Reaves v. Dep't of Corr.

333 F. Supp. 3d 18
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedSeptember 20, 2018
DocketCivil Action No. 14-40100-TSH
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 333 F. Supp. 3d 18 (Reaves v. Dep't of Corr.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reaves v. Dep't of Corr., 333 F. Supp. 3d 18 (D.D.C. 2018).

Opinion

TIMOTHY HILLMAN, DISTRICT JUDGE

The plaintiff, Timothy Reaves, ("Plaintiff") files this action against the Defendants *22for claims related to his treatment while incarcerated in various Department of Corrections ("DOC") institutions. The defendants were in two categories: (1) the DOC Defendants and (2) the Medical Defendants. The DOC Defendants include the DOC, Thomas Turco,1 Carol Higgins O'Brien, Stephanie Collins, Pamela MacEachern, Michael Rodrigues, and Sheila Kelly.2 The Medical Defendants have settled with the Plaintiff.

Background3

The Plaintiff has been incarcerated since 1996 and is serving a life sentence in the Massachusetts DOC. He has been a quadriplegic throughout his incarceration and is hearing impaired. The relevant institutions where Plaintiff has been housed for purposes of this action are Bridgewater State Hospital ("Bridgewater") from 2011 through 2014, Souza Baranowski Correction Center ("Souza Baranowski") from 2014 until 2016, and the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Shirley ("MCI Shirley") from 2016 until present. During Plaintiff's incarceration his health has significantly decreased. He can no longer brush his teeth, feed himself, sit in a wheelchair, and showers on a stretcher,

Plaintiff has alleged the following counts: failure to provide adequate medical care in violation of the 8th Amendment (Count I) and Article 26 Of the Declaration of Rights of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Count II); reasonable accommodations in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (Count III), the Rehabilitation Act (Count IV) and Article 114 (Count V); unlawful conditions of confinement in violation of the 8th Amendment (Count VI) and Article 26 of the Declaration of Rights (Count VII); failure to protect in violation of the 8th Amendment (Count VIII) and Article 26 (Count IX); and violation of Plaintiff's due process rights provided by the 14th Amendment (X) and Articles 1, 10, and 12 of the Declaration of Rights (Count XI); intentional infliction of emotional distress (Count XIV); and violation of the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act ("MCRA") (Count XII). Both parties have filed motions *23for summary judgment, discussed below with the exception of Count XII, which Plaintiff's concedes.4 Accordingly, the Defendants motion for summary judgment as to the Count XII is granted.

In a motion for summary judgment it is the moving party's burden to show an absence of a genuine issue as to any material fact on the record. DeNovellis v. Shalala , 124 F.3d 298, 306 (1st Cir. 1997). A "genuine" issue is one which a rational factfinder could resolve in either direction, and a "material" fact is one that could change the case's outcome. Mu v. Omni Hotels Mgmt. Corp. , 882 F.3d 1,5 (1st Cir. 2018), review denied , 885 F.3d 52 (1st Cir. 2018). If the moving party also bears the burden of proof at trial, he must "demonstrate every element of his case such that 'no reasonable trier of fact could find other than for [him].' " Harley-Davidson Credit Corp. v. Galvin , 807 F.3d 407, 411 (1st Cir. 2015). The court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party in assessing each motion. Tolan v. Cotton, 572 U.S. 650, 134 S. Ct. 1861, 188 L.Ed.2d 895 (2014).

Inadequate Medical Care (Counts I & II) 5

To establish an Eighth Amendment violation based on the failure to provide adequate medical care, the prisoner must satisfy two prongs: "(1) an objective prong that requires proof of a serious medical need, and (2) a subjective prong that mandates a showing of prison administrators' deliberate indifference to that need." Kosilek v. Spencer , 774 F.3d 63, 82 (1st Cir. 2014) ; see Estelle v. Gamble , 429 U.S. 97, 106, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976). "[D]eliberate indifference 'defines a narrow band of conduct' ... and requires evidence that the failure in treatment was purposeful." Kosilek , 774 F.3d at 83 (quoting Feeney v. Corr. Med. Servs. Inc., 464 F.3d 158, 162 (1st Cir. 2006).

For purposes of this motion, the DOC Defendants concede that Plaintiff has objectively shown that his deprivation is sufficiently serious. Defendants argue instead that Plaintiff has failed to show that the Defendants knowingly disregarded or failed to provide available remedies because they lacked the responsibility to intervene in a meaningful way. I disagree.

Prison officials are not be relieved of a duty to provide adequate medical care by contracting that responsibility out to private medical vendors. See West v. Atkins , 487 U.S. 42, 56, 108 S.Ct. 2250, 101 L.Ed.2d 40 (1988) ("Contracting out prison medical care does not relieve the State of its constitutional duty to provide adequate medical treatment to those in its custody"). The DOC has the authority and the obligation to ensure contract compliance by the medical providers with regards to the adequacy of their care. Specifically, Collins, as the Associate Deputy Commissioner of Clinical Services, oversees the medical services through regular meetings, audits, review of records, and may impose sanctions to remedy services deemed to be inadequate compared to *24

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Bluebook (online)
333 F. Supp. 3d 18, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reaves-v-dept-of-corr-dcd-2018.