Danny Dangerous is an inmate

Danny Dangerous is an inmate in the Huntsville Unit in the Texas Department of Corrections.  Danny’s reading level was tested when he was first admitted into TDC.  He was assessed with a 6^th grade reading level.  His IQ was assessed as average.

Danny appealed his conviction to the Texas Court of Appeals and lost.  He now wants to appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (Texas CCA – the highest court in Texas for criminal cases).  Danny is indigent and was assigned counsel for his first appeal, but he has no right to assigned counsel for his appeal to the Texas CCA.  He is representing himself and must use the prison’s law library to do legal research.  Because his reading level is only at the 6^th grade, it take him a long time to read court opinions.  He must re-read them several times.   It is taking him a long time to prepare his legal papers.  He is concerned about meeting court deadlines for filing his pleadings.

Officials of the Huntsville unit decide that they must begin limiting the time each inmate can go to the law library.  Many inmates want to go to the library and it has been getting especially crowded in recent months.  Inmates can only go to the law library for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week.  This is a significant change from allowing inmates to use the law library 6 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Danny realizes that he may not be able to meet court deadlines for his appeal with the new limits on law library usage.  He asks permission to use the library more than 3 hours a day.  His request is denied.  Officials are worried about allowing for exceptions.

Danny must also rely on the library to provide him with paper, pens, and stamps to prepare and mail his legal paperwork.  He has no funds in his commissary account to purchase those items.  Because Danny struggles with reading and writing, he makes many errors in his legal pleadings (which are handwritten).  He often ends up scrapping papers because of those errors and restarts his work on a new, blank page.  He uses a lot of paper!  The unit provides paper, pens, and stamps to indigent inmates but limits them to only 25 blank pages per month.  Danny asks permission to receive additional pieces of paper and is denied.

Danny’s situation gets more complicated!  He’s so upset about his appeal and worried about submitting well-prepared court paperwork on time, that he assaults a correctional officer.  As a result he is sent to solitary confinement for 15 days.  During that time, he cannot go to the law library.  Instead, he must “order” the law books he needs to prepare his appeal, and officers bring those specific books to his cell in solitary confinement.  He can order 5 books at a time and keep them for 24 hours.

Does Danny have grounds to sue prison officials?  In a minimum 1 page and ½, 12 font, double-spaced, discuss BOTH the strengths and weaknesses of his case.  Be sure to argue both for and against Danny’s case. Format your answer into 2 parts: for and against. There are several legal issues in this case which means there are several Supreme Court cases that you have studied that you need to apply to the facts of Danny’s case. Make certain you understand ALL of the legal issues and argue ALL of them.  Do not focus on only 1 issue or 1 Supreme Court case.