Free Statement - District Court of Arizona - Arizona

1 TERRY GODDARD ATTORNEY GENERAL 2 PAUL E. CARTER (014140) 3 Assistant Attorney General 177 N. Church Avenue, Suite 1105 4 Tucson, AZ 85701-1114 (520) 388-7128 Fax (520) 628-6050 5 [email protected] 6 Attorneys for State Defendants 7 8 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA No. CV 03-2178-PHX-PGR (MHB) STATEMENT OF FACTS IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

9 BARRY NORTHCROSS PATTERSON, 10 11 v. 12 DORA SCHRIRO, et al. 13 14 15 Defendants. Plaintiff,

Defendant Martinez submits this, her Separate Statement of Facts, in support of

16 her Motion for Summary Judgment, which is also being filed on this date. 17 1. For security and operational reasons, the Arizona Department of

18 Corrections ("ADC") acts as the custodian of all funds received by inmates. Under 19 policy, ADC maintains an Inmate Trust Account for each inmate; all funds that inmates 20 earn from prison jobs and receive from outside the prison are deposited in their trust 21 account. Inmates authorize withdrawal of funds from their accounts to cover their

22 inmate-store purchases and any other expenditures, including legal supplies and copies, 23 postage, notary services, medical visit co-payments, etc. Prison financial officials keep a 24 running balance of how much money inmates own and owe. Affidavit of Lynda Wade, 25 annexed hereto as Exhibit A, at ¶ 3. 26 2. The ADC Financial Services Bureau facilitates inmates' court-ordered

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1 payments for restitution, court-filing fees, child support, etc., by withdrawing funds from 2 inmate trust accounts and forwarding the funds to the courts. Id. at ¶ 4. 3 3. Inmates with less than $12 available in their "spendable" account within the

4 last 30 days qualify for indigent status. ADC will provide indigent inmates, who must 5 apply for the status monthly, certain health and welfare items without payment. Id. at ¶ 5. 6 4. Indigent inmates may obtain medical services without having the $3.00 In order to

7 medical visit co-payment immediately available in their trust account.

8 facilitate access to the court, ADC permits indigent inmates to obtain the materials and 9 services necessary to prosecute qualified lawsuits without sufficient funds available in 10 their inmate trust accounts; allowable legal costs include copying, office supplies, 11 postage, and notary services. Id. at ¶ 6. 12 5. By policy, a money order is generally processed as follows: the mailroom at

13 the prison complex where the inmate is located opens the envelope holding the money 14 order, it issues a receipt for the amount of the money order, it places the receipt and any 15 correspondence back in the envelope, and it sends the envelope to the inmate. The 16 mailroom then sends the original money order to the prison complex Business Office, 17 which posts the amount to the inmates' trust account. Id. at ¶ 9. 18 6. The ADC Inmate Trust Account system is programmed to automatically

19 take mandatory deductions out of any funds received by the inmate (of up to 20% on 20 outstanding court filing fees for example). Id. at ¶ 10. 21 7. The Central Office Inmate Trust Account staff, which would have included

22 Amanda Martinez as of December 2003, has (and had) no involvement in the processing 23 of incoming funds, the posting of those funds to the inmates' trust account, and the 24 making of automatic deductions from the account. Id. at ¶ 11. 25 8. On December 11, 2003, ADC received a $100 money order for Patterson, The ADC Inmate Trust Account program

26 which was posted to his trust account. 2
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1 automatically deducted 20% for each of his outstanding federal and state filing fees, or 2 $40, from the amount posted to the trust account, leaving a balance in the account of 3 $60.05. Id. at ¶ 12. 4 9. The following day, pursuant to this Court's Order in this action, an

5 additional partial filing fee of $57.28 was deducted from the trust account, as well as 6 $2.40 in legal copy charges incurred by Patterson, leaving a balance of $0.37 (which was 7 the cost of a stamp at the time). Id. at ¶ 13. 8 10. Although he had insufficient funds in his trust account, Patterson then

9 incurred the following financial obligations: December 17, $2.30 in legal store purchases; 10 December 19, $4.75 and $0.60 in legal postage; and December 19, $0.60 and $1.29 in 11 non-legal postage. Id. Though he was able to make those purchases, because he had 12 insufficient funds to cover them, a "hold" was placed on his trust account, whereby these 13 obligations would be deducted from his account when there were sufficient funds 14 available. Id. at ¶ 14. 15 11. There was no activity in Patterson's trust account until December 26, when

16 ADC received another $100 money order for Patterson and posted it. Id. As with the 17 prior deposit, two $20 (20%) each mandatory deductions for federal and state court filing 18 fees were automatically taken out of this deposit, leaving Patterson with a balance of 19 $60.37 at the end of that day. Id. at ¶ 15. 20 12. Since Patterson now had sufficient funds, on December 29, the amount of

21 his outstanding holds (see ¶ 12, above) was deducted, leaving a balance of $50.83 in his 22 trust account at the end of that day. Id. at ¶ 16. 23 13. On January 2, 2004, Patterson incurred charges of $19.20 for legal copies

24 and $0.37 for legal postage, which amounts were deducted from his trust account, leaving 25 a balance of $31.26. Id. at ¶ 17. 26 14. On January 9, after Patterson incurred legal postage charges of $0.37, 3
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1 $5.95, $0.83, $0.83, $0.60, and $0.60, these amounts were deducted from his trust 2 account, leaving him with a balance of $22.08. Id. at ¶ 18. 3 15. On January 12, Patterson made inmate store purchases totaling $2.05,

4 which were deducted from his trust account, leaving him with a $20.03 balance. Id. at 5 ¶ 19. 6 16. On January 13, at Patterson's request, ADC issued a check on his account

7 for $11.00 to the order of Hillsdale College; this left him with a balance in his trust 8 account of $9.03. Id. at ¶ 20. 9 17. Next, on January 15, Patterson incurred legal postage costs of $0.83 and

10 $2.40, and non-legal postage costs of $2.60 and $1.87, which were deducted from his 11 trust account, leaving him with a balance of $1.33. Id. That same day, Patterson also 12 incurred non-legal postage charges of $2.36, $1.87, and $7.76. Id. Although ADC 13 provided Patterson with the non-legal postage he had requested, since he had insufficient 14 funds, a hold was placed on his trust account in the amount of his overdraft. Id. at ¶ 21. 15 18. Through the rest of January 2004, although Patterson's trust account

16 continued to show a negative balance, he nonetheless requested and was provided with 17 the following: January 16, $19.80 in legal copies; January 22, $2.05 in store purchases; 18 January 22, $5.12 in legal postage; January 30, $2.81 in legal postage; and, January 30, 19 $0.74 in non-legal postage. Id. A hold in these amounts was placed on Patterson's trust 20 account, pending his receipt of additional funds to cover his financial obligations. Id. at 21 ¶ 22. 22 19. For the period December 11, 2003, through the end of and January 2004,

23 the balance on inmate Patterson's trust account never fell below $0.37, and he was 24 allowed to make purchases and incur financial obligations even though he had insufficient 25 funds in his trust account. Id. at ¶ 23. 26 20. According to his inmate trust account statement, Patterson was able to send 4
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1 non-legal mail twice on December 19, 2003, three times on January 15, 2004, and once 2 more on January 30--even though on each occasion he had insufficient funds in his trust 3 account to pay for the postage he had requested. Id. at ¶ 24. 4 21. Patterson's trust account for the period December 11, 2003, through the end

5 of and January 2004, contained no evidence of miscalculations, excessive deductions, or 6 any other problems in its administration. Id. at ¶ 25. 7 22. All the deductions from Patterson's trust account for the period December

8 11, 2003, through the end of and January 2004, were all either automatic deductions to 9 collect partial court filing fees in cases he had filed, or were deductions Patterson initiated 10 for the purchase of goods and services, including postage for non-legal mail that he 11 incurred when he had insufficient funds to cover the cost thereof. Id. at ¶ 26. 12 23. Patterson's trust account does not indicate that Patterson was ever denied

13 non-legal postage due to his having insufficient funds. Id. at ¶ 27. 14 24. As Defendant Martinez understood ADC policy, when an inmate received

15 funds in the manner Patterson has alleged, the money order would be received by the 16 prison mailroom, the Arizona State Prison Complex-Eyman ("ASPC­Eyman") in inmate 17 Patterson's case, which would then send it to the local prison business office for 18 processing. Affidavit of Amanda Martinez, annexed hereto as Exhibit B, at ¶ 5. 19 25. The prison business office would then post Patterson's funds to his inmate

20 trust account, and then, if the inmate owed deductions such as filing fees, child support, 21 restitution etc., the system itself was programmed to collect the appropriate percentages 22 of the funds posted automatically. Id. at ¶ 6. 23 26. For example, if an inmate like Patterson had outstanding financial

24 obligations when he received funds from outside the prison, ADC policy and its banking 25 program only required a partial deduction from the account, so as to avoid any hardship 26 that might be caused by deducting most or all of a deposit immediately. Id. at ¶ 7. 5
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1

27.

According to ADC policy, indigent inmates could be allocated a limited

2 amount of stamps to enable them to correspond with friends and relatives outside prison. 3 Id. at ¶ 8. 4 28. Since Martinez was assigned to the Inmate Banking Department at ADC's

5 Central Office, rather than a prison complex like ASPC-Eyman, she would have had 6 nothing to do with this purely automated deduction process, which was carried out at 7 local prison business offices using an automated program. Id. at ¶ 9. 8 29. Martinez denies that she had anything to do with making any deductions

9 from Patterson's inmate trust account and therefore also denies that she could have 10 violated his constitutional rights. Id. at ¶ 10. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Copy of the foregoing mailed this 13th day 18 of February, 2008, to: 19 Barry N. Patterson, # 117045 ASPC-Florence-South Unit 20 P.O. Box 8400 Florence, AZ 85232-8400 21 s/mm 22 IDS04-0498/G2004-21306/142249 23 24 25 26 6
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RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED this 13th day of February, 2008. TERRY GODDARD ATTORNEY GENERAL s/Paul E. Carter PAUL E. CARTER Assistant Attorney General Attorneys for State Defendants