Jaros v. Ill. Dep't of Corr.

• Decision Date: 03 July 2012
• Docket Number: No. 11–2567.,11–2567.
• Citation: 684 F.3d 667
• Parties: Phillip E. JAROS, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Defendant–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

684 F.3d 667

Phillip E. JAROS, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Defendant–Appellee.

No. 11–2567.

United States Court of Appeals,Seventh Circuit.

Submitted Feb. 15, 2012.

Decided July 3, 2012.^*

Phillip E. Jaros (submitted), Berwyn, IL, pro se.

Before KANNE, WILLIAMS, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge.

Former inmate Phillip E. Jaros sued the Illinois Department of Corrections, its Director, and several employees claiming violations of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 794–94e, the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12111–213, and the Eighth Amendment. All of Jaros's claims arise from his allegations that administrators at the Vandalia Correctional Center ignored his need for placement in an ADA-compliant facility, and also refused to consider him for a work-release program solely because he walks with a cane. The district court screened the complaint before service on the defendants and held that it fails to state a claim.¹ We disagree as to Jaros's claims under the Rehabilitation Act for failure to accommodate his physical impairments and for intentional discrimination.

Jaros's suit was dismissed at the pleading stage, so for now we assume the truth of the facts set out in the complaint and attachments. See Smith v. Peters, 631 F.3d 418, 419 (7th Cir.2011); Guzell v. Hiller, 223 F.3d 518, 519 (7th Cir.2000). Medical records submitted with his complaint show that Jaros suffers from several physical ailments, including advanced osteoarthritis and vascular necrosis in his right hip. A hip replacement has been recommended by private physicians. Jaros requires a cane to walk. Walking for more than a few minutes tires him, and he suffers chronic, severe pain whether walking, sitting, standing, or lying down.

Jaros was convicted of driving on a suspended license and sentenced to 2 years in prison. In May 2010 he was sent to Vandalia, which is not ADA-compliant and lacks grab bars for the handicapped near toilets and in showers and walkways. Two days after arriving he told Teanah Harter, a grievance counselor and one of the defendants, that he required grab bars to shower and use the toilet, and also to navigate the prison hallways. Harter replied that, true enough, Vandalia is not ADA-compliant but advised Jaros “to just deal with it” because administrators at the facility “did not do” medical transfers. Jaros filed a grievance with then-warden Ronald Meeks, also a defendant, demanding that administrators either install grab bars in the toilets, showers, and hallways or else transfer him to an ADA-compliant facility. Harter reviewed this grievance and recommended that Meeks deny it, which he did in July 2010. On the one hand, Meeks explained, Vandalia is not required to install grab bars because the Department of Corrections has not designated the facility as a handicap prison. On the other hand, he continued, Jaros could not be moved to an ADA-compliant prison because he was up for parole in 8 months and, under department policy, only inmates with at least a year to serve could be transferred. Jaros remained at Vandalia until March 2011. He feared falling when using the toilet or shower and thus limited himself to taking only four showers monthly. He also missed meals on occasion because he could not walk fast enough to the cafeteria.

While at Vandalia, Jaros also applied to participate in a work-release program. He was turned down in September 2010. His counselor, Harter, explained that Jaros could not be approved for work release because a “medical hold” had been placed in his file by Mary Halford, the nursing director. Jaros informed Halford that Dr. Cleveland Rayford, the Vandalia medical director, had deemed him healthy enough for work release, but Halford refused to relent. In her words, “No one with a cane can go on work release.” Jaros filed a grievance, and while waiting for a response he asked Debbie Magnus, who was in charge of the Health Care Unit, to lift the hold. She would not, she said, because “that's just how we do it here.” Then in October 2010, only a month after he first applied for work release, Jaros received word that, in response to his grievance, his application for work release had been considered despite the medical hold. He was rejected, though, because it was decided that he was “appropriately placed” at Vandalia.

Jaros claims that the Illinois Department of Corrections ² violated the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA by refusing to accommodate his physical impairments. He also claims that the Department of Corrections refused his application for work release on account of his cane, and thus discriminated against him in violation of both statutes. (Several of the individual defendants are named in these statutory claims, but employees of the Department of Corrections are not amenable to suit under the Rehabilitation Act or the ADA. See29 U.S.C. § 794(b); 42 U.S.C. § 12131; see Foley v. City of Lafayette, 359 F.3d 925, 928 (7th Cir.2004); see also Garcia v. S.U.N.Y. Health Scis. Ctr. of Brooklyn, 280 F.3d 98, 107 (2d Cir.2001) (collecting authority).) Jaros further contends, in a claim brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, that Warden Meeks, counselor Harter, and two other defendants violated the Eighth Amendment by refusing either to transfer him or to install grab bars throughout Vandalia.

In dismissing the lawsuit, the district court first rejected the Eighth Amendment claim. The court reasoned that Jaros does not state a claim for deliberate indifference because, as detailed in his complaint, the staff at Vandalia gave him a cane, prescribed pain medication, and issued permits allowing him to use a lower bunk, wear soft-soled shoes, and walk slowly when traveling in the facility. The district court, citing United States v. Georgia, 546 U.S. 151, 126 S.Ct. 877, 163 L.Ed.2d 650 (2006), then rejected Jaros's claims under the ADA for failure to accommodate and discrimination. Although the discussion of the point is brief, we infer from the reliance on Georgia (and the dismissal of these claims without prejudice) that the court deemed the Department of Corrections to be protected by sovereign immunity from Jaros's claims for damages under the ADA.³ The district court did not mention the Rehabilitation Act. Jaros challenges these rulings on appeal.

We start with Jaros's claim under the Eighth Amendment. Adequate food and facilities to wash and use the toilet are among the “minimal civilized measure of life's necessities,” Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 347, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981), that must be afforded prisoners. See Wilson v. Seiter, 501 U.S. 294, 304, 111 S.Ct. 2321, 115 L.Ed.2d 271 (1991); Vinning–El v. Long, 482 F.3d 923, 924 (7th Cir.2007); Gillis v. Litscher, 468 F.3d 488, 493 (7th Cir.2006); Thompson v. Colorado, 278 F.3d 1020, 1032 (10th Cir.2001); LaFaut v. Smith, 834 F.2d 389, 392–94 (4th Cir.1987) (Powell, J., sitting by designation). But Jaros does not allege that he was deprived of any of these. Instead, he says only that his use of the toilets and showers at Vandalia was made more difficult by the absence of grab bars. Jaros admits, however, that he showered four times a month, and limiting inmates to weekly showers does not violate the Eighth Amendment. See Rodriguez v. Briley, 403 F.3d 952, 952 (7th Cir.2005); Henderson v. Lane, 979 F.2d 466, 468–69 (7th Cir.1992); Davenport v. DeRobertis, 844 F.2d 1310, 1316 (7th Cir.1988). Jaros also alleges that he sometimes missed the morning meal because he could not walk fast enough to the cafeteria using only his cane without hallway railings, but he does not allege that occasionally skipping breakfast endangered his health. See Reed v. McBride, 178 F.3d 849, 853 (7th Cir.1999) (explaining that extent, duration, and consequences are relevant in assessing whether deprivation of food violates Eighth Amendment); Berry v. Brady, 192 F.3d 504, 507 (5th Cir.1999) (noting that even two meals per day on “regular, permanent basis” may satisfy Eighth Amendment if nutritionally adequate). Despite the lack of grab bars, Jaros managed to use the toilet and showers, attend meals, and work at the prison library. Jaros also alleges that he experienced severe pain in his hip while showering and using the toilet—the wanton infliction of pain violates the Eighth Amendment, see Forrest v. Prine, 620 F.3d 739, 744 (7th Cir.2010)—but the presence of grab bars would not have made a difference because Jaros concedes that he experiences the same “severe pain” whether walking, sitting, standing, or lying in bed.⁴ Because the alleged conditions of Jaros's confinement did not deprive him of life's necessities, the district court correctly dismissed this claim. See Johnson v. Snyder, 444 F.3d 579, 584–85 (7th Cir.2006) (questioning whether amputee's disability constituted objectively serious medical need requiring accommodation with grab bars or benches or crutch, where inmate could walk with a prosthesis and use toilets and showers without assistance); see also Davenport, 844 F.2d at 1316;cf. Tesch v. Cnty. of Green Lake, 157 F.3d 465, 476 (7th Cir.1998) (concluding that jailers did not violate arrestee's right to due process by detaining him unattended for two nights in cell that, although designed to accommodate his wheelchair, was equipped with toilet and sink he struggled to use without assistance and bed he could not reach). As the facts Jaros alleges do not describe an Eighth Amendment violation, the district court was correct to dismiss his § 1983 claim.

We turn next to Jaros's statutory claims under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act for failure to accommodate his physical impairments. The relief available to Jaros under these provisions is coextensive. Compare29 U.S.C. § 794Awith42 U.S.C. § 12117 (both incorporating 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–5 for private right of action); see Barnes v. Gorman, 536 U.S. 181, 189 & n. 3, 122 S.Ct. 2097, 153 L.Ed.2d 230 (2002); ...