Rhodes

I. BACKGROUND

Rhodes is serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. In 2016, he was transferred from Kern Valley State Prison to Pelican Bay State Prison after he was found to have committed a disciplinary offense. In anticipation of his transfer, prison authorities inventoried Rhodes’s belongings. The property listed on the inventory included a Swintec typewriter, a Sony CD player, Sony headphones, CDs, an A/C Delco battery charger, an RCA television, an RCA signal booster, an antenna, Nike tennis shoes, one sweatshirt, a Casio wristwatch, a U-Tab7 tablet, photo albums, a West Bend fan, a West Bend hot pot, an electric shaver, and legal books. The prison authorities’ records reflect that the CD player, battery charger, television, tennis shoes and one sweatshirt were returned to Rhodes. The typewriter had been broken during transit, but Rhodes refused to sign the form acknowledging he had been offered a replacement. The remainder of the property that appeared on the inventory, with the exception of the legal materials, was confiscated because it was altered, broken, or not allowed to be in the possession of inmates with Rhodes’s security categorization. The…