42 U.S.C. sec. 1983 enables an inmate to sue a prison official who, acting under the color of state law, violates an inmate’s federal constitutional rights. Most often such claims will be based on First Amendment Freedom of Speech infringements (e.g., mail or media receipt restrictions), Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment Due Process of Law violations (oftentimes during disciplinary proceedings), Sixth Amendment Access to the Courts violations (e.g., prison holds outgoing legal mail or intentionally destroys or loses inmate’s legal papers), and Eighth Amendment violations of the right to remain free from cruel and inhumane treatment (e.g., physical beatings, prolonged solitary confinement, failure to provide medical treatment, etc.).

Prior to commencing a section 1983 action, however, the inmate must first exhaust all available administrative remedies, in most states those being provided under an inmate grievance program. If the inmate loses his initial grievance, he must appeal that decision to the highest administrative body or officer able to entertain his claims under law. It is only after the grievance is denied at the highest level that the inmate’s administrative remedies are deemed exhausted, thereby enabling him to file a section 1983 action.

The filing of a 1983 action seems, at first glance, relatively easy and straightforward. But be not mistaken: to prevail on one usually requires the assistance of someone familiar with controlling constitutional decisional law and the federal rules of civil procedure. Indeed too often a meritorious claim is dismissed with prejudice for the simple fact that the inmate or his assistant is unfamiliar with those bodies of law. And exacerbating those deficiencies is that most prison law libraries are ill equipped with the legal research materials necessary to adequately educate the pro se litigant.

Properly framed and presented, however, many such claims are successful. For those of you that have inmate loved ones who have been genuinely aggrieved by the prison system, and who do not have the financial wherewithal to retain someone adequately trained in the law, I would suggest purchasing for that inmate a publication known as THE JAILHOUSE LAWYER’S MANUAL (available in both English and Spanish), which is published by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review and can be purchased on line at A Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual.