Michael Garrett v. Rick Thaler, Director

560 F. App'x 375
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedApril 1, 2014
Docket13-40599
StatusUnpublished
Cited by55 cases

This text of 560 F. App'x 375 (Michael Garrett v. Rick Thaler, Director) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Michael Garrett v. Rick Thaler, Director, 560 F. App'x 375 (5th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

PER CURIAM: *

Plaintiff-Appellant Michael Garrett filed a complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) challenging the conditions of his confinement and seeking ADA sanctions and injunctive relief. The magistrate judge dismissed all of Garrett’s claims with prejudice for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) and 1915A(b)(l). For the reasons below, we REVERSE the district court’s dismissal of Garrett’s Eighth Amendment claims and AFFIRM its dismissal of his Fourth Amendment, equal protection, and ADA claims.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On March 13, 2013, Michael Garrett, a prisoner incarcerated in the McConnell Unit, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division (“TDCJ-CID”), filed a complaint pursuant to § 1983 and the ADA against (1) Rick Thaler, then the TDCJ-CID Director, (2) Eileen Kennedy, Region IV Director, (3) Senior Warden Currie, (4) Assistant Warden Monroe, and (5) unnamed defendants identified in the McConnell Unit’s employee log book “for 18 and 19 dorm,” including officers from other prison units. Garrett brought the following claims, challenging his conditions of confinement between 2008 and 2013: (1) deprivation of a minimum of six hours of uninterrupted sleep, in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment; (2) use of surveillance cameras throughout the “bathroom shower area and dressing (cubicle) area” in violation of his rights to privacy and equal protection; and (3) violation of the ADA’s architectural guidelines in the McConnell Unit’s showers, restrooms, and cells. Garrett sought the imposition of sanctions *377 under the ADA and injunctive relief, including change of the prison schedule to accommodate six hours of sleep, removal of cameras from the bathrooms, and installation of safety rails in the toilet areas and showers.

With Garrett’s consent, a magistrate judge presided over all proceedings in the case. Following an evidentiary hearing conducted pursuant to Spears v. McCotter, 766 F.2d 179 (5th Cir.1985), overruled, on other grounds by Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 324, 109 S.Ct. 1827, 104 L.Ed.2d 338 (1989), the magistrate judge issued an opinion and order of dismissal for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted. The magistrate judge ruled sua sponte that any claims arising before March 13, 2011, were time barred. Despite the time-bar determination, the magistrate judge also addressed each of Garrett’s three claims and found that he had failed to state a claim as to any of them. First, the magistrate judge concluded that Garrett could not state a cognizable Eighth Amendment claim even if the prison schedule deprived him of adequate sleep because the McConnell Unit’s 24-hour operational schedule was designed to preserve prison security, not inflict pain. Second, the magistrate judge found that Garrett had not asserted a valid privacy or equal protection claim with respect to the security cameras because prisoners do not have Fourth or Fourteenth Amendment privacy rights. Finally, the magistrate judge held that, even if Garrett’s vertigo was a qualifying disability under the ADA, the accessibility provisions of the ADA apply only to constructions and alterations of public buildings occurring after 1992; and, further that Garrett failed to show that the absence of railings in the bathrooms and showers amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, as required for an ADA claim. Garrett timely appealed. 1

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The Prison Litigation Reform Act provides that a district court may dismiss a prisoner’s civil rights complaint at any time if it fails to state a claim on which relief can be granted. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)®, 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(l), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(c)(2). Section 1915A dismissals are designed to “filter out” the large number of frivolous prisoner claims filed in federal court, to “ensure[ ] that the flood of nonmeritorious claims does not submerge and effectively preclude consideration of [claims] with merit.” Jones v. Bock, 549 U.S. 199, 203, 127 S.Ct. 910, 166 L.Ed.2d 798 (2007). We review dismissals for failure to state a claim based on § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) under the same de novo standard applicable to dismissals made pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Harris v. Hegmann, 198 F.3d 153, 156 (5th Cir.1999). “Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level, on the assumption that all the allegations ... are true (even if doubtful in fact).” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (internal quotation marks, citations, and footnote omitted).

*378 DISCUSSION

A. Sleep Deprivation

Garrett challenges the magistrate judge’s dismissal of his sleep deprivation claim, arguing that the TDCJ-CID is subjecting him to cruel and unusual punishment by forcing him to choose between eating and sleeping. He contends that the only scheduled period for sleep is from 10:30 p.m. until 2:30 a.m. and that sleep deprivation has negative long-term health effects. He is seeking a change in the prison schedule to allow for seven hours of uninterrupted sleep.

We construe Garrett’s complaint as including official capacity complaints against the defendants for injunctive relief. 2 The Eleventh Amendment permits suits for prospective injunctive relief against state officials acting in violation of federal law. Aguilar v. Tex. Dep’t of Criminal Justice, 160 F.3d 1052, 1054 (5th Cir.1998). Accordingly, such relief is available if Garrett can establish an Eighth Amendment violation. See, e.g., Walker v. Nunn, 456 Fed.Appx. 419, 422 (5th Cir.2011) (unpublished).

To establish an Eighth Amendment violation based on the conditions of his confinement, a prisoner must satisfy both an objective and subjective component. Woods v. Edwards, 51 F.3d 577, 581 (5th Cir.1995).

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560 F. App'x 375, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/michael-garrett-v-rick-thaler-director-ca5-2014.