Perry v. Precythe et al.

Tremonti Perry suffers from end-stage renal disease after he was repeatedly neglected by prison officials and prison health care companies, but the district court blocked his ability to hold them accountable in court based on a provision in the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting to ensure erroneous interpretations of the PLRA do not prevail and deprive incarcerated people the ability to vindicate their rights behind bars. 

After falling seriously ill in the middle of the night, Mr. Perry went to see the duty nurse at the Southeast Correctional Center (SECC). Despite the obvious severity of his condition and his inability to walk without falling, he was forced to visit the infirmary three times before receiving even a modicum of care.  

His third visit to the infirmary was prompted by a loss of consciousness and he recorded a fever of 104.6 when he was seen. At that time, a doctor gave him Tylenol, but did nothing more for hours, only sending him to the emergency room that afternoon. After being refused admission at the emergency room, Mr. Perry was taken back to the facility and only sent out to another hospital the following day. The hospital determined Mr. Perry was in multi-organ failure, including kidney failure, and put him in a medically induced coma. When Mr. Perry’s family asked the hospital staff about serving as kidney donors, the warden told them no. 

When Mr. Perry emerged from the coma a month later, he was sent back to prison suffering from paralysis and end-stage kidney failure. He currently requires three dialysis treatments per week to stay alive. But Corizon Health, Inc., the company which previously handled Mr. Perry’s treatment, and Centurion Health, the company which currently handles his treatment, both refused to evaluate Mr. Perry as a candidate for a kidney transplant while he was in the custody of the Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC).  

Mr. Perry brought Eighth Amendment deliberate indifference claims against the duty nurses, doctors, MDOC Warden, MDOC Director, Corizon, and Centurion. He is seeking damages, declaratory judgement that refusing to evaluate him for a kidney transplant constitutes an Eighth Amendment violation, and injunctive relief requiring Centurion to evaluate him as a transplant candidate. 

The district court erroneously granted a motion to dismiss based on the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s (PLRA) exhaustion provision, which requires prisoners to exhaust all “administrative remedies,” as outlined by the individual prison, before going to court. The administrative remedy policy in effect at SECC required Mr. Perry to file his grievance within 15 days of the incident, but Mr. Perry was in a coma for a month after the failures of care. Thus, administrative remedies were unavailable to him, and he was not required to exhaust them before filing suit.  

The MacArthur Justice Center is representing Mr. Perry on appeal in the Eighth Circuit. Because Corizon has filed for bankruptcy, the appeal is stayed as to Corizon.