Douglas v. DeBruyn

• Decision Date: 10 July 1996
• Docket Number: No. IP 96-0656-C H/G.,IP 96-0656-C H/G.
• Citation: 936 F. Supp. 572
• Parties: Gregory E. DOUGLAS, Plaintiff, v. H. Christian DeBRUYN, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Indiana

936 F. Supp. 572

Gregory E. DOUGLAS, Plaintiff, v. H. Christian DeBRUYN, et al., Defendants.

No. IP 96-0656-C H/G.

United States District Court, S.D. Indiana, Indianapolis Division.

July 10, 1996.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Gregory E. Douglas, Pendleton, Indiana, pro se.

None appearing; case was dismissed on petition to proceed in forma pauperis.

ENTRY DENYING REQUEST TO PROCEED IN FORMA PAUPERIS AND DIRECTING ENTRY OF JUDGMENT

HAMILTON, District Judge.

This cause is before the court on the plaintiff's complaint and on his request to proceed in forma pauperis.¹ The court finds that the plaintiff's request to proceed in forma pauperis should be denied and the action dismissed.

Plaintiff Gregory Douglas is confined at the Correctional Industrial Complex (the "CIC"). He seeks injunctive relief and damages based on his classification at that institution and the process and equal protection rights have been violated by assignment to the CIC's "Idle Unit." He also claims that the conditions to which he is subjected in the Idle Unit violate the Eighth Amendment. Douglas has named as defendants CIC Superintendent Charles B. Miller, Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Correction H. Christian DeBruyn, and thirteen other individuals who serve as either administrators or correctional officers at the CIC. The defendants are sued in both their individual and their official capacities.

Because Douglas is proceeding pro se, his pleadings are to be liberally construed. See Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520, 92 S.Ct. 594, 596, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972) (stating that pro se complaints should be held to a less stringent standard than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers); Kincaid v. Vail, 969 F.2d 594, 598 (7th Cir.1992) (same). Nonetheless, the substantive law applicable to his claims cannot be ignored simply because of his pro se status. Jones v. Phipps, 39 F.3d 158, 163 (7th Cir.1994).

The plaintiff is without sufficient funds to prepay the filing fee required by 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a). Accordingly, his request to proceed in forma pauperis must be granted unless the action is frivolous or malicious, fails to state a claim for which relief may be granted, or seeks money damages from a defendant who is immune from such relief. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B). The screening of complaints submitted with requests to proceed in forma pauperis is required by 28 U.S.C. § 1915A. Under the recently amended § 1915, as with the previous version of § 1915, a district court may review the complaint and dismiss on its own initiative those claims premised on meritless legal theories or that clearly lack any factual basis. Denton v. Hernandez, 504 U.S. 25, 112 S.Ct. 1728, 118 L.Ed.2d 340 (1992). "Frivolous claims are those that have no arguable basis in law or in fact." Talley v. Lane, 13 F.3d 1031, 1033 (7th Cir.1994), citing Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325, 109 S.Ct. 1827, 1831-32, 104 L.Ed.2d 338 (1989).

A complaint fails to state a claim for which relief may be granted if, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to plaintiff and assuming them to be true, it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim that would entitle the plaintiff to relief. E.g., Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U.S. 69, 104 S.Ct. 2229, 81 L.Ed.2d 59 (1984); Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). A pro se complaint will be dismissed only "if it is beyond doubt that there is no set of facts under which the plaintiff could obtain relief." Wilson v. Civil Town of Clayton, 839 F.2d 375, 378 (7th Cir.1988).

The plaintiff's claims are brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. A cause of action is provided by 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against "every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws" of the United States. Jurisdiction for this action is conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 1343(a)(3). To state a claim under § 1983, a plaintiff must allege the violation of a right secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States and must show that the alleged deprivation was committed by a person acting under color of state law. West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 48, 108 S.Ct. 2250, 2254-55, 101 L.Ed.2d 40 (1988). The element of state action is satisfied in this case.

Without a constitutional or statutory violation, a plaintiff cannot make out a prima facie case under § 1983. Juriss v. McGowan, 957 F.2d 345, 349 n. 1 (7th Cir.1992), citing Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 140, 99 S.Ct. 2689, 2692, 61 L.Ed.2d 433 (1979). Clarity in identifying the precise constitutional right implicated is critical in analyzing a claim under § 1983. Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 394, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 1870-71, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989). Whether a constitutional violation has occurred can be determined only by applying the standards applicable to that particular constitutional provision. Id. Three constitutional provisions are arguably implicated by Douglas' allegations — the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantees of (1) due process of law and (2) equal protection of the law, and (3) the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments.

Douglas claims his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights were violated when he was placed in the Idle Unit because of allegedly insufficient job, vocational, rehabilitation, and educational programs. He specifically claims the defendants violated his procedural due process rights, a state-created liberty interest, and his right to equal protection. Douglas does not allege that he was assigned to the Idle Unit as the result of some misconduct, nor that this assignment was made for any punitive reasons. Accordingly, the claim is not examined in relation to whether the assignment was made as a punishment.

The Seventh Circuit has recently explained: "The Due Process Clause itself does not create a right for prisoners to leave the area around their cells, to visit other prisoners, or not to be subjected to lockdowns; only the Eighth Amendment limits these restrictions." Higgason v. Farley, 83 F.3d 807, 809 (7th Cir.1996). In doing so, the Court of Appeals analyzed at some length the effect of Sandin v. Conner, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 2300, 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995), in which the Supreme Court "changed the method of determining a prisoner's liberty interest." Higgason, 83 F.3d at 809. "Under Sandin, we must determine if ... the challenged conditions worked any `atypical and significant hardship' on the plaintiff `in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life,' or as to whether those conditions infringed any rights protected by the Due Process Clause `of its own force.'" Id. at 809, quoting Sandin, ___ U.S. at ___, 115 S.Ct. at 2300. The Sandin methodology is consistent with prior decisions of the Supreme Court, such as its explanation in Montanye v. Haymes, 427 U.S. 236, 242, 96 S.Ct. 2543, 2547, 49 L.Ed.2d 466 (1976): "As long as the conditions or degree of confinement to which the prisoner is subjected is within the sentence imposed upon him and is not otherwise violative of the Constitution, the Due Process Clause does not itself subject an inmate's treatment by prison authorities to judicial oversight."

Douglas' claim in this case is that the absence of particular types of programming — access to jobs, vocational, rehabilitation, and educational programs — violates the Due Process Clause. The court concludes otherwise. The absence of each of these programs individually and the absence of them in their totality do not infringe upon any rights protected by the Due Process Clause "of its own force." However useful or productive such programs might be as a matter of correctional policy, the absence of these programs does not work any "atypical and significant hardship" on the plaintiff "in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life."² Accordingly, Douglas' complaint, even when liberally construed, does not assert a viable due process claim based on the fact that he has been placed in the Idle Unit.

The plaintiff's claim of an equal protection violation also fails. To support an equal protection claim, a plaintiff must show that the discrimination against him was intentional or deliberate. Shango v. Jurich, 681 F.2d 1091, 1104 (7th Cir.1982). Inconsistency in the operation of a prison does not, in itself, constitute a denial of equal protection. Id. The Equal Protection Clause has long been limited to instances of purposeful or invidious discrimination rather than erroneous or even arbitrary administration of state powers. Id. Because the plaintiff complains only that he is being "arbitrarily discriminated against," Complaint at 5, he fails to state a cognizable equal protection claim.³

It is "undisputed that the treatment a prisoner receives in prison and the conditions under which he is confined are subject to scrutiny under the Eighth Amendment." Helling v. McKinney, 509 U.S. 25, 31, 113 S.Ct. 2475, 2480, 125 L.Ed.2d 22 (1993). The Constitution does not mandate comfortable prisons, but neither does it permit inhumane ones, and it is settled that the treatment a prisoner receives in prison and the conditions under which he is confined are subject to scrutiny under the Eighth Amendment. Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, ___, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 1976, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994). When a prisoner claims particular conditions or treatment associated with his incarceration violate the Eighth Amendment's proscription against cruel and unusual punishment, he may use § 1983 as a means to redress conditions that result in "unquestioned and serious deprivations of basic human needs" or "deprive inmates of the minimal civilized measure of life's necessities." Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 347, 101 S.Ct. 2392,...