Carter v. McGradyCarter v. McGrady
Joseph A. Sullivan, Edward W. Ferruggia, Kimberly M. Kaplan (Argued), Lisa
D. Michael Fisher, Attorney General, Beth Anne Smith (Argued), Senior Deputy Attorney General, John G. Knorr, III, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Chief, Appellate Section, Office of Attorney General, Philadelphia, PA, Counsel for Appellees James McGrady, Martin L. Dragovich Edward J. Klem and Mary Canino.
Before: BECKER, Chief Judge, McKEE and BARRY, Circuit Judges.
OPINION OF THE COURT
BECKER, Chief Judge.
This is a prisoner‘s civil rights case,
When this case was before the District Court, the Supreme Court had yet to decide Shaw v. Murphy, 532 U.S. 223, 121 S.Ct. 1475, 149 L.Ed.2d 420 (2001), which
Carter‘s claim of retaliation for exercising a constitutional right is governed by Rauser v. Horn, 241 F.3d 330 (3d Cir. 2001). Under Rauser, prison officials may prevail when the plaintiff has made out a prima facie case of retaliation if they prove that “they would have made the same decision absеnt the protected conduct for reasons reasonably related to legitimate penological interests.” Id. at 334. The record reveals that Carter was clearly guilty of egregious violations of prison policy—stealing a typewriter and unauthorized use of the mails (and other violations as well). We conclude, assuming arguendo that Carter has correctly described the attitude at SCI-Mahanoy about jailhouse lawyering аnd that he has made out a prima facie case of retaliation, that there is no genuine issue of material fact that the prison officials would have disciplined Carter for these violations notwithstanding his jailhouse lawyering. Accordingly, we will affirm, albeit on different grounds than those relied on by the District Court. See Narin v. Lower Merion Sch. Dist., 206 F.3d 323, 333 n. 8 (3d Cir.2000). We therefore need not reach the interesting issues raised by Carter‘s theory that he has a protected First Amendment right tо provide legal advice, and that any action taken against him for exercising such a right must be evaluated under Turner.
I. Facts and Procedural History
On February 25, 1994, Carter executed and transmitted an “outside purchase approval form” for an electric typewriter from a “family member or friend.” In due course, a Smith-Corona typewriter arrived at SCI-Mahanoy from Suburban Office Equipment, a vendor located in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. On March 24, 1994, Carter signed an inmate personal property receipt and accepted delivery of the typewriter. A mailroom inspector, Liz Ryan, later informed James McGrady, SCI-Mahanoy‘s Security Captain, that the vendor had sent a demand letter stating that: (1) no payment had been made for the typewriter; and (2) Carter had obtained the typewriter through the unauthorized use of a credit card.
McGrady investigated the matter by contacting Wallace McLean, who worked for the vendor. McLean informed McGrady that the typewriter had been ordered over the phone using a credit card and that the customer identified the name on the card as Richard Carter. The actual owner of the card, who lived in California, subsequently verified that Carter was not authorized to use that card. McLean faxed certain documents to McGrady, including the sales receipt that indicated that the typewriter was sold to Carter and paid for with a Visa card; the “Retrieval Request Fulfillment Transmittal” containing a copy of a credit card sales slip reflecting that the sale of the typewriter was made by a credit card bearing the name “Richard Carter“; and an inquiry from McLean representing that a typewriter was shipped from the vendor to Richard Carter and signed for by an SCI-Mahanoy mailroom employee.
Carter submits that McGrady then threatened him with discipline should he assist other inmates with legal matters, stating that, “You don‘t work in the lаw library here ... SCI-Mahanoy does not allow inmates to help other inmates with their legal matters.” When Carter told McGrady about how he had been helping other inmates for many years, Carter alleges that McGrady responded by saying “I don‘t care where you were before. We don‘t allow prisoners to help other inmates.” Carter also represents that McGrady said, “if I even hear about you helping other inmates, I will write you up and put you in RHU [Restrictive Housing Unit].”
McGrady subsequently ordered a second search for documentation of the purchase of the typewriter or any other evidence of the unauthorized use of the credit card. In the course of this search, Steinhauer confiscated Carter‘s personal papers, including all of Carter‘s legal materials. In the papers seized from Carter‘s cell, Steinhauer found an envelope from the vendor containing two receipts for the typewriter that were identical to the sales receipt and credit card sales slip that the vendor had faxed to McGrady. Carter testified that, on October 23, 1994, he filed a written request to have his documents returned. The request was denied.
On October 27, 1994, McGrady called Carter to his office to witness the return of legal documents belonging to ten different inmates. Carter testified that, in his prеsence, each of the inmates that he was assisting was ordered not to allow Carter to review their legal materials and told that anyone who did would be sent to the RHU. This was despite protests that they had no other means of legal assistance. During this meeting, McGrady asked Carter what he was doing with these papers. Carter responded that he was not assigned to the law library as a legal aide but that he was being paid for helрing people. McGrady then told Carter that he could not conduct a business while in prison. Carter responded that he was a court-appointed paralegal and was being paid by the Federal Courts to assist other inmates. Carter produced two documents as evidence of his status as a court-appointed paralegal, but McGrady could not determine from the documents whether Carter was telling the truth.
McGrady thеreafter wrote a misconduct report charging Carter with receiving stolen property. At the disciplinary hearing on the charge, Carter was found guilty and sentenced to sixty days disciplinary custody in the RHU. After serving this sanction, he was returned to the general population at SCI-Mahanoy. Carter was also charged by the Schuylkill County District Attorney‘s Office with unauthorized use of a credit card, theft by deception, receiving stolen proрerty, and conspiracy. He was convicted of the charge of receiving stolen property and given a sentence of two and
Carter testified that over the course of the next two years he was routinely harassed and searched when entering and leaving the prison library, far more frequently than other inmates. He alleges that these were efforts to search his files to determine which inmates he was assisting with legal matters. On June 5, 1996, his cell was again searched and his legal and personal papers were seized.
In August 1997, an inmate informed Vincent Mooney, the Security Lieutenant at SCI-Mahanoy, that another inmate—Dana Carter (who happened to be the plaintiff‘s cell-mate)—was holding the inmate‘s legal papers until he paid Dana Carter money for his legal work. As a result, Mooney ordered a search of Dana Carter‘s cell. During that search, Corrections Officer Toth discovered an excessive amount of property in the cell, belonging to both Dana and Richard Carter, as well as other inmates, which was deemed to constitute a fire and safety hazard. Mooney ordered the search team to confiscate the property and take it to the security аrea. Mooney subsequently called Carter (the plaintiff—not his cellmate, Dana) to the security office where he advised him that he was limited to two file boxes of property in his cell. Carter was then allowed to select the paperwork that he wanted to keep, and was told that his remaining paperwork would be stored in the property room, but that paper belonging to other inmates would be returned to thosе inmates.
Later in August 1997, staff at SCI-Greene, another Pennsylvania prison, advised McGrady that Carter had circumvented mail policies by corresponding with an inmate at SCI-Greene, Donny Unger. Carter concedes that he wrote a note to Unger without seeking authorization for that correspondence. Inmates in DOC custody are prohibited from corresponding with inmates in other state correctional institutions. On the basis of this information, a routine misconduct search of Carter‘s cell was conducted in late August. During that search, prison officials confiscated a copy of a newsletter drafted by Carter, “The Last Line of Defense,” which advocated prisoner litigation and argued that prison paralegals like himself stood as the “last line of defense.” Carter had not requested or obtained approval by the SCI-Mahanoy administration for this newsletter. On August 29, 1997, Cаrter was charged with misconduct for unauthorized use of the mail. He was found guilty and sentenced to RHU for thirty days.
Carter served thirty days in RHU for the unauthorized use of the mails. He was not thereafter returned to SCI-Mahanoy, but was placed instead in administrative custody pending transfer. He was ultimately transferred to SCI-Dallas, where he remains incarcerated. The transfer was initiated by McGrady, who petitioned the DOC to transfer Carter to another state correctional institution. This transfer decision was based on security concerns, specifically, Carter‘s attempts to establish at SCI-Mahanoy various unauthorized groups, including the Ma‘at Karast Temple, a religious group that Carter wanted the prison to recognize as an official religion. McGrady also believed that Carter was affiliated with groups that advocate violence. Carter, in contrast, urges that the transfer was done in order to punish him for assisting other inmates, and to prevent him from continuing to help them in the future. He also contends that defendants filed negative parole recommendations against him in May 1995 and February 1996 despite the fact that he has been a nonviolent and generally exemplary inmate, and that this was done in retaliation for his jailhouse lawyering.
Defendants subsequently moved for summary judgment, arguing inter alia that Carter‘s retaliation сlaim failed as a matter of law and that they were entitled to qualified immunity. The District Court concluded that the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity because Carter did not have a constitutional right to act as a jailhouse lawyer and granted their motion for summary judgment, from which Carter now appeals. The District Court had jurisdiction pursuant to
II. Discussion
A prisoner alleging that prison officials have retaliated against him for
The Supreme Court has made clear that decisions of prison administrators are entitled to great deference. In crafting the appropriate standard of review for prisoners’ constitutional claims, the Court observed that “[r]unning a prison is an inordinately difficult undertaking.” Turner, 482 U.S. at 85. Moreover, the Court noted that “‘courts are ill equipped to deal with the increasingly urgent problems of prison administration and reform‘” Id. (quoting Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396, 405, 94 S.Ct. 1800, 40 L.Ed.2d 224 (1974)). Thus, “[p]rison administrators should be accorded wide-ranging deference in the adoption and execution of policies and practices that in their judgment are needed to preserve internal order and discipline and to maintain institutional security.” Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 547, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979).
In this case, Carter was never charged with misconduct for helping other inmates with legal matters or having their legal materials in his cell. Rather, he was charged with misconduct for undisputed violations of prison policy. The search and seizure of items from his cell were related to these various violations. Cаrter was discovered with a stolen typewriter in his cell. The cell search uncovered an envelope containing two receipts for the typewriter, identical to the sales receipt and credit card sales slip faxed by the vendor. As a result, Carter was disciplined with sixty days in the RHU.
Moreover, it is not disputed that Carter corresponded with Unger in violation of prison policy. Carter conceded that he wrote a note to Unger without seeking authorization for that correspondence. His cell was searched in connection with this allegation; he was written up and subsequently disciplined with thirty days for this conduct. Additionally, there is no dispute that the amount of property kept by Richard Carter and Dana Carter in their cell exceeded the amount allowed by fire and safety regulations. The materials were seized for this reason, and Carter was allowed to select up to two boxes of his personal material to keep in his cell. Finally, in the course of searching Carter‘s cell in connection with the unauthorized use of the mails, prison officials found the newsletter, “The Last Line of Defense,” a publication of which Carter was the editor and for which he had not requested or obtained approval by the SCI-Mahanoy administration. The foregoing represents a sizеable quantum of misconduct evidence.
Carter contends that notwithstanding these facts all of the actions taken against him were a reflection of defendants’ bias against jailhouse lawyers. We note in passing that inmates at SCI-Mahanoy are in fact permitted to act as jailhouse lawyers provided that they do not demand or receive payment for their services. The institution also provided both a law library
As this Court has previously held, “once a prisoner has demonstrated that his exercise of a constitutional right was a substantial or motivating factor in the challenged decision, the prison officials may still prevail by proving that they would have made the same decision absent the protected conduct for reasons reasonably related to a legitimate penological interest.” Rauser, 241 F.3d at 334 (emphasis added). Given the quantum of evidence of Carter‘s misconduct, we cannot say that the prison officials’ decision to discipline Carter for his violations of prison policy was not within the “broad discretion” that we must afford them. Thornburgh v. Abbott, 490 U.S. 401, 413, 109 S.Ct. 1874, 104 L.Ed.2d 459 (1989). Even if prison officials were motivated by animus to jailhouse lawyers, Carter‘s offenses, such as receiving stolen property, were so clear and overt that we cannot say that the disciplinary action taken against Carter was retaliatory. Rather, we conclude that the there is no genuine issue of material fact that such action was “reasonably related to legitimate penological interests,” and that Carter would have been disciplined notwithstanding his jailhouse lawyering. Turner, 482 U.S. at 90, 107 S.Ct. 2254. The judgment of the District Court will therefore be affirmed.