Summary
This federal district court order grants the defendants' joint motion for summary judgment on exhaustion grounds and dismisses the plaintiff's civil rights complaint without prejudice. The plaintiff, an incarcerated individual, alleged that jail staff violated his constitutional rights by refusing to provide prescribed opiate medication. The court found that the plaintiff failed to properly exhaust available administrative grievance remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act because he did not complete the required appeal process for his filed grievances. Consequently, the court ruled that the defendants met their burden to show administrative remedies were available and dismissed the case.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the plaintiff exhausted the required administrative remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act.
- Whether summary judgment was appropriate on the exhaustion issue.
Holdings
- The plaintiff did not exhaust administrative remedies because he failed to file a proper grievance and appeal concerning the withheld medication.
- Summary judgment is proper because there is no genuine dispute of material fact that the plaintiff exhausted administrative remedies.
Key quotations
“"Once again medication stopped without warning. I’m in constant chronic pain as all my medical history shows. I was on Tylenol to alleviate a small amount of the pain. I was told by medical RNs here to have my family bring in Tylenol and ibuprofen in the past. My family has brought numerous 500ct bottles of Tylenol and ibuprofen to the rcj. Bottles which should still be here. Since you[’]ve, without justification, have withheld the pain alleviating medication ‘subutex’ I was on for 15+ years daily before coming to the rcj, can I please be put back on a regiment of Tylenol and ibuprofen, which are over the counter medications? I am in constant pain every day from plueralcy and spinal pain."” (at 12)
Factual background
Plaintiff Casimir E. Kielbasa was incarcerated at the Racine County Jail from June 2021 to May 2023. He alleged that jail nurses and a captain failed to provide his prescribed opiate medication. The jail required inmates to file grievances electronically via a kiosk or by handwritten forms. Plaintiff submitted 383 electronic requests but filed no grievances concerning the medication until after learning about the kiosk a year into his confinement.
Procedural history
Plaintiff filed a 42 U.S.C. §1983 complaint alleging denial of medication while incarcerated. Defendants moved for summary judgment asserting lack of exhaustion of administrative remedies. The district court considered the exhaustion requirement under the PLRA and granted summary judgment, dismissing the case without prejudice.