Raymond A. Roles v. Lee Maddox

Raymond Roles (“Roles”), a prisoner appearing pro se, appeals the district court’s dismissal of his § 1983 complaint asserting First and Fourteenth Amendment claims because he failed to exhaust his administrative remedies as required by 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a), enacted by the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (“PLRA”), § 803(d) Pub.L. No. 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321 (1996). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo the district court’s dismissal for failure to exhaust, Ngo v. Woodford, 403 F.3d 620, 622 (9th Cir.2005), and affirm.

Section 1997e(a) provides:

42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) (2005). This appeal raises two questions: first, whether § 1997e(a) applies to prisoners, like Roles, held in private prisons; and second, if so, whether the confiscation of magazines is a “prison condition,” such that exhaustion is required.

I. Background

Roles is incarcerated in the Idaho Correctional Center (“ICC”), a prison operated by a private corporation, the Corrections Corporation of America, Inc. (“CCA”), under contract with the Idaho Department of Correction. Roles claims that a CCA employee confiscated eight magazines from his cell, allegedly because he had kept them for…