By Bryan Denson
The Oregonian
PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon prisoner kept in solitary confinement 23 hours and 20 minutes a day for more than two years has lost a federal appeal to punish the state Department of Corrections.
But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, affirming a Portland judge’s dismissal of the case, noted in its opinion that Joshua Robert Brown, 33, was subjected to “atypical and significant hardship” and that the prison system should have reviewed his confinement.
The opinion noted the extremely harsh conditions imposed on Brown at the Snake River Correctional Institution and the Oregon State Penitentiary for 27 months. Brown was punished for possessing a weapon and placed in the Intensive Management Unit, the prison system’s highest security cells.
"(Inmates in the unit) are permitted outside of their cells for a total of only 40 minutes per day and may spend 30 of those minutes engaged in recreation,” the appeals court wrote. “Half of that time -- 15 minutes -- may be spent in an ‘outside’ facility reserved for IMU use, within a 15-by-40-foot room with high, concrete walls covered by a metal grate.” (Prisoners in the general population get 25 to 30 hours of recreation and social interaction time per week, including up to five hours of recreation outside. )
Inmates in the Intensive Management Unit are permitted two visitors a month, with no contact, and a maximum of two visitors every six months. In contrast, prisoners in the general population are permitted between 11 and 22 contact visits a month.
Prisoners in the Intensive Management Unit also get no access to the prison and law libraries, group religious worship, educational and vocational opportunities, TVs, personal property or telephone use (except for emergencies).
The 9th Circuit found that Brown’s due process rights were violated because prison officials did not review his housing classification status. But the panel held that the Department of Corrections and 11 named officials were entitled to qualified immunity.