King v. McCarty

Citation781 F.3d 889
Decision Date27 March 2015
Docket NumberNo. 13–1769.,13–1769.
PartiesMarshall KING, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Robert McCARTY, et al., Defendants–Appellees.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit)

Julia L. Crewson, McDermott, Will & Emery, Chicago, IL, for PlaintiffAppellant.

Brian J. Armstrong, Phillip A. Luetkehans, Schirott Luetkehans & Garner, Itasca, IL, for DefendantAppellee.

Before BAUER, EASTERBROOK, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Marshall King, the plaintiff in this civil rights lawsuit, complains that he was forced to wear a see-through jumpsuit that exposed his genitals and buttocks while he was transported from a county jail to state prison. He contends that this amounted to an unjustified and humiliating strip-search that violated his rights under the Fourth and Eighth Amendments to the federal Constitution. The district court reviewed King's complaint as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, 28 U.S.C. § 1915A. The court determined that King had not stated a viable claim under the Eighth Amendment for cruel and unusual punishment but allowed him to proceed on his Fourth Amendment theory of an unreasonable search. The district court later granted summary judgment for the defendants on the Fourth Amendment claim on the ground that King had failed to comply with the Prison Litigation Reform Act's requirement that he exhaust the jail's available administrative remedies before suing. See 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). King has appealed.

We reverse and remand for further proceedings. King's transfer to the state prison facility made it impossible for him to comply with the jail's specified grievance procedures, so there were no available remedies to exhaust. We also reverse the court's dismissal of King's Eighth Amendment claim. He has alleged a plausible Eighth Amendment claim that the use of the unusual jumpsuit had no legitimate correctional purpose but was instead used to humiliate and inflict psychological pain. See Calhoun v. DeTella, 319 F.3d 936, 939 (7th Cir.2003) (reversing dismissal of Eighth Amendment claim based on strip-search). We also conclude, however, that, as a convicted prisoner, King is not entitled to proceed on remand with his theory that requiring him to wear the jumpsuit subjected him to an unreasonable search in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

King was convicted of violating Illinois's armed habitual criminal statute. See 720 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/24–1.7. After sentencing, he was transferred from the Livingston County Jail to an intake facility run by the Illinois Department of Corrections. Pursuant to jail policy, King was strip-searched before departure and told to change into a jumpsuit. The parties dispute the exact characteristics of this garment. King describes it as “a see-through jumpsuit that visually expose[d] his genitals and buttocks,” and he says the guards refused to give him undergarments to cover himself. Defendants (the county sheriff and two guards at the jail) deny that the jumpsuit was transparent but concede it was “less than opaque.” And while insisting the jumpsuit was not see-through, they defend the policy on the ground that see-through garments are crucial to ensure security and safety during transfer. The jumpsuit's actual appearance remains a mystery at this point because the defendants have so far resisted King's discovery requests.

Whatever the outfit's opacity, King says that he complained about it to the guards. According to his account, they responded by laughing at him and telling him to be grateful he was not being transferred in winter. After changing into the jumpsuit, King was shackled together with other prisoners and driven to the state intake facility. Upon arrival, he and the other transferees waited for several hours in the presence of male and female guards before being processed and strip-searched again. King noticed that inmates from other jails were not similarly clad. He says his hours-long exposure in front of male and female guards and other male inmates caused him pain and humiliation and had no valid justification, especially in light of the fact that he had been strip-searched already and remained shackled and under surveillance throughout the transfer.

II. Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies

We begin our analysis with the district court's grant of summary judgment for the defendants based on King's failure to exhaust as required by 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). That provision bars lawsuits challenging prison conditions unless the prisoner has first exhausted “such administrative remedies as are available.” See generally Porter v. Nussle, 534 U.S. 516, 524–25, 122 S.Ct. 983, 152 L.Ed.2d 12 (2002) (explaining details and purpose of exhaustion rule). The exhaustion requirement is strict. A prisoner must comply with the specific procedures and deadlines established by the prison's policy. Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81, 93, 126 S.Ct. 2378, 165 L.Ed.2d 368 (2006). The prisoner must do so even if he expects the process will ultimately be futile, Booth v. Churner, 532 U.S. 731, 741, 121 S.Ct. 1819, 149 L.Ed.2d 958 (2001) ; Perez v. Wisconsin Dep't of Corrections, 182 F.3d 532, 536 (7th Cir.1999).

At the same time, the statute requires exhaustion only of remedies that are “available.” Prison authorities cannot immunize themselves from suit by establishing procedures that in practice are not available because they are impossible to comply with or simply do not exist. See Lewis v. Washington, 300 F.3d 829, 833 (7th Cir.2002) (we refuse to interpret the PLRA so narrowly as to permit prison officials to exploit the exhaustion requirement through indefinite delay”) (internal formatting omitted); Johnson v. Litscher, 260 F.3d 826, 829 (7th Cir.2001) (“For the exhaustion requirement to apply, there must be some administrative remedy to exhaust.”). Failure to exhaust is an affirmative defense that a defendant has the burden of proving. Westefer v. Snyder, 422 F.3d 570, 577 (7th Cir.2005) ; Massey v. Helman, 196 F.3d 727, 735 (7th Cir.1999).

King stayed at the state intake facility for approximately one week before he was moved to the state prison. For the first time since his transfer, he then had access to writing materials. He says that he wrote to the Livingston County Jail to complain about the jumpsuit and to request the proper form to pursue the grievance process. He received no response. After trying to pursue administrative remedies with the state Department of Corrections, whose officials told King they had no authority over the county jail's decisions about clothing, King filed this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 seeking damages and any other appropriate relief. See Calhoun v. DeTella, 319 F.3d 936, 941–43 (7th Cir.2003) (explaining availability of nominal and punitive damages in prisoner suits alleging constitutional harm without physical injury); see also Smith v. Peters, 631 F.3d 418, 421 (7th Cir.2011) (collecting similar cases from other circuits).

Because King was transferred between facilities, each with its own grievance procedure, a preliminary question is which process he was required to pursue. The administrative remedies a prisoner must exhaust are established and defined by state law. Pozo v. McCaughtry, 286 F.3d 1022, 1023 (7th Cir.2002). Illinois has no rule directly addressed to transferees in King's position, but the grievance procedure established by the state board of corrections says that it “shall not be utilized for complaints regarding decisions that are outside the authority of the Department.” Ill. Admin. Code. § 504.810. The county jail's jumpsuit policy seems to fall outside the state agency's authority, meaning that King had to take his complaint to the county jail and not the state prison.

In the absence of state law provisions to the contrary, prisoners such as King must direct their grievances to the entity allegedly responsible for the conditions they wish to challenge. See Ortiz v. Forbes, No. 11 C 4145, 2012 WL 5389708, at *2 (N.D.Ill. Oct. 30, 2012) (in case alleging constitutional violation in jail before transfer to state prison, “the analytical starting point is the transferor jail's regulations”); Cunningham v. Grozik, No. 01 C 6657, 2002 WL 1777278, at *5 (N.D.Ill. Aug. 1, 2002) (rejecting as “frivolous” defendants' argument that prisoner moved from county jail to state prison had to exhaust state prison's grievance procedure for claim regarding inadequate medical care in jail before transfer). This rule is consistent with the regulation quoted above, and it should promote efficiency and allow the relevant authorities a chance to remedy their own errors before being haled into court—the two purposes the Supreme Court has identified behind the exhaustion requirement. See Woodford, 548 U.S. at 89, 126 S.Ct. 2378. We therefore agree with the parties and the district court that § 1997e(a) required King to exhaust available remedies established by the county jail.

The Livingston County Jail details its grievance procedure in a handbook given to all detainees upon arrival. A detainee must first attempt to resolve a dispute informally before filing an official complaint. If the informal attempt fails, a detainee is supposed to be able to obtain an official grievance form from certain guards at the jail. The official form must be submitted within five days of the incident that prompted the complaint. The superintendent of the jail then designates a “grievance officer” to investigate the reported incident. The detainee can appeal the resulting decision to the superintendent.

The defendants contend that King did nothing to pursue the jail's administrative remedy. Their only evidence is an affidavit from the former superintendent of the jail stating that the jail never received a request from King about the grievance procedure. If it had, the superintendent says, the request would have been sent to a grievance officer.

King has responded with a number...

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