Walter Balla v. State of Idaho

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 22, 2022
Docket20-35579
StatusPublished

This text of Walter Balla v. State of Idaho (Walter Balla v. State of Idaho) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walter Balla v. State of Idaho, (9th Cir. 2022).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

WALTER D. BALLA, Nos. 20-35579 Plaintiff-Appellant/ 20-35580 Cross-Appellee, D.C. No. v. 1:81-cv-01165- BLW STATE OF IDAHO; IDAHO STATE BOARD OF CORRECTION; DIRECTOR OF IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF OPINION CORRECTIONS, Defendants-Appellees/ Cross-Appellants.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Idaho B. Lynn Winmill, Chief District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted October 8, 2021 Seattle, Washington

Filed March 22, 2022

Before: RICHARD A. PAEZ, MILAN D. SMITH, JR., and JACQUELINE H. NGUYEN, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Milan D. Smith, Jr. 2 BALLA V. STATE OF IDAHO

SUMMARY *

Prisoner Civil Rights

The panel affirmed the district court’s order granting defendants’ motion to terminate prospective relief pursuant to the Prison Litigation Reform Act in a class action alleging unconstitutional prison conditions at the Idaho State Correctional Institution.

In 1981, Walter Balla, an incarcerated person at the Idaho State Correctional Institution (ISCI), brought this class action suit alleging unconstitutional prison conditions against the State of Idaho, the Idaho State Board of Correction, and the Director of the Idaho Department of Correction (defendants). In 1984, the district court granted injunctive relief related mostly to medical care and physical safety (Balla I). Over the decades since then, the district court has ordered many forms of prospective relief. At issue in this appeal is the district court’s order granting defendants’ motion to terminate all prospective relief, pursuant to the requirements of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 18 U.S.C. § 3626(b).

The panel first rejected plaintiffs’ assertion that the district court abused its discretion in excluding evidence of defendants’ failure to adequately treat the Hepatitis C virus at ISCI. The panel held that the injunctive relief ordered in Balla I, pertaining to medical care and physical safety, was not issued in consideration of Hepatitis C. Accordingly, there was nothing to enforce with respect to Hepatitis C * This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. BALLA V. STATE OF IDAHO 3

treatment as it related to the current Balla injunctions. Evidence of the virus’s treatment did not necessarily answer whether there was an ongoing constitutional violation related to the general provision of healthcare that was required by the district court’s prior orders.

The panel next turned to the issue of the level of care in ISCI’s Medical Annex. Considering the record before it, the district court did not clearly err in finding no evidence that ISCI medical staff made choices in conscious disregard of an excessive risk to the plaintiffs’ health. Accepting these findings, the conditions at the Medical Annex did not rise to the level of an Eighth Amendment violation because there was no deliberate indifference.

The panel rejected plaintiffs’ challenge to the termination of population caps in certain units because defendants met their burden of showing no ongoing constitutional violation. Plaintiffs presented no evidence there were ongoing problems of the sort that motivated the population caps and security staffing orders in the first place.

The panel held that it lacked jurisdiction to consider plaintiffs’ challenge to orders pertaining to certain other population caps and restrictions on double celling because those orders were terminated in Balla III in 2005, and any appeal of that decision was untimely.

The panel rejected as foreclosed defendants’ argument on cross-appeal that the burden of proof framework established by this Circuit’s precedent was wrong. The panel noted that only an en banc court or the U.S. Supreme Court can overrule a prior panel decision. 4 BALLA V. STATE OF IDAHO

COUNSEL

Elijah M. Watkins (argued), W. Christopher Pooser, and Wendy J. Olson, Stoel Rives LLP, Boise, Idaho, for Plaintiffs-Appellants/Cross-Appellees.

Brian V. Church (argued), Deputy Attorney General, Civil Litigation Division; Mark A. Kubinski, Lead Counsel, Corrections Section; Idaho Department of Corrections, Boise, Idaho; for Defendants-Appellees/Cross-Appellants.

OPINION

M. SMITH, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs, a class of incarcerated persons at the Idaho State Correctional Institution (ISCI), appeal the termination of prospective relief pursuant to the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 18 U.S.C. § 3626(b). The relief was previously granted after the district court found unconstitutional levels of medical care and overcrowding at the facility. We affirm the district court’s granting of the defendants’ motion to terminate prospective relief.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In 1981, Walter Balla, an incarcerated person at ISCI, brought this class action suit alleging unconstitutional prison conditions against the State of Idaho, the Idaho State Board of Correction, and the Director of the Idaho Department of Correction (defendants). Over the decades since then, the district court has ordered many forms of prospective relief. BALLA V. STATE OF IDAHO 5

A.

In 1984, the district court concluded that conditions at ISCI amounted to violations of plaintiffs’ Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. See Balla v. Idaho State Bd. of Corrs., 595 F. Supp. 1558, 1574–83 (D. Idaho 1984), rev’d on other grounds, 869 F.2d 461 (9th Cir. 1989) (Balla I). The court granted injunctive relief in nine orders related mostly to medical care and physical safety. Id. at 1583. The next year, the district court approved compliance plans. Five of these Balla I orders have been terminated by stipulation.

B.

After the entry of these Balla I orders, the population at ISCI increased, and the district court found unconstitutional overcrowding amounting to an unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain at the facility. Balla v. Bd. of Corrs., 656 F. Supp. 1108, 1115 (D. Idaho 1987) (Balla II). The court issued ten more orders setting population caps, staffing requirements, and other restrictions, and mandated that the population caps could be increased only after structural changes or redesign. Id. at 1119–20.

C.

By the early 2000s, the population at ISCI had again increased, but defendants moved to terminate the Balla II injunctive relief. By then, the PLRA had become law and established new standards for the granting and terminating of prospective relief related to prison conditions. See 18 U.S.C. § 3626. Discovery and briefing were limited by stipulation of the parties to the population caps and plumbing orders of Balla II in ISCI’s Housing Units 9, 10, 11, and 13. In 2005, the district court found “conditions that [were] worse, both as to overall inmate population and plumbing 6 BALLA V. STATE OF IDAHO

problems, than when the original injunctive orders were put in place.” Balla v. Idaho Bd. of Corr., No. CV81-1165-S- EJL, 2005 WL 2403817, at *9 (D. Idaho Sept. 26, 2005), clarified on denial of reconsideration, No. CV81-1165-S- EJL, 2005 WL 3412806 (D. Idaho Dec. 9, 2005) (Balla III). The court preserved the prospective relief from Balla II for Units 9, 10, and 11. Id. at *12 (stating “[t]he following sections of the permanent injunction in Balla II remain in effect”).

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Walter Balla v. State of Idaho, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walter-balla-v-state-of-idaho-ca9-2022.