Rico v. Ducart, No. 19-15541 (9th Cir. 2020)
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The Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded the district court's denial of qualified immunity to Pelican Bay State Prison officials in a civil rights action brought by plaintiff, an inmate at Pelican Bay, alleging claims over prison noise stemming from the orders of a federal district court adopting recommendations of its Special Master to implement round-the-clock welfare checks to prevent inmate suicides in California's prison system.
The panel held that, on the specific facts presented here, no reasonable officer would have understood that these court-ordered actions were violating the constitutional rights of the inmates. The panel explained that, even if the Pelican Bay officials haphazardly implemented the Guard One system, no reasonable official in these circumstances would believe that creating additional noise while carrying out mandatory suicide checks for prisoner safety clearly violated plaintiff's constitutional rights. In this case, where defendants were following court-ordered procedures to enhance inmate safety that are inherently loud, all Pelican Bay officials are entitled to qualified immunity.
Court Description: Prisoner Civil Rights. The panel reversed the district court’s denial of qualified immunity to Pelican Bay officials in a civil rights action over prison noise stemming from the orders of a federal district court adopting recommendations of its Special Master to implement round-the-clock welfare checks to prevent inmate suicides in California’s prison system. Plaintiff alleged that the round-the-clock welfare checks disrupted his sleep and were conducted in a haphazard way. The panel held that the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity because, on the specific facts presented here, every reasonable official would not have understood that how they performed the court-ordered welfare checks violated the Constitution. Existing caselaw did not provide insight into the lawfulness of creating noise while conducting court-ordered suicide-prevention welfare checks * The Honorable Roslyn O. Silver, United States District Judge for the District of Arizona, sitting by designation. RICO V. DUCART 3 in a maximum security facility built of concrete, metal, and steel. Even if Pelican Bay officials haphazardly implemented the welfare check system, no reasonable official in these circumstances would believe that creating additional noise while carrying out mandatory suicide checks for prisoner safety clearly violated plaintiff’s constitutional rights. In circumstances like these, where the defendants were following court-ordered procedures to enhance inmate safety that were inherently loud, all Pelican Bay officials were entitled to qualified immunity from this civil rights suit. Concurring in part and dissenting in part, Judge Silver concurred with the majority that the defendants who worked as floor officers during the day were entitled to qualified immunity. Judge Silver also concurred that the Warden was entitled to qualified immunity. As to the defendant who conducted the night checks and the supervisory defendants who took no remedial action after being informed that prisoners were denied sleep, Judge Silver stated that plaintiff’s allegations described an obvious deprivation of a constitutional right, which was sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss.
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