By Bob Egelko
From the San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO -- Prison officials have broad leeway to decide how long to confine inmates to their cells after a riot, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday, dismissing a California prisoner’s suit over a seven-month lockdown.
The inmate, Steve Noble, was not involved in the January 2002 clash at Corcoran State Prison in Kings County that injured more than 20 guards and prompted officials to order an extended lockdown.
A federal judge in Fresno refused in 2009 to dismiss a damage suit by Noble, who represented himself and claimed he had been wrongfully deprived of outdoor exercise. U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii said prison officials had offered no explanation for their decision to deny exercise for six months after completing an investigation of the riot.
But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said those decisions are largely up to prison authorities.
Read more at SFGate.com.