Harris, Chadwick, et al. v. Garner

• Decision Date: 30 September 1999
• Docket Number: PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS,No. 98-8899,DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES,98-8899
• Citation: 190 F.3d 1279
• Parties: (11th Cir. 1999) FREDERICK LAMAR HARRIS, DANNY CHADWICK, ET AL.,, v. WAYNE GARNER, COMMISSIONER OF THE GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, A.G. THOMAS, DIRECTOR OF FACILITIES DIVISION OF THE GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, ET AL.,
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1279

190 F.3d 1279 (11th Cir. 1999)

FREDERICK LAMAR HARRIS, DANNY CHADWICK, ET AL., PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS, v. WAYNE GARNER, COMMISSIONER OF THE GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, A.G. THOMAS, DIRECTOR OF FACILITIES DIVISION OF THE GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, ET AL., DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES.

No. 98-8899

U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit

Sept. 30, 1999

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. (No. 5:97-CV-79-4 (HL), Hugh Lawson, Judge.

Before Tjoflat and Birch, Circuit Judges, and Bright ^* , Senior Circuit Judge.

Tjoflat, Circuit Judge

In this case the parties ask us to answer several important questions relating to two provisions of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Pub.L. No. 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321 (1996) (codified in scattered sections of 42 U.S.C.) ("PLRA"). 42 U.S.C. 1997e(a) (Supp. II 1996) provides that "[n]o action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under section 1983 of this title, or any other Federal law, by a prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted." 42 U.S.C. 1997e(e) (Supp. II 1996) provides that "[n]o Federal civil action may be brought by a prisoner confined in a jail, prison, or other correctional facility, for mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody without a prior showing of physical injury."

Today, we address (1) whether section 1997e(e) applies to former prisoners who file a claim for injuries suffered while in custody, after they have been released from incarceration; (2) whether section 1997e(a) requires prisoners to exhaust all administrative remedies before they bring a federal law action with respect to prison conditions, even if it would be futile for the prisoner to seek such administrative remedies, and even though the administrative remedies are inadequate; (3) what level of injury must be sustained for a prisoner to meet the section 1997e(e) requirement that the prisoner must make a "prior showing of physical injury" before filing suit for "mental or emotion injury suffered while in custody;" and (4) the constitutionality of section 1997e(e).

I.

Eleven prisoners brought this civil rights suit for damages and injunctive relief ¹ in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia against employees of the Georgia Department of Corrections ("GDC").² The plaintiffs alleged violations of the their Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights as a result of actions allegedly taken by the defendants during a "shakedown" at Georgia's Dooly State Prison facility.³ According to the plaintiffs, members of a special prison "Tactical Squad," led by Commissioner Wayne Garner of the GDC, stormed the prison facility on October 23, 1996. The squad officers ordered prisoners to strip naked, and performed body cavity searches while members of the opposite sex were present; ⁴ physically harassed some prisoners; ordered one inmate to "dry shave;"⁵ made harassing comments to an inmate because of his perceived sexual orientation; and ordered one prisoner to "tap dance" while naked.

The district court referred the case to a magistrate Judge in accordance with 28 U.S.C. 636 (1994). On February 4, 1998, before the magistrate Judge had issued his recommendation in the case, six plaintiffs, who had been released from custody moved the court for leave to withdraw their claims for injunctive relief, because their release had mooted such claims. See Tucker v. Phyfer, 819 F.2d 1030, 1033 (11th Cir.1987). In his recommendation to the district court, the magistrate Judge treated the complaint as amended in accordance with the plaintiffs' motion.

After receiving the magistrate Judge's recommendation, the district court divided the plaintiffs into four classes according to their different factual circumstances, and issued a ruling particular to each class as follows:

First, the court found that plaintiffs Danny Chadwick, Frederick Harris, Lenois Cook, Willie Hooks, Farrell Nation, and William Dailey had been released from the GDC. As such, their claims for injunctive relief were moot. The court also granted defendants' 12(b)(6) motion and dismissed with prejudice these plaintiffs' claims for compensatory and punitive damages because they did not allege any physical injury. The court thus reasoned that the claims were barred by section 1997e(e)'s physical injury requirement. The magistrate Judge's recommendation, adopted with only slight modification by the district court, expressly relied on the holding that " 1997e(e) is applicable to the claims of prisoners who have been released."

Second, the district court dismissed without prejudice the claims of plaintiffs Samuel Locklear, Alan Kilgore, and Leroy Langes because these plaintiffs had not yet exhausted all of their administrative remedies and thus had not satisfied the exhaustion requirement of section 1997e(a). The court also found that these plaintiffs' claims for compensatory and punitive damages were barred by section 1997e(e) because they did not allege the requisite physical injury.

Third, the court dismissed without prejudice the claims of plaintiff Dayton Brinkley because he had not yet exhausted all of his administrative remedies and had thus not satisfied section 1997e(a). The court also found that Brinkley's claims for compensatory and punitive damages were not barred by section 1997e(e) because he alleged the requisite physical injury. Before he could submit any claims to a court, however, Brinkley would have to exhaust his administrative remedies.

Finally, the court granted defendants' 12(b)(6) motion and dismissed with prejudice plaintiff James Wade's claims for compensatory and punitive damages because even though Wade was still in prison and had exhausted all of his administrative remedies, his allegations of physical injury were not serious enough to satisfy the physical injury requirement of section 1997e(e). Accordingly, the claims were barred. The court did not address Wade's claims for injunctive and declaratory relief.

Plaintiffs timely appealed.

II.

We review de novo the district court's dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. See Republic of Panama v. BCCI Holdings (Luxembourg) S.A., 119 F.3d 935, 948 (11th Cir.1997). When considering a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, a court must accept the allegations in the complaint as true, construing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs. See Roberts v. Florida Power & Light Co., 146 F.3d 1305, 1307 (11th Cir.1998), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 119 S.Ct. 1027, 143 L.Ed.2d 38 (1999). We have done so in setting out the facts, above. A Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss should be granted only if it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiffs can prove no set of facts in support of their allegations which would entitle them to relief. See id.

We also review de novo dismissals for failure to exhaust administrative remedies under section 1997e(a). See Alexander v. Hawk, 159 F.3d 1321, 1323 (11th Cir.1998).

III.

A.

The district court treated the complaint as amended for the six plaintiffs who were released from the GDC before the magistrate Judge issued his report and recommendation, and thus correctly dismissed those plaintiffs' claims for injunctive relief as moot. See Tucker, 819 F.2d at 1033 ("If the plaintiff's claim is not live, the court lacks a justiciable controversy and must dismiss the claim as moot."). Relying in part on Zehner v. Trigg, 952 F.Supp. 1318, 1323-27 (S.D.Ind.1997), the district court also held that " 1997e(e) is applicable to the claims of prisoners who have been released" and thus dismissed with prejudice the released prisoners' claims to compensatory and punitive damages because of a failure to allege physical injury. We find that the district court erred with regard to its section 1997e(e) holding.

First, let us be clear that at the point at which the district court treated the released prisoners' complaint as amended, those six plaintiffs became former prisoners who had filed a complaint for monetary damages against employees of the GDC for injuries suffered while in custody.

As noted above, 42 U.S.C. 1997e(e) provides: "[n]o Federal civil action may be brought by a prisoner confined in a jail, prison, or other correctional facility, for mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody without a prior showing of physical injury." Section 1997e(h) defines a "prisoner" as "any person incarcerated or detained in any facility who is accused of, convicted of, sentenced for, or adjudicated delinquent for, violations of criminal law or the terms and conditions of parole, probation, pretrial release, or diversionary program." 42 U.S.C. 1997e(h) (Supp. II 1996). According to the plain language of the statute, section 1997e(e) does not apply to former prisoners, or those who have been released from a correctional facility, because such persons are clearly not "confined in a jail, prison, or other correctional facility," or "incarcerated or detained in any facility." The statute could not be more plain: it applies to those who (a) seek a civil remedy for mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody, and (b) seek such a remedy while they are incarcerated. As the Seventh Circuit has noted in analyzing section 1997e(e), "[t]he statutory language does not leave wriggle room." Kerr v. Puckett, 138 F.3d 321, 323 (7th Cir.1998). It does not apply to persons who have never been prisoners; nor does it apply to former prisoners who seek civil relief for injuries suffered while they were prisoners.

Defendants argue that Congress' purpose in enacting the PLRA was to curtail frivolous prisoner litigation, and that reading the statute to bar certain claims by current but not former prisoners is not faithful to congressional intent because, under our interpretation...