Civil Rights – Prisoners – medical treatment

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Civil Rights
Prisoners; medical treatment

Where a prisoner’s alleges ongoing denial of medical treatment, rather than an isolated incident, the defendants are not entitled to summary judgment on the ground that the prisoner failed to exhaust his administrative remedies.

“Even if the inmate complaint could be reasonably interpreted as having arisen out of an occurrence that took place no later than July 6, 2010, plaintiff made clear on appeal to the appropriate reviewing authority that the problem was ongoing by explaining that he mistakenly forgot to mention in his original complaint that he had seen the doctor as recently as August 2 or 3, 2010. The reviewing authority completely ignored plaintiff’s attempt to correct his complaint and affirmed the rejection of the complaint without further comment. In their reply brief in this court, defendants likewise ignore this issue and do not offer any legal justification for the appropriate reviewing authority’s refusal to acknowledge plaintiff’s attempt to change the date he wrote in the box. Having reviewed DOC Chapter 310, I can find no rule stating that a plaintiff cannot correct or clarify his inmate complaint on appeal to the appropriate reviewing authority, and so to the extent the initial rejection of the complaint was appropriate (it was not), it should have been reinstated once plaintiff explained that the most recent denial of treatment occurred on August 2 or 3, 2010. Accordingly, plaintiff has properly exhausted all available administrative remedies in accordance with § 1997e(a).”

10-CV-729 Edwards v. Schrubbe

E.D.Wis., Adelman, J.