United States District Court, E.D. Arkansas, Pine Bluff Division
RECOMMENDED DISPOSITION
I.
Procedures for Filing Objections
This
Recommendation has been sent to Judge James M. Moody Jr. Any
party may file objections. To be considered, objections must
be filed within 14 days of filing of the Recommendation.
Objections should be specific and should include the factual
or legal basis for the objection.
Parties
who do not object may waive the right to appeal questions of
fact. And, if no objections are filed, Judge Moody can adopt
this Recommendation without independently reviewing the
record.
II.
Background
Plaintiff
Brad Chambers is currently held at the Pulaski County
Detention Facility. He filed this § 1983 lawsuit
claiming that on November 5, 2018, while incarcerated at the
Tucker Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction (ADC),
he was attacked by a fellow inmate and that Defendants Ford
and West violated his constitutional rights by failing to
protect him. (#2)
Defendants
have moved for summary judgment, contending that Mr. Chambers
failed to fully exhaust the grievance process before filing
his complaint in this lawsuit. (#20) Mr. Chambers has
responded to the motion. (#24)
III.
Exhaustion
The
Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the Court to dismiss
any claim raised that was not fully exhausted prior to filing
a civil lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. See 42 U.S.C.
§ 1997e(a) (declaring, “[n]o action shall be
brought with respect to prison conditions . . . by a prisoner
confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility
until such administrative remedies as are available are
exhausted”); Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81, 90
(2006) (explaining the proper exhaustion of remedies
“means using all steps that the [prison] holds out, and
doing so properly”); Johnson v. Jones, 340
F.3d 624, 627 (8th Cir. 2003) (holding an inmate must exhaust
all available administrative remedies before filing suit, and
“[i]f exhaustion was not completed at the time of
filing, dismissal is mandatory”).
There
is no federally mandated grievance process. Instead, each
prison or jail is free to establish its own administrative
procedure for filing grievances. An inmate's subjective
beliefs regarding exhaustion are irrelevant in determining
whether administrative procedures are available. Chelette
v. Harris, 229 F.3d 684, 688 (8th Cir. 2000).
IV.
Discussion
During
all times relevant to this lawsuit, Administrative Directive
(AD) 14-16 was in effect. (#21-1) Under AD 14-16, inmates
must fully exhaust their administrative remedies as to all
defendants before filing a § 1983 lawsuit. (Id.
at 17-18)
According
to the testimony of Terri Brown, the ADC inmate grievance
supervisor, she reviewed the nonmedical grievances Mr.
Chambers filed during the time period relevant to his claims
and found that he filed four such grievances: (TU 18-00891,
TU 18-00983, TU 18-00931, TU 18-00933). (#21-7)
A.
Grievance TU 18-00891
In
grievance TU 18-00891, Mr. Chambers complained that after he
was attacked by inmate Conkey on November 4, 2018, Defendant
West allowed inmate Conkey into barracks 3 the next day,
where he again attacked Mr. Chambers. (#21-3, p.1) After the
second attack, Defendant Ford placed Mr. Chambers in
restrictive housing because Mr. Chambers complained that he
no longer felt safe in barracks 3. (#21-3, p.1) Mr. Chambers
submitted step-two of grievance TU 18-00891 on November 19,
2018. (#21-3, p.1) The Warden responded on December 20, 2018,
finding that ...