Opinion ID: 1107969
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Members of the Board of Corrections

Text: The members of the Board of Corrections under state law act in a general policy-making and supervisory capacity with respect to the various correctional institutions of the state. In cases involving the day-to-day operations of a corrections facility, normally the board members will have no potential liability. For example, this Court has upheld, on grounds of qualified immunity, a judgment for the appointed commissioners of the Region VII Mental Health Center for the death of a patient by a co-patient because they had no role in the roommate selection or supervision of clients in the supervised apartment program; in fact, such actions made with respect to the program evidence strongly purely discretionary decisions made by the Board as a whole regarding program establishment and implementation. Region VII Mental Health Center v. Isaac, 523 So.2d 1013, 1017 (Miss. 1988). By the same token, members of the Leflore County Board of Supervisors were exonerated in a civil action for damages by a prisoner shot by a trusty guard. Roberts v. Williams, 302 F. Supp. 972, 985 (N.D. Miss. 1969), aff'd 456 F.2d 819, 829-33 (5th Cir.1972). Except a board member become involved in a detailed way in the day-to-day operation of the facility, it seems as a practical matter impossible that his action or inaction may have been a proximate cause of injury. See Jackson v. Hollowell, 714 F.2d 1372, 1381 (5th Cir.1983). McFadden has pointed to no rule of law that required the board members to become directly involved in the day-to-day operation of the Mississippi State Penitentiary or particularly the activities in Unit 30(C). Nor is there any allegation in the complaint which may reasonably be construed as charging that the board members, or any of them individually, had any direct personal involvement in the day-to-day operations of the penitentiary or Unit 30(C), during the late Fall of 1985 or early months of 1986. It is clear beyond reasonable doubt that McFadden can prove no set of facts which would entitle him to monetary relief against the individual board members or of any of them. We say this in light of the fact that, within the context of the legal duties imposed upon these board members and the factual allegations of the complaint, we can imagine no set of facts that McFadden may prove that would establish either that the act or omission of any of these board members was a proximate cause of his contracting the disease of tuberculosis or, in the alternative, that pierces the qualified immunity defense enjoyed by these board members. The Circuit Court correctly dismissed the complaint against the individual board members.