Lira

Ernesto Lira was for several years placed in administrative segregation, and later in a Special Housing Unit (SHU), because prison officials determined that he was affiliated with a prison gang and posed a threat to prison safety. He filed this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , protesting that his treatment at California’s Deuel Vocational Institute and Pelican Bay Prison violated due process. The district court granted defendants’ joint motion for summary judgment on the ground that the sole remaining cause of action encompassed both a fully exhausted claim and some unexhausted claims. We must decide whether the district court properly construed the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s (“PLRA”) exhaustion requirement, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a).

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Lira is a former inmate of the California corrections system. He entered the Deuel Vocational Institute (DVI) in 1995, where he was immediately “validated” as an associate of the Northern Structure gang. “Validation” as a prison gang member is a designation reserved for prison gang members believed to pose a threat to prison safety. For Lira, the consequence of validation was placement in administrative segregation at DVI and then in…