Juan Albino v. Lee Baca

I. BACKGROUND

A. Facts

No party disputes that, during all relevant periods at issue in this case, the Los Angeles County jails had a grievance pro- cedure outlined in the Custody Division Manual § 5- 12/010.00. According to the grievance procedure, inmates could file grievances (or complaints) regarding the conditions of confinement, including grievances related to classifica- tions. All inmates were permitted to submit a written com- plaint; formal Inmate Complaint Forms were supplied to facilitate complaint filings. Each housing unit in the jail was required to have an adequate supply of Inmate Complaint Forms, and inmates were required to have unrestricted access to these forms. However, inmates were not required to use the formal Inmate Complaint Forms; they could make a com- plaint on any medium as long as it was written. Further, each housing area also maintained a locked repository box accessi- ble to inmates so that they could deposit their written com- plaints unhindered.

On May 11, 2006, Juan Albino was arrested for rape and incarcerated in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Depart- ment’s main jail (“LASD Jail” or the “jail”). Upon arriving at the LASD Jail, Albino…

Opinion by Judge N.R. SMITH; Dissent by Judge GILMAN.

OPINION

An inmate’s lack of awareness of a correctional institution’s grievance procedure does not make the administrative remedy “unavailable” for purposes of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a), unless the inmate meets his or her burden of proving the grievance procedure to be unknowable. See Hilao v. Estate of Marcos, 103 F.3d 767 , 778 n. 5 (9th Cir.1996); Goebert v. Lee Cnty., 510 F.3d 1312, 1322-24 (11th Cir.2007). Because Albino has not met his burden of *1027 proof, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Facts

No party disputes that, during all relevant periods at issue in this case, the Los Angeles County jails had a grievance procedure outlined in the Custody Division Manual § 5-12/010.00. According to the grievance procedure, inmates could file grievances (or complaints) regarding the conditions of confinement, including grievances related to classifications. All inmates were permitted to submit a written complaint; formal Inmate Complaint Forms were supplied to facilitate complaint filings. Each housing unit in the jail was required to have an…

dissenting:

I agree with the majority that an inmate must do more than simply claim that he was unaware of the jail’s grievance procedure in order to show that administrative remedies were unavailable to him under the PLRA’s exhaustion requirement. In the present ease, however, Albino orally complained on several occasions to deputies at the jail about being raped and brutally assaulted by his fellow inmates, and about the jail’s failure to transfer him to protective custody following each assault. I believe that Albino’s actions were sufficient to trigger an obligation on the part of the jail to notify him of the existence of its grievance procedure. Because the jail in this case instead “stonewalled” Albino by not advising him of the proce *1040 dures necessary for him to seek redress for his complaints, I would hold that Albino has demonstrated that the administrative remedies were effectively unavailable to him and that he has therefore satisfied the PLRA’s exhaustion requirement. For this reason, I respectfully dissent.

I begin with what I believe is common ground between my view and the majority’s view regarding when a jail’s remedy is unavailable for purposes of the…