Opinion ID: 4228513
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hill Correctional Center (2006–2008)

Text: Owens alleges violations that first arose in 2007 while he was held at Hill Correctional Center and litigated a lawsuit in Knox County Circuit Court. Because his prisoner trust fund account was significantly overdrawn, Owens asked the prison mailroom to advance him money for postage after the court ordered him to serve the defendants with his pleadings. But the mailroom refused, stating that prisons must advance fees only for legal mail, which under Illinois law does not include legal documents sent to other parties. ILL. ADMIN. CODE tit. 20, § 525.130(a), .110(h). Owens’s No. 16-1645 Page 3 lawsuit went nowhere anyway because the Knox County court assessed a $4.78 filing fee that he could not pay, so the case was dismissed. Owens also says that defendants at Hill unlawfully limited his access to the library to four hours per month and applied any amount of money deposited in his trust account (like his $10-per-month state pay) to previous litigation costs that the office had advanced. He also asserts that he was not given adequate access to the boxes containing legal materials not kept in his cell to the detriment of his ability to litigate effectively. B. Big Muddy River Correctional Center (2008–2010) In 2008 Owens was transferred to Big Muddy River Correctional Center. He asserts that 11 employees at that prison impeded his ability to prosecute two lawsuits. He says they closed the library when the librarian was on vacation and thus denied him sufficient access, confiscated materials from his legal storage boxes, failed to provide him with pens, and did not advance him funds for sending summonses to defendants in one of his state-court suits. One case seems to have stopped after the Sangamon County Circuit Court denied him in forma pauperis status and required him to pay a $193 filing fee. In the other case, a Jefferson County judge granted a motion to dismiss, and Owens’s appeal was dismissed for want of prosecution because he could not pay the fee to get a record on appeal. Owens also alleges that a librarian’s refusal to make copies caused him to miss an unspecified legal deadline in an unspecified case. C. Pinckneyville Correctional Center (2010–2012) Owens was transferred to Pinckneyville Correctional Center in 2010. He continued to have difficulty litigating (although it is unclear which cases he had pending at the time). He alleges that he was denied access to the library when he had a statute-of-limitations deadline approaching and was unable to access to his legal storage boxes. He also asserts that prison officials confiscated other unspecified legal materials. And he complains that the quantity of supplies he was given pursuant to prison policy—two envelopes, ten sheets of paper, and one pen per month—was insufficient. At summary judgment the defendants produced an affidavit from a law library paralegal stating that Owens received additional supplies from the library when requested. Last, Owens alleged that his access to the library, his storage boxes, and necessary supplies was even more diminished when he was placed in protective custody. No. 16-1645 Page 4 D. Lawrence Correctional Center (2012–2013) In 2012 Owens was transferred to Lawrence Correctional Center. He asserts that the law librarian, the warden, and a grievance counselor denied him access to his excess legal storage boxes. Some of these boxes had not arrived from his previous facility, and some may have been lost.