error standard for the district court's conclusions that applied law to fact. United States v. Burns, 37 F.3d 276, 278 n. 2 (7th Cir.1994), cert. denied --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 2592, 132 L.Ed.2d 840 (1995). Those are the types of questions disputed in this appeal. See Shango, 965 F.2d at 291-92. Clear error exists when we "are left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed." Kraushaar v. Flanigan, 45 F.3d 1040, 1052 (7th Cir.1995).

Prisoners have a constitutional right to "meaningful" access to the courts. Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 828, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 1498, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977); Shango, 965 F.2d at 291; Hossman v. Spradlin, 812 F.2d 1019, 1021 (7th Cir.1987). Prisoners must receive "that quantum of access to prison libraries--not total or unlimited access--which will enable them to research the law and determine what facts may be necessary to state a cause of action." Hossman, 812 F.2d at 1021; see also Campbell v. Miller, 787 F.2d 217, 226 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1019, 107 S.Ct. 673, 93 L.Ed.2d 724 (1986). Security reasons, however, may justify strict time, place, and manner restrictions. Shango, 965 F.2d at 292; Caldwell v. Miller, 790 F.2d 589, 606 (7th Cir.1986). Accordingly, inconvenient or highly restrictive regulations may be entirely appropriate and not violate a prisoner's constitutional right of access, as long as the restrictions do not actually completely deny meaningful access to the courts. Hossman, 812 F.2d at 1021.

This Circuit uses a two-part test to decide if prison officials violated the right of access to the courts. Jenkins v. Lane, 977 F.2d 266, 268 (7th Cir.1992). First, the prisoner must prove that prison officials failed " 'to assist in the preparation and filing of meaningful legal papers.' " Id. (quoting Bounds, 430 U.S. at 828, 97 S.Ct. at 1498). Second, he must show "some quantum of detriment caused by the challenged conduct of state officials." Jenkins, 977 F.2d at 268.

Prison officials have two basic options for satisfying a prisoner's right of access. They must provide a prisoner either with access to persons trained in the law (which would include persons such as paralegals and law students), or provide him with adequate access to law libraries. Bounds, 430 U.S. at 830-32, 97 S.Ct. at 1499-1500; DeMallory v. Cullen, 855 F.2d 442, 446 (7th Cir.1988). "Prison authorities need not provide both of these, but must provide one or the other...." Id. Regardless of what method a prison chooses to effectuate the right, a " 'legal access program need not include any particular element ... [but] must be evaluated as a whole to ascertain its compliance with constitutional standards.' " Corgain v. Miller, 708 F.2d 1241, 1248 (7th Cir.1983) (quoting Bounds, 430 U.S. at 832, 97 S.Ct. at 1500).

Providing inmates with services from persons trained in the law carries inherent problems such as expense and the necessity for heightened security. Therefore, prisons usually choose to provide prisoners access to law libraries, to allow them to conduct the necessary research largely on their own. For most prisoners, this means they can freely roam law libraries, with various administrative restrictions such as specified hours. But for prisoners like Brooks, who pose a physical danger to other inmates and who may destroy library materials, such a system is not feasible.

To allow access for prisoners who cannot be allowed to use the library directly, prisons frequently set up systems of indirect access for inmates. See Jenkins, 977 F.2d at 267; Shango, 965 F.2d at 292. They may do this, for while the Constitution requires meaningful access, that does not necessarily mean direct access. See Shango, 965 F.2d at 292; Hossman, 812 F.2d at 1021; Campbell, 787 F.2d at 227. Meaningful access is denied only when a system of indirect access restricts too greatly a prisoner's ability to do basic research, that is, enough to enable him to formulate legal theories and get through the initial stages of a civil suit. Smith v. Shawnee Library System, 60 F.3d 317 (7th Cir.1995); Shango, 965 F.2d at 292; Hossman, 812 F.2d at 1021; see also Murray v. Giarratano, 492 U.S. 1, 11, 109 S.Ct. 2765, 2771, 106 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989) ("The Court held in Bounds that a prisoner's 'right of access' to the courts required a State to furnish access to adequate law libraries in order that prisoners might prepare petitions for judicial relief."); Cornett v. Donovan, 51 F.3d 894, 898-99 (9th Cir.1995) (holding that right of access to the courts "does not require that a state provide assistance beyond the pleading stage."); Knop v. Johnson, 977 F.2d 996, 1006-07 (6th Cir.1992) ("[Prisoners] are entitled, rather, to 'access'--which means getting the courthouse door opened in such a way that it will not automatically be slammed shut on them."), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1415, 122 L.Ed.2d 786 (1993); Nordgren v. Milliken, 762 F.2d 851, 855 (10th Cir.) (holding that right of access does not extend beyond "completion of the complaint for a federal habeas or civil rights action"), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1032, 106 S.Ct. 593, 88 L.Ed.2d 573 (1985).

Attuned to these principles, prison officials at VCC set up a system of indirect access for circuit riders in the segregation unit. VCC maintained a law library for all prisoners to use that stocked a full range of legal materials. The law library was run by the law librarian, Garey Ahler, who was trained in library science, but not at all in law. Ahler supervised the inmate law clerks who assisted him. He...