Williams v. Benjamin

• Decision Date: 06 March 1996
• Docket Number: No. 94-7122,94-7122
• Citation: 77 F.3d 756
• Parties: Sylvester Emerson WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Clarence BENJAMIN, Captain, Lieber Correctional Institution; Shirley J. Tomlin, Lieutenant, Lieber Correctional Institution, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 756

77 F.3d 756

Sylvester Emerson WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Clarence BENJAMIN, Captain, Lieber Correctional Institution;

Shirley J. Tomlin, Lieutenant, Lieber

Correctional Institution, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 94-7122.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued Oct. 31, 1995.

Decided March 6, 1996.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Charleston; G. Ross Anderson, Jr., District Judge. (CA-93-2874-2-3BC).

ARGUED: W. Gaston Fairey, Fairey, Parise & Mills, P.A., Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellant. Isaac McDuffie Stone, III, Lewis, Reeves & Stone, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Rochelle L. Romosca, J. Christopher Mills, Fairey, Parise & Mills, P.A., Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellant. Amy Dare Lohr, Lewis, Reeves & Stone, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees.

Before HAMILTON, MICHAEL, and MOTZ, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed in part and reversed in part by published opinion. Judge MOTZ wrote the opinion, in which Judge MICHAEL joined. Judge HAMILTON concurred in the judgment and wrote a separate concurring opinion.

OPINION

DIANA GRIBBON MOTZ, Circuit Judge:

This appeal involves a prisoner's claim that correctional officers violated his constitutional rights when they sprayed him with mace, confined him in four-point restraints on a bare metal bed frame and, while refusing to allow him to wash off the mace, continued the confinement for more than eight hours, without providing him the benefit of medical care or the use of a toilet.

I.

In his pro se complaint and in an affidavit filed in support of his claim, Sylvester Emerson Williams, an inmate at the Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville, South Carolina, related the following facts. On December 27, 1991, defendant Shirley J. Tomlin, a Lieber correctional officer, became involved in a disagreement with inmate James Pleskac, who was confined, like Williams, in the administrative segregation unit. Williams heard Tomlin threaten to mace Pleskac. Along with Pleskac and five other inmates, Williams protested this threat by throwing water out of his cell's food service window. Tomlin ordered the inmates to stop and then ordered Williams to remove his arm from the food service window. When Williams asked why, Tomlin instructed another correctional officer to spray mace at Williams, hitting him in the chest and face. The other inmates involved in the incident were also maced.

As the defendant officers concede, once the inmates were maced, all "immediately ceased there (sic) actions." Williams at once began "hollering in pain from the burning of the mace," and "pleaded with Lt. Tomlin for a shower." Tomlin refused, allegedly informing Williams, "you will not get a shower today." Tomlin then "locked [Williams'] food service window and turned off all the water in [his] cell." ¹ Ten minutes later, defendant Captain Clarence Benjamin approached Williams' cell with a "strange looking gun" and ordered Williams to come to the food service window. Williams complied and without incident was placed in handcuffs. The other inmates were similarly handcuffed without resistance or protest. As Williams was being cuffed, he again asked to be allowed to wash the mace from his eyes, face, and body. Benjamin refused the request, responding that the mace was "your [Williams'] problem."

Benjamin instructed other officers to take everything, including Williams' bed mattress, out of his cell. He then ordered three officers to place Williams in four-point restraints on the metal bed frame. This involved securing Williams to the metal bed frame with handcuffs attached to his wrists and leg shackles attached to his ankles, so that Williams was immobilized. While officers placed Williams in the restraints, he "pleaded" with Benjamin for medical attention and for a shower because his skin and eyes were burning from the mace. Benjamin responded, "there's nothing wrong with you." After Williams was secured in the four-point restraints, his cell door and window were again locked. The other inmates were also secured, without incident, in four-point restraints. Williams and the other inmates were kept in four-point restraints continuously for the next eight hours. (The record is silent as to any other facts concerning the confinement of the other inmates.)

During his eight-hour confinement, Williams was not permitted to wash the mace from his eyes, face, or skin. He was "never provided any opportunity to use the toilet during the entire time." Furthermore, he "was forced to inhale chemical munitions fumes" from the mace and was not "checked by medical [personnel] during the hours [he] was restrained." Williams' "body felt as if it was on fire because of the chemical fumes," which caused "intense pain and suffering the whole time he was chained to the bed." Williams alleges that he "suffered with great difficulty and immense pain while inhaling the chemical munitions." The mace caused "intense pain and burning of the eyes." Only after he had suffered in this manner for eight hours was Williams "given a shower and medical attention."

The defendant prison officials acknowledge that Williams was maced and confined in four-point restraints on a bare steel bed frame for more than eight hours. They offer no evidence to dispute Williams' assertions that he asked for and was denied an opportunity to wash himself, that mace fumes were not fumigated from his cell, and that he was never permitted to use a toilet. However, the prison officials assert that Williams (and the other inmates confined in the same manner) precipitated the macing and confinement by throwing cups of unidentified foul-smelling liquids at Tomlin and another officer. The defendants further assert that in accordance with a written South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) policy, the prison's medical director authorized the use of four-point restraints, a nurse checked to determine that the restraints were applied properly, and a corrections officer monitored the restrained inmates every fifteen minutes.

In his pro se complaint, after outlining the above factual allegations, Williams alleged that the defendants violated his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and his right under the Fourteenth Amendment not to be deprived of liberty without due process. The defendants filed an answer, denying, inter alia, that "any constitutional rights of the Plaintiff ha[d] been violated." The defendants then moved for summary judgment, based entirely on the argument that Williams' complaint failed to state a cause of action under the Eighth Amendment. In response to that motion, Williams filed an affidavit in which he detailed the above factual assertions under oath.

The magistrate judge recommended that summary judgment be granted to defendants. First, with regard to the Eighth Amendment claim, he found Williams' "claim of unnecessary or excessive force [was] simply not supported by any evidence in the record." Second, the magistrate judge concluded that Williams' allegation that the four- point restraints were imposed in violation of the SCDC policy, even if true, failed to establish a Due Process claim. The district court adopted the magistrate judge's report and recommendation and granted summary judgment to the defendants.

II.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits the infliction of "cruel and unusual punishments." U.S. Const. amend. VIII. It not only outlaws excessive sentences but also protects inmates from inhumane treatment and conditions while imprisoned. Determination of whether the Eighth Amendment has been violated requires analysis of subjective and objective components. See Wilson v. Seiter, 501 U.S. 294, 302, 111 S.Ct. 2321, 2326, 115 L.Ed.2d 271 (1991). Specifically, Eighth Amendment analysis necessitates inquiry as to whether the prison official acted with a sufficiently culpable state of mind (subjective component) and whether the deprivation suffered or injury inflicted on the inmate was sufficiently serious (objective component). What must be established with regard to each component "varies according to the nature of the alleged constitutional violation." Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1, 5, 112 S.Ct. 995, 998, 117 L.Ed.2d 156 (1992).

For example, when an inmate claims that prison officials failed to provide him with adequate medical care or that conditions of confinement constitute cruel and unusual punishment, he must demonstrate that prison officials acted with "deliberate indifference" in order to state an Eighth Amendment claim. See Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104, 97 S.Ct. 285, 291, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976). In both of these situations, the subjective component requires proof of more than mere negligence but less than malice. This standard is appropriate because "the State's responsibility to provide inmates with medical care [or decent living conditions] ordinarily does not conflict with competing administrative concerns." Hudson, 503 U.S. at 6, 112 S.Ct. at 998. However, when an inmate claims, as Williams does here, that prison officials used excessive force on him, he is forced to meet a higher standard to establish the subjective component. Officials are entitled to use appropriate force to quell prison disturbances. Because officials must act "in haste, under pressure, and frequently without the luxury of a second chance," deliberate indifference is not a sufficiently rigorous standard. Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 320, 106 S.Ct. 1078, 1084, 89 L.Ed.2d 251 (1986). Rather, in these circumstances, in order to make out an Eighth Amendment claim, a prisoner must demonstrate that officials applied force "maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm." Id. at 320-21, 106 S.Ct. at 1085 (quoting Johnson v. Glick, 481 F.2d 1028, 1033 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1033, 94 S.Ct. 462, 38 L.Ed.2d 324 (1973)).

Although an inmate asserting an excessive...