Smallwood v. Williams

Howard Smallwood, who has a documented mental impairment, was left seriously injured and traumatized after several prison guards used physical violence to force his compliance with an unnecessary blood-draw and then sexually abused him. Instead of offering him appropriate medical care after those appalling acts, prison officials threw Mr. Smallwood into segregation. 

The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) requires a prisoner to “exhaust” available administrative remedies by following a prison’s grievance rules before filing a lawsuit. But when Mr. Smallwood tried to do just that by filing a grievance about the incident, the grievance was returned to him because he had not tried to informally resolve his complaint with his abusers first. To make matters worse, by relegating him to segregation, prison officials had separated him from anyone who could have helped him properly exhaust administrative remedies. 

Unable to navigate the prison’s grievance process on his own, Mr. Smallwood turned to the federal courts. But the district court, over Mr. Smallwood’s objection that his mental capabilities made it impossible for him to understand the grievance process, concluded that Mr. Smallwood failed to strictly comply with the process and thus had not exhausted administrative remedies under the PLRA.  

The Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center (MJC) represented Mr. Smallwood on appeal to the Seventh Circuit, arguing that courts must consider a prisoner’s personal circumstances when considering whether administrative remedies are available. Here, administrative remedies simply were not available to Mr. Smallwood — first, because his low IQ made it impossible for him to understand how to properly use the grievance system; and second, because he was thrown into segregation immediately after he was abused, away from anyone who could help him exhaust. 

In support of MJC’s position, a coalition of organizations dedicated to the rights of incarcerated individuals, led by the ACLU, filed an amicus brief stressing the considerable barriers to exhaustion, particularly for folks with mental impairments. 

The Seventh Circuit reversed the district court’s decision and remanded for further proceedings. On the facts that the parties had presented, the Court expressed concern that Mr. Smallwood could not understand the prison’s grievance procedure, as even the prison officials seemed to misunderstand its requirements at times. The Court further commented that Defendants’ “own evidence compellingly demonstrated [Mr. Smallwood’s] inability to navigate the grievance procedure,” although it found that further factual development was required.