Kejuan I. Jenkins v. Anthony Wills, Joshua Schoenbeck, Thomas Quinn, and Christopher Garcia

Summary

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois granted Defendants’ motion for summary judgment on exhaustion grounds in Kejuan Jenkins’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action. The court held that Jenkins failed to properly exhaust administrative remedies for his Eighth Amendment excessive-force and conditions-of-confinement claims under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The case was dismissed without prejudice and the Clerk was directed to close the case.

Holdings

1. A prisoner must exhaust available administrative remedies before filing an action concerning prison conditions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and exhaustion requires compliance with the prison's applicable grievance procedures.
2. Plaintiff failed to exhaust Counts 1, 3, 4, and 6 because the grievances he appealed either did not identify or describe the alleged force and segregation mistreatment or were procedurally deficient.
3. Because Plaintiff failed to respond after receiving notice of the consequences, the court could treat Defendants' properly asserted material facts as undisputed for purposes of summary judgment.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Defendants were entitled to summary judgment because Plaintiff failed to exhaust available administrative remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act.
2. Whether Plaintiff's grievances sufficiently alerted prison officials to the alleged excessive force and segregation-condition claims.
3. Whether Plaintiff's failure to respond to the summary-judgment motion permitted the court to deem Defendants' properly supported material facts admitted.

Disposition

dismissed