Dole v. Chandler

• Citation: 438 F.3d 804
• Decision Date: 24 February 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-1868.,05-1868.
• Parties: Joseph DOLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Correctional Officer CHANDLER, Sergeant Butler, Superintendent Hasemeyer, Superintendent Pickering, Lieutenant Biggs, Correctional Officer Hess, Kelly Rhodes, Charles Hinsley, Unknown Yard Officers, Unknown HCU Officers, and Unknown Transport Officers, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

438 F.3d 804

Joseph DOLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Correctional Officer CHANDLER, Sergeant Butler, Superintendent Hasemeyer, Superintendent Pickering, Lieutenant Biggs, Correctional Officer Hess, Kelly Rhodes, Charles Hinsley, Unknown Yard Officers, Unknown HCU Officers, and Unknown Transport Officers, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 05-1868.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued January 12, 2006.

Decided February 24, 2006.

Alan S. Mills (argued), Uptown People's Law Center, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Mary E. Welsh (argued), Office of the Attorney General Civil Appeals Division, Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before FLAUM, Chief Judge, and BAUER and EVANS, Circuit Judges.

FLAUM, Chief Judge.

Joseph Dole, a prisoner, claims that he was beaten by prison guards in retaliation for punching an assistant warden. He attempted to file a grievance with the Administrative Review Board ("the ARB" or "the Board"), as required by Illinois regulations, before the deadline to do so had lapsed. He placed his grievance in the hands of prison authorities inside of an envelope addressed to the ARB. He did not have the option of mailing the grievance himself. When he heard no response from the ARB, he sent another letter to inquire about his grievance's status. The ARB responded that it had no record of receiving the grievance. Dole was not given any instructions on what to do next, and by the time he learned that the ARB had not received his grievance, a new one would have been untimely. Although the ARB will accept untimely filings with good cause shown, Dole did not attempt to re-file his grievance.

Dole has now filed a suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in federal court against the defendants. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants on the ground that Dole failed to exhaust his administrative remedies as required by the Prisoner Litigation Reform Act ("PLRA"), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). Dole appeals, claiming that he strictly complied with all regulations when filing his grievance and did all that he was capable of doing to assure that his complaint reached the ARB. This, he claims, should constitute exhaustion under the PLRA.

For the following reasons, we find in favor of the plaintiff, reverse the district court's summary judgment ruling, and remand for further proceedings.

I. Background

A. The conduct alleged in Dole's suit

Joseph Dole was an inmate at Menard Correctional Center on March 15, 2002, when he hit Assistant Warden Al Frentzel in the prison yard.¹ Shortly thereafter, as he was being restrained in the prison yard, he claims that he was beaten by defendants Biggs and Hess, and possibly others. He states that he was then transported to the Health Care Unit, where he was beaten by defendants Chandler, Butler, Hasemeyer, Pickering, and possibly others. The guards allegedly locked him in an examination room, slammed his head into a biohazard box and into the sink, kicked him in the ribs, and beat him until he passed out. A civilian nurse in the Health Care Unit beat on the door and shouted for help, at which point Dole claims that the guards ceased abusing him. When the nurse entered the room, Dole was examined and it was discovered that he had suffered a broken nose and several small abrasions and bruises on his ribs.

After that incident, Dole alleges that he was transported to Tamms Correctional Center in a van with the windows open, which made the temperature inside the van unreasonably cold. He claims that although he requested that the officers close the windows, they refused. According to Dole, the officers were wearing heavy winter coats, and he was wearing only a thin prison uniform and prison shower shoes. Finally, Dole states that he was placed on suicide watch for five days as retribution for attacking the assistant warden and not out of medical necessity.

The nurse who intervened in the alleged beating at the Health Care Unit complained to the Illinois Department of Corrections' ("the Department") Internal Affairs Office, which initiated its own investigation of the incident the same day. The Department also forwarded a request to the Illinois State Police, asking them to initiate a separate investigation into the incident. Dole cooperated in both of these investigations; over twenty staff members were also interviewed. Both agencies issued full reports at the conclusion of their investigations. The Illinois State Police report was submitted to the Director of the Department of Corrections ("Director"), and the matter was referred to the State's Attorney of Randolph County for possible prosecution. The State's Attorney declined to prosecute, despite the fact that the report found the allegations credible, citing insufficient evidence, lack of witnesses, and conflicting staff member statements. The internal affairs report was also forwarded to the Director, as well as the Warden at Menard. That report concluded that defendants Hasemeyer, Pickering, and Chandler violated the Department's regulations governing the use of excessive force and failure to report violations. Those defendants were disciplined.

B. The Illinois prisoner grievance process

The Illinois grievance process for prisoners usually includes five levels of review. A prisoner first submits a grievance to a counselor. ILL. ADMIN. CODE tit. 20, § 504.810(a). If the prisoner is not satisfied with the counselor's resolution of the complaint, he may then submit a formal grievance to the prison's grievance officer. ILL. ADMIN. CODE tit. 20, § 504.810(a) and (b). The grievance officer then reviews the grievance and forwards his recommendation to the warden. ILL. ADMIN. CODE tit. 20, § 504.830(d). The warden makes the final decision at the institutional level.

If the prisoner is not satisfied with the warden's response, he may file an appeal to the Director. ILL. ADMIN. CODE tit. 20, § 504.850(a). Appeals to the Director are to be addressed to the ARB. The Director is deemed to have referred the matter to the ARB, which in turn submits its recommendation to the Director. ILL. ADMIN. CODE tit. 20, § 504.850(b) and (f). The Director issues the Department's final decision. With certain exceptions, a prisoner housed in a facility other than the one where the incident giving rise to the complaint occurred files his appeal directly with the ARB. ILL. ADMIN. CODE tit. 20, § 504.870(a)(3).

Grievances must usually be filed within sixty days of the incident giving rise to the complaint, but the ARB reviews untimely grievances that include an explanation of good cause for the untimeliness. ILL. ADMIN. CODE tit. 20, § 504.810(a).

C. Dole's grievance

On April 15, 2002, Dole completed a grievance form, complaining about the excessive force that he alleged the guards at Menard had used. The grievance stated that he had been beaten until a nurse stopped the guards, and that two disciplinary reports detailing his conduct during the incident were false. As relief, Dole requested that the officers who beat him be fired, that he be transferred from Tamms, that the disciplinary charge against him be dropped, and that he be paid one million dollars in damages.

Dole believed that the Assistant Warden of Tamms, who had just moved from the Assistant Warden position at Menard, was taking a suspiciously active role in Dole's affairs at Tamms. He therefore wished to retain a copy of his complaint in case it was "lost" by prison authorities. He did not have access to a copy machine, so he copied the entire complaint by hand. He handed the original form to his counselor at Tamms on April 19. On April 22, the counselor returned the grievance to him, with a note indicating that it needed to be submitted directly to the ARB since the incident had occurred at Menard and not Tamms.

That same day, he placed his complaint in an envelope addressed to the ARB. He placed the envelope in the "chuckhole" of his cell for the guard to pick up and mail. This was the only procedure that was available to him to mail his grievance. The defendants agree that the guard took the envelope.

Dole submitted two grievances to the Tamms Grievance Officer on April 18, four days before he mailed the grievance at issue in this case. In one, he complained of being put on suicide watch as retaliation for hitting Assistant Warden Frentzel. The ARB denied that appeal on July 25. In the other grievance, he complained about being transferred to Tamms. The ARB denied that appeal on July 24.

After Dole received decisions from the ARB on his other two appeals, he wrote to the ARB to inquire about the status of his third grievance, the one at issue in this case. He was told that the ARB had no record of the grievance. The letter did not contain any instructions on how Dole should proceed. By this time, the sixty day period for filing a timely grievance had passed. Dole did not attempt to re-file his complaint as untimely.

D. District court proceedings

Almost eighteen months after being informed that the ARB had no record of his grievance on the subject, Dole filed this § 1983 action seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the beating he alleges he endured at Menard. Defendants Biggs and Hess moved for summary judgment on the ground that Dole had not complied with the exhaustion requirement of the PLRA.

Dole responded, arguing that the grievance process was "unavailable" to him after his initial complaint was lost, or, alternately, that he had materially complied with the PLRA in light of his participation in the Department's internal investigation and the Illinois State Police investigation. He acknowledged that this circuit has taken a strict compliance approach to the PLRA, but argued the issue in the district court in order to preserve the argument for appeal.

Dole also noted that he had requested discovery from the defendants, including documents such as mail logs and postage disbursements from Tamms, and, from the ARB, records and...