Jones v. California Department of Corrections

MEMORANDUM

Appellant Mark Jones, á California state prisoner, appeals from the district court’s judgment dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action for failure to exhaust administrative remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo the district court’s dismissal for failure to exhaust, Sapp v. Kimbrell, 623 F.3d 813, 821 (9th Cir.2010), and for an abuse of discretion its decision whether to hold an evidentiary hearing. Stewart v. Cate, No. 10-55985, 757 F.3d 929, 933-35 , 2014 WL 1707033, at *3 (9th Cir. May 1, 2014). We reverse and remand.

Without holding an evidentiary hearing, the district court dismissed the action for failure to exhaust administrative remedies because Jones did not take proper steps to alert prison officials to his retaliation claim. Although the court acknowledged Jones’s formal first-level grievance, it held that the grievance did not alert prison officials to the claims that Jones alleged in his § 1983 action because it did not include information about Office Couch’s threat.

We agree that the formal-first-level complaint does not allege retaliation. Nevertheless, Jones’s…