Alvin Wesley King v. Sheriff Tommy Sturgeon, Ashley County, Arkansas; and Jail Administrator Johnny Guy, Ashley County Detention Center

Summary

The United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas grants defendants’ motion for summary judgment in Alvin Wesley King’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action concerning conditions of confinement at the Ashley County Detention Center. The court holds that King failed to exhaust available administrative remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act before filing suit and rejects his arguments that the grievance process was unavailable or futile. The case is dismissed without prejudice.

Holdings

1. A prisoner must exhaust available administrative remedies before initiating a federal action concerning prison conditions; exhaustion completed after filing does not satisfy § 1997e(a), and dismissal is mandatory when exhaustion was incomplete at filing.
2. Plaintiff did not properly exhaust the detention center's grievance procedure because the only pre-suit grievance concerned delayed mail rather than the conditions-of-confinement claims, and the other grievances were either unrelated or filed after suit commenced.
3. The Ashley County Detention Center grievance procedure was available to Plaintiff, and none of his asserted reasons for failing to use it excused nonexhaustion.
4. Defendants were entitled to summary judgment because the undisputed record established that Plaintiff failed to exhaust available administrative remedies before filing suit.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Plaintiff exhausted available administrative remedies before filing his § 1983 conditions-of-confinement action as required by 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a).
2. Whether the Ashley County Detention Center grievance procedure was unavailable to Plaintiff so as to excuse nonexhaustion.
3. Whether Defendants were entitled to summary judgment on the exhaustion issue.

Disposition

dismissed