Prisoners' Claims Rejected

Stine v. U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2013 WL 238862 (1/13/13) (Col.) (unpub'd) - At the summary judgment stage, the district court was wrong to consider as inadmissible hearsay inmates' affidavits about the plaintiff's requests for grievance forms and the officers' response to those requests. They were submitted to show the exchanges happened, not for the truth of what was said. But what the inmates had to say didn't excuse the plaintiff from pursuing his administrative remedies.

Archuleta v. Nanney, 2013 WL 221429 (1/22/13) (Col.) (unpub'd) - The jury found that a prison guard used excessive force, but there's no relief because the jury also found the prisoner had not exhausted his administrative remedies, which is fine with the 10th and Congress.

Lamar v. Boyd, 2013 WL 238855 (1/23/13) (Col.) (unpub'd) - A prison doctor's statement when dealing with the plaintiff inmate's back problems that "it's not like you broke your back" did not establish the deliberate indifference necessary to prove a cruel and unusual claim. "While such a comment may be unnecessary, or even unhelpful, it does not demonstrate the 'extraordinary degree of neglect' required to assert an 8th Amendment violation," says the 10th.

Phillips v. Tiona, 2013 WL 239891 (1/23/13) (Col.) (unpub'd) - The Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") does not apply to private prison corporations, like CCA. The ADA applies to "any department, agency, special purpose district, or other instrumentality of a state." The CCA is just a "parallel private entity." Under the construction principle of noscitur a sociis, "instrumentality of the state" refers to a traditional government unit or one created by a government unit. To sooth possible complainers about this result, the 10th points out there are ways in which the CCA is worse off than state-run prisons. The 10th does note the CCA is the 5th largest corrections system in the nation behind only the feds and 3 states. It houses more than 80,000 inmates.