Opinion ID: 2974290
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Grievance Process

Text: The PLRA states that an action cannot be filed “until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted.” 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) (emphasis added). In analyzing the meaning of available remedies under the PLRA, we have previously concluded that “[s]o long as the prison system has an administrative process that will review a prisoner’s complaint . . . the prisoner must exhaust his prison remedies.” Wyatt, 193 F.3d at 878. TDOC “has a flat rule declining jurisdiction,” id., in its grievance process for grievances that are related to “institutional placement and custody level, which may be appealed through other avenues outlined in the TDOC #400 policy series, except where policy violations are alleged,” APP 501.01(VI)(G). Because Owens’s complaint complaint or attach proof of exhaustion to the complaint, or instead, whether the defendant must plead and prove an affirmative defense of nonexhaustion. The Supreme Court has previously warned lower courts against imposing heightened pleading requirements in the context of a claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2. Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N.A., 534 U.S. 506, 512-13 (2002). Although we have held that this admonition did not affect our earlier decision regarding the PLRA exhauation-pleading requirements, Baxter v. Rose, 305 F.3d 486, 48990 (6th Cir. 2002), the Supreme Court’s recent reiteration, in the context of a § 1983 prisoner claim, that “[s]pecific pleading requirements are mandated by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and not, as a general rule, through case-bycase determinations of the federal courts,” Hill v. McDonough, --- U.S. --- , 126 S. Ct. 2096, 2103 (2006), again calls into question our PLRA exhaustion-pleading requirements. 2 The Supreme Court has consolidated Jones v. Bock, with review of another of our cases, Williams v. Overton, 136 F. App’x 859 (6th Cir. 2005), cert. granted, --- U.S. --- , 126 S. Ct. 1463 (2006), to determine whether, the PLRA’s exhaustion requirement is one of “total exhaustion” requiring a district court to dismiss a prisoner’s civil-rights complaint whenever unexhausted claims have been pleaded, despite the inclusion of exhausted claims. In Williams, the Court will also consider whether, as we have held, the PLRA mandates that a prisoner name an individual defendant in the administrative grievance in order to exhaust the administrative remedies as to that defendant and in order to maintain the right to sue that defendant. Id. No. 03-6559 Owens v. Keeling et al. Page 5 relates to his institutional placement and did not allege a policy violation, it is non-grievable through the grievance process and must instead be pursued through the classification appeals process as outlined in APP 401.08. The non-grievability of Owens’s classification-related complaint through the grievance process makes that remedy unavailable under the PLRA, and thus he does not have to pursue that remedy to exhaust his claim. See Wyatt, 193 F.3d at 878; Rancher v. Franklin County, Ky., 122 F. App’x 240, 242 (6th Cir. 2005) (holding that a non-grievable issue met Wyatt’s “flat rule declining jurisdiction” standard and thus that the prisoner need not pursue the grievance process to exhaust the claim). The fact that Owens could have appealed this decision, see APP 501.01(VI)(G) (stating that “[i]f the chairperson determines a matter to be non-grievable, the grievant may appeal that decision as outlined in the handbook TDOC Inmate Grievance Procedures”), is immaterial because a prisoner is not required to pursue a remedy where the prison system has an across-the-board policy declining to utilize that remedy for the type of claim raised by the prisoner. See Wyatt, 193 F.3d at 878. Owens should not be penalized for incorrectly filing an Inmate Grievance regarding his classification because it appears that Owens only resorted to filing an Inmate Grievance after he received no response regarding his pursuit of a remedy through the classification appeals process. Indeed, Owens’s decision not to pursue his Inmate Grievance any further was in compliance with TDOC’s policy that the subject of his Inmate Grievance was not grievable and that the appropriate remedy for his complaint was the classification appeals process.