David Allen Mann v. James Adams, and Bruce Babbitt, Governor of Arizona

Mann, an inmate at Arizona State Prison, appeals pro se the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the state officers in this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action. We affirm.

Mann’s claims are based upon allegations that grievances at Arizona State Prison are generally handled in an untimely and inefficient manner without a procedure certified pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1997e; that letters to him from various public officials, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the news media were opened outside his presence; that the prison has no procedure for providing receipts for certified mail; and that Governor Babbitt endorsed the grievance procedure policy and provided insufficient funding for prison operations.

Although 42 U.S.C. § 1997e provides that states may voluntarily submit grievance procedures for certification, a state's failure to do so does not give the prisoner a cause of action. See 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(d) (“[t]he failure of a State to adopt or adhere to an administrative grievance procedure consistent with this section shall not constitute the basis for an action under section 1997a or 1997c of this title”).

Mann next argues that mail sent to inmates from public agencies,…