Zimmerman v. Schaeffer

• Citation: 654 F.Supp.2d 226
• Decision Date: 17 August 2009
• Docket Number: Civil No. 1:06-CV-1893.
• Parties: Dustin ZIMMERMAN, et al., Plaintiffs v. Craig SCHAEFFER, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania

654 F.Supp.2d 226

Dustin ZIMMERMAN, et al., Plaintiffs v. Craig SCHAEFFER, et al., Defendants.

Civil No. 1:06-CV-1893.

United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania.

August 17, 2009.

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William T. O'Neil, Burke O'Neil LLC, Washington, DC, Susan L. Burke, Burke O'Neil LLC, Philadelphia, PA, for Plaintiffs.

David J. MacMain, Timothy J. Kepner, Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads, Philadelphia, PA, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM

SYLVIA H. RAMBO, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, a number of current and former prisoners at the Mifflin County Correctional Facility ("MCCF") in Lewistown, Pennsylvania bring suit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claiming that they were abused by MCCF officials during their incarceration. Defendants are Craig Schaeffer, Ronald Bilger, Chuck Chambers, Kathy Weaver, Barry Kearns, and Bernie Zook—all of whom are corrections officers and prison officials at MCCF—and Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. Before the court are Defendants' motions for summary judgment against Plaintiffs on all counts. (Docs. 81, 84, 87, 90.) Defendant Kearns also seeks summary judgment against Plaintiff Burns on his counterclaims for assault and battery. For the reasons that follow, the motions will be granted in part and denied in part.

I. Background

A. Facts

Viewed in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs, the facts are as follows.¹

1. MCCF

Mifflin County Correctional Facility ("MCCF") is a small county jail housing inmates sentenced to limited terms of incarceration. The facility is staffed by thirty-two corrections officers. Defendant Bernie Zook is the warden of the facility.

Defendant Mifflin County hired Zook to be Warden of MCCF in 2003. Zook had previously served as a corrections officer with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. He was terminated from that position for using excessive force against a fully restrained inmate, falsely alleging that the inmate was armed with a knife, and directing a subordinate to file a false report about the incident. (Plaintiff's Statement of Material Facts, Ex. 2.) At the time he was promoted to warden, Zook disclosed to Mifflin County the fact that he had been terminated for excessive force, but did not reveal that he had also made false allegations and directed a subordinate to submit a false report. (McCartney Dep. 50, 52-55.) The Mifflin County Commissioners made no further inquiry about the incident before hiring Zook, nor did they interview any of his prior employers. (McCartney Dep. 48-55.)

Once Zook was hired, the County Commissioners and the County Prison Board gave Zook wide latitude in running the prison. Zook was responsible for selecting and hiring correctional officers at the facility. (McCartney Dep. 22-24.) Zook ran the facility as he pleased, and he did not permit dissent or disagreement from his staff. For instance, CO Reik testified at his deposition that when staff disagreed with Zook, "he may say well, that's fine, but it's my way. It's my jail. That's the way it's going to be." (Reik Dep. 107:22-25.) Likewise, Chambers testified that he did not feel as though Zook would consider a dissenting opinion, noting that when he had disagreed with Zook in the past, Zook's response was "it's his jail and he'll run it the way he wants to." (Chambers Dep. 100:21-24.) Kinslow testified that Zook had strong opinions about how the facility should be run, and "[u]sually if your opinion is different than his, he's usually not very happy about it." (Kinslow Dep. 105:11-13.)

The Mifflin County Commissioners approved the use of force guidelines promulgated by Zook. (Pls. Statement of Material Facts, Ex. 53.) The use of force guidelines define excessive force as "[f]orce than an employee uses against an inmate in which the use of force is justified but goes beyond the force necessary to control the situation or which continues after the inmate complies or is restrained. (Pls Statement of Material Facts, Ex. 53.) The guidelines prohibit excessive force:

Even in those situations where all reasonable alternatives to the use of force have been exhausted and the use of force is unavoidable and clearly justified. The amount of force used must not exceed that which is required to control the situation.

1. Striking an inmate after he/she has ceased to offer resistance is an excessive use of force.

2. Using a mechanical restraint, such as handcuffs and shackles, for an excessive period of time or in an unauthorized manner, such as hogtying, is an excessive use of force.

(Id.) With respect to mechanical restraints, the policy provides that such restraints may be used to prevent serious property damage or inmate self-harm, but not as a method of punishment. (Id.) Additionally, where such restraints are applied, they may be used "no longer than absolutely necessary under the circumstances" and the inmate must be under continuous observation and periodically examined by medical personnel. (Id.)

MCCF possesses a number of mechanical restraints. MCCF has a restraint chair, in which an inmate may be immobilized in a sitting position with his hands cuffed behind his back. The manufacturer's literature advises that "[i]n most circumstances, a prisoner should not be retained in the chair for over a four-hour period. If it becomes necessary to restrain the prisoner for a longer period of time, approval from the watch commander should be obtained with the appropriate medical staff review." (Pls. Statement of Material Facts, Ex. 47.) Additionally, the manufacturer advises that soft restraints rather than metal handcuffs should be used where the restraint is longer than one hour, and that a back support should be used where a prisoner is soft-cuffed for more than three hours. (Id.)

Warden Zook also created three four-point restraint systems of his own design. He directed the facility's maintenance man to drill holes in the four corners of two metal bed frames. (Kinslow Dep. 24, 28-29; Ramsey Dep. 39-43.) Inmates were restrained in this four point system with plastic flexicuffs attached to metal handcuffs and leg shackles. (Wiseman Decl. ¶ 6.) In his expert report for Plaintiffs, Dr. Mintzes, a former warden of a large Michigan prison, notes that the state of Michigan has never used restraint chairs, and that the existence of such restraints encourages their use. (Pls. Statement of Material Facts, Ex. 59 at 7.)

As will be discussed in greater detail below, restraint chairs were often employed by MCCF staff and Warden Zook for lengthy periods of time against inmates who caused minor property damage to their cell, and even after inmates were subdued. Since 2005, this 125 inmate facility has restrained inmates for more than nineteen hours at a time on more than 19 separate occasions. (Pls. Statement of Material Facts, Ex. 54.) On more than 26 occasions, inmates were restrained more than four hours but less than ten hours. (Pls. Statement of Material Facts, Ex. 55.) The Commissioners expressly approved Zook's requests to use mechanical restraints on inmates for lengthy periods of time, including the restraint of Plaintiffs Searer and Herb. (McCartney Dep. 70-74.) On other occasions, the Commissioners learned of lengthy restraints of inmates after the fact, but did not oppose the practice or conduct any further inquiry. (McCartney Dep. 74.)

At the time of the events at issue in this litigation, MCCF had in place a prison grievance policy for inmates. (Defs. Statement of Material Facts for Sassaman, Ex 15.) This policy requires inmates to file a grievance within fifteen days of a grievable event, including complaints of constitutional violations at the MCCF. (Id.) According to the policy, a grievance may be either oral or written. (Id.) The parties dispute whether Defendants made this grievance policy available to Plaintiffs. The grievance policy was not included in inmate handbooks prior to September 2007 (Pls. Statement of Material Fact, Ex. 43 (inmate handbook lacking section on grievance procedure).) Moreover, as Warden Zook acknowledged in his deposition, dissemination of the policy was haphazard:

Q. ... [D]oes this version of the inmate handbook have a section on grievance procedure?

A. No. We didn't have it in as part of the inmate handbook before [September 2007]. We had a grievance procedure in effect, but we never put in the handbook. It was in our policies and procedures manual. It had been in there since about, I believe it was 2004 it was put in the policies and procedures manual. And it was posted, like, numerous times throughout in the cell blocks. But every time we would post it, it would eventually get taken down by the other inmates in the block. What they did with it, I don't know. We always had—we didn't have a formal written policy on inmate grievances before that, but we had a box on our request forms. There was a box they could check for inmate complaint or grievance and then they could just write it out on the form and it would be answered, you know, in writing.

Q. So the inmates didn't have access to the policies and procedures manual, did they?

A. No. A copy was posted in their cell block.

Q. At various times?

A. At various times.

Q. So sometimes it was available and sometimes it wasn't?

A. Yes.

Q. Did there come a time when you stopped posting it completely?

A. I would say not that we stopped, that we would post it, it would come down and then we would put it back up. It wasn't that we just stopped posting it altogether. It wasn't up on the bulletin board on a continuous basis, but we would periodically re-post it until we put it actually in the handbook, so you know, the formalized procedure that was in the procedures manual. Now it's not necessary to post it because it's in the procedures manual.

(Zook Dep. 212:2-214:3.) Similarly, in denying a grievance by Plaintiff Sassaman as untimely filed, Zook acknowledged that the grievance policy was not regularly posted: "on...