Prisoner's 1983 Complaint Reinstated

Fogle v. Pierson, 2006 WL 205367 (1/27/06) - The 10th reversed dismissal of a prisoner's § 1983 complaint with respect to five matters. (1) Due process applied to the prison's placement of the prisoner in administrative segregation for three years. Under Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472, 484 (1995), those prison conditions imposed an "atypical and significant hardship on the inmate in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life," creating a liberty interest. (2) The Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause was implicated by the prison's denial of all outdoor exercise, even if the prisoner was provided some indoor exercise. Outdoor exercise "is extremely important to the psychological and physical well-being of inmates." (3) The prisoner raised an arguable retaliation claim when he alleged a corrections department official told him if he did not stop complaining he would be transferred to long-term administrative segregation, he did not stop protesting and he was subsequently transferred as promised. (4) It was arguable the denial of all opportunity for "Christian fellowship" while in segregation was an unreasonable constraint on the prisoner's sincerely held beliefs. (5) The prisoner sufficiently alleged a deprivation of legal access claim where he alleged he had no access to a library or jailhouse lawyers and that denial prevented him from filing the claims in this case (?). On the other hand, due process was not implicated by the denial of good time credits that were within the discretion of the prison to award.