Inmate's civil rights case against New York State is rejected

The Court of Appeals has held that an inmate in a New York prison cannot win his constitutional claims alleging the prison was deliberately indifferent to certain jail conditions or retaliated against him for exercising his free speech rights.

The case is Smith v. New York State, a summary order issued on November 12. Smith was incarcerated at Coxsackie State Prison, south of Albany. He claims the temperature during his prolonged confinement in the jail infirmary was freezing cold in order to terminate his hunger strike, in violation of the Constitution. 

These cases are not easy to win. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, the inmate has to prove that jail officials were deliberately indifferent to a serious medical need, and that, objectively, the conditions were inhumane under constitutional standards created by the U.S. Supreme Court. Eighth Amendment cases, asserting cruel and inhumane treatment, carry similar legal standards. 

Prolonged cold can support a case like this. But plaintiff loses because there is no evidence that prison officials knew about and disregarded any serious harm to plaintiff. Instead, the record shows that, while in the infirmary, plaintiff had a set of closing, including shirts and other apparel and even an extra blanket if he requested one, and even cold-weather clothing for the winter months, and that his hunger strike affected his perception of coldness in the infirmary. 

The First Amendment case also fails, the Court of Appeals (Carney, Bianco and Nardini) holds. Inmates do have free speech rights, but you still have to show that the prison's conduct toward you was sufficiently adverse, i.e., it would deter other inmates from asserting their speech rights in the future. The Court applies a court-made doctrine in cases like this: "We approach prisoner retaliation claims with 'skepticism and particular care,' given that 'virtually any adverse action taken against a prisoner by a prison official—even those otherwise not rising to the level of a constitutional violation—can be characterized as a constitutionally proscribed retaliatory act.'” With that in mind, plaintiff loses. "The conduct that Smith perceived as retaliatory, including restricting his library access and recreation time, was primarily a function of his admission to the infirmary due to his hunger strike, and no rational jury could find that such conduct, under the particular circumstances here, would deter a 'similarly situated individual of ordinary firmness from exercising his or her constitutional rights.'”