Opinion ID: 183945
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Exaggerated Response by Prison Officials

Text: The fourth Turner factor requires us to consider whether the existence of easy and obvious alternatives indicates that the regulation is an exaggerated response by prison officials. PLN II, 397 F.3d at 699. This is not a `least restrictive alternative' test: prison officials do not have to set up and then shoot down every conceivable alternative method of accommodating the claimant's constitutional complaint. Turner, 482 U.S. at 90-91, 107 S.Ct. 2254. [A]n alternative that fully accommodates the [asserted] rights at de minimis cost to valid penological interests suggests that the regulation does not satisfy the reasonable relationship standard. Id. at 91, 107 S.Ct. 2254. Here, the suggested alternative is the limited distribution sought by Plaintiffs, compared to the outright ban imposed by the Sacramento County and Butte County jails. The undisputed fact that CJA is currently distributed in more than 60 counties throughout 13 states, including in 32 California county jails, suggests that the response of the two jails in this case may be exaggerated. There is a marked contrast between defendants' strong general statements about the ways the ban on unsolicited copies of CJA serves their penological purposes, on the one hand, and the weak, and to some degree contradictory, specific evidence they offer to support those statements, on the other. Further, defendants have not demonstrated that they cannot work with CJA to establish distribution schedules that minimize the drain on jail resources. Finally, the possibility that Butte County Jail's policy is motivated by a concern with losing revenue from bail bond advertisements also suggests that the jail's policy may be an exaggerated response.