Opinion ID: 509293
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 2 Hassan Shabazz is a practicing Muslim. As such he must offer demonstrative prayer five times a day at times determined by the sun's position. 1 Muslims also believe that group prayer is preferable to individual prayer. 3 For several months in 1982, Shabazz was incarcerated at the Attica Correctional Facility, located in Attica, New York. Each cell block at Attica has a recreation yard used by inmates for a variety of recreational activities including lifting weights, playing cards, and viewing television. In 1982, prisoners were permitted to enter the yard in the afternoon and in the evening, after dinner. Once in the yard, prisoners had to remain there until the guards called early in or the yard closed, which was around 10:00 p.m. during the summer. 4 On July 29, 1982, Correctional Officer Russell Beasor made two announcements for an early in for Muslim prayers at 8:15 p.m. Forty-five minutes later, he found Shabazz praying while facing the yard wall. Prison authorities charged Shabazz with violating a statewide rule which requires compliance with all posted local facility rules, Standards of Inmate Behavior Rule 180.20, and Attica Correctional Facility Inmate Rule 17.9 which prohibited religious services in the recreation yards and in groups of more than six inmates. Rule 17.9 was promulgated to effectuate New York State Department of Correctional Services Directive 4202(I) which restricts group or demonstrative prayer to prisoners' living quarters and to religious services authorized by the superintendent of the prison. 2 After a hearing, Shabazz was found guilty and given five days' continuous confinement and ten days' loss of recreation. 5 On August 18, 1982, at about 7:00 p.m., Shabazz was one of ten Muslim inmates in the recreation yard who form[ed] a circle, turn[ed] their palms up and [held] a religious gathering which lasted no more than thirty seconds. The gathering was so brief that the correctional officer who observed the event could identify only Shabazz and one other prisoner as participants. After disciplinary procedures were completed, Shabazz was confined to his cell for five days and lost recreational privileges for ten days. 6 Shabazz pro se filed a section 1983 action challenging the prison restrictions on prayer in the yard and seeking declaratory, injunctive, and monetary relief, including compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney's fees. The named defendants were Thomas A. Coughlin, III, the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Correctional Services, and Harold J. Smith, the Superintendent of Attica Correctional Facility, who were sued personally and in [their] official capacity. 7 The defendants' answer alleged as affirmative defenses, inter alia, that damages were barred by qualified immunity and by the Eleventh Amendment. They moved for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds. The district court denied the motion. This interlocutory appeal ensued pursuant to Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 524-30, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (denial of summary judgment motion made by public official upon qualified immunity grounds is immediately appealable).