Jordan v. Federal Bureau of Prisons

191 F. App'x 639
Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided July 25, 2006·No. No. 04-1104·Published·Cited by 23 cases

Opinion

ORDER

This matter is before the court on Appellees’ unopposed petition for a panel rehearing of the order and judgment issued June 12, 2006. We deny the rehearing petition in part and grant in part.

The petition presents two requests for relief. The panel denies the request for publication of the opinion. The panel grants the request to amend the order and judgment to refer to a Bivens action rather than a § 1983 action.

The original order and judgment is, accordingly, vacated and replaced with the amended Order and Judgment attached to this Order.

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

Appellant Mark Jordan appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the Appellees, officials of the Federal Bureau of Prisons,1 on his Bivens2 action alleging the conditions and duration of his five-year administrative detention, together with the federal prison regulations in 28 C.F.R. § 541.22, created a liberty interest triggering procedural due process protections which the prison officials violated. Exercising our jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.

I. Disputed and Undisputed Factual Background

We begin by reviewing the considerable record of evidence on which the district court granted summary judgment, in order to ascertain, under the applicable standard of review, whether disputed material facts exist prohibiting summary judgment resolution. As a preliminary consideration, we note that while we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to Mr. Jordan as the nonmoving party, he offers almost no evidence to counter the overwhelming evidence offered by prison officials rebutting the allegations in his verified complaint, or to otherwise respond to the particularized facts in support of their motion for summary judgment.

To begin, during the period in question, it is undisputed Mr. Jordan was serving a seventy-eight-month sentence for one count of armed bank robbery and a 318-month sentence for another count of armed bank robbery and possession of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. From June 1999 to June 4, 2004, Mr. Jordan was imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Complex in Florence, Colorado, operated by the United States Bureau of Prisons. Prior to his confinement at Florence, Mr. Jordan was confined at federal prisons in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, and Atlanta, Georgia, where he was classified as a high security risk based on his significant history of violent and disruptive [642] behavior stemming from numerous infractions, including threatening bodily harm.

A. Dry Cell Placement

On June 3, 1999, while at the Florence prison, officials issued an order placing Mr. Jordan in a dry cell after he was accused that day of murdering another inmate with an eleven-inch sharpened piece of metal while in the main recreation yard. See Jordan v. Hood, 117 Fed.Appx. 31, 32 (10th Cir.2004) (unpublished op.); United States v. Jordan, 2005 WL 513501, at *1 (D.Colo. March 3, 2005) (unpublished op.). In his verified complaint, Mr. Jordan alleged he remained in the dry cell for ten days, from June 3 to June 13, 1999, and received neither notice of the reasons for his dry cell placement nor a hearing on his confinement. Prison officials contradicted the duration of Mr. Jordan’s confinement by declaration and submission of documentary evidence showing Mr. Jordan remained in the dry cell less than a day, from approximately 3:00 p.m. until 7:38 p.m., at which time officials issued an order transferring him to administrative detention pending an investigation of his assault on another person and for security reasons. Prison records show Mr. Jordan was transferred that evening to Cell A-106, which is not a dry or holding cell, but a cell in the special housing unit for administrative detentions; these records also show on each of his ten days in Cell A-106 the times when he ate, exercised, showered, and received physician’s assistant visits. In an attempt to rebut the daily prison records showing his ten-day placement in Cell A-106, Mr. Jordan submitted declarations of two inmates who stated Mr. Jordan was placed in Cell A-106 on the evening of June 3, 1999, but prison staff mysteriously removed him in the middle of the night and took him somewhere else. He also submitted an inmate’s declaration stating that from June 8 to June 13, 1999, he and Mr. Jordan were both housed in dry cells.

With respect to Mr. Jordan’s claim he received no notice of the reason for his placement in the cell, prison records establish he received two orders concerning his initial confinement. On June 3, at 3:45 p.m., while in the dry cell, he received a copy of the order advising him of his confinement pending an investigation into the assault, and then again, at 9:00 p.m., while in Cell A-106, he received a copy of an order stating he was being placed in administrative detention for assaulting another person and his assault raised concerns of further serious injuries, life threatening circumstances, and security issues for the institution. In addition, on June 4, 1999, one day after the murder incident, Mr. Jordan was advised of the crime he allegedly committed and his Miranda rights, after which he refused to sign a Miranda waiver and instead invoked his right against self-incrimination. As to his initial placement in the cell, prison officials explained the prison regulations in 28 C.F.R. § 541.22(a)(2) and (a)(3) permitted them to place an inmate who is under investigation for a criminal act in administrative detention and to refer such investigations, as they did here, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Finally, concerning the conditions of the dry cell, Mr. Jordan claims he did not have a mattress or other furniture and slept on a blanket; the cell was unventilated and smeared with human feces, vomit, and other human waste; he received only sixteen ounces of iced water each weekday and thirty-two ounces of milk each weekend day; he was given merely a jar for urine and a plastic container for waste; and officials denied him socks and shoes, reading material, toiletries, and other basic hygiene products, other than tissue on request. In response, the prison officials [643] avowed the holding cells are routinely cleaned when an inmate leaves; Mr. Jordan’s cell was personally inspected prior to his placement in it; and if a cell contained feces or vomit officials would not have placed him in the cell until someone cleaned it. They also explained that even though holding cells do not have a toilet or sink, they are routinely furnished with a mattress, sheets, and blanket; and Mr. Jordan was given a bed pan and container for bodily excrement. With respect to Cell A-106, where he was transferred later that day, the same officials explained it included a sink, toilet, and shower, and records show Mr. Jordan received daily visits from a physician’s assistant, one hour of exercise each day, except for one day during a prison lock-down, and at least two showers during his stay.

B. Federal Correctional Institution/Special Housing Unit Confinement

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Jordan v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 191 F. App'x 639 (10th Cir. 2006).

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