Opinion ID: 789358
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Factor two: Means for exercising the burdened right

Text: 34 Under this factor, we are asked to focus on the burden that the regulation imposes on an inmate's ability to engage in constitutionally protected activity. DeHart v. Horn, 227 F.3d 47, 53 (3d Cir.2000) (en banc). If other avenues are open for the inmate to exercise the right in question, the court should exhibit deference to the judgment of corrections officials, while if no other avenues are available, the inmate's right is given greater weight in the Turner balancing process. Id. 15 35 Banks argues that while Level 2 inmates can read leisure books, they have no meaningful access to current news accounts or published information about current political, social, or other public events and activities occurring outside the prison walls, and they have no way to look at images of loved ones and friends apart from the possibility of infrequent visits. The District Court, however, disagreeing with Banks, found that inmates had sufficient means to engage in the constitutionally-protected activities. 36 The District Court characterized the periodicals ban as not a blanket prohibition because Level 2 inmates can qualify by good conduct to be promoted to LTSU Level 1. The District Court's justification for this determination is its explanation that each of these prisoners has the option of modifying his behavior and being promoted to a less restricted environment where access to newspapers magazines and photographs may be enjoyed. (App.126) As the DOC elaborated in its brief, there is no reason to suppose that a prison administration would not respond favorably to a prisoner's initiative to qualify for relief from the ban on periodicals or photos through exhibiting good behavior. 37 The District Court and the DOC are correct in noting that inmates can be promoted from Level 2 to Level 1 and, if they are, they will gain access to the prohibited materials. However, that does not change the fact that the prohibition is indeed a blanket one, and that as long as an inmate is at Level 2 status and is subject to the policy in question, he has no alternative means to exercise his First Amendment right of access to a reasonable amount of newspapers, magazines, and photographs. 38 Moreover, there is no reason to infer that the process of promotion from Level 2 to Level 1 is as much under the inmates' control as the DOC and the District Court characterize it. As noted above, segregation in Level 2 is not linked to a particular infraction, and is of potentially unlimited duration. Any inmate who enters LTSU will remain at Level 2 for 90 days no matter how he modifies his behavior. Furthermore, the only information in the record as to how the process works is the following explanation from Dickson's deposition: 39 You know, you have the ability through your own actions to be promoted, if you will, from a level 2 inmate to a level 1 inmate, and we do that every day. We have a system where the unit management team reviews each inmate's progress every thirty days. The unit management team is made up of the unit manager, custody staff, psych staff, nursing staff. And we try to give and provide every inmate every opportunity to progress through this system and to be able to obtain these privileges. (App.110) 40 There are no affidavits in the record from any of those decision-makers mentioned by Dickson, nor is there any documentation of the review process. Although at Dickson's deposition, Banks' attorney apparently examined and requested some documents which indicated, with respect to current LTSU inmates, how long they had been at the facility and how long they had been at Level 2, those documents are also not in the record. Again, unlike the policies in solitary and disciplinary confinement examined in Daigre, Gregory, and Guajarde, the LTSU prohibition cannot be characterized as merely a time, place or manner restriction. See, e.g., Gregory, 768 F.2d at 290 ([the policy is] not directed at what mail an inmate could receive, but only at when he could receive it).