Catching up with the Texas prisoner suing for a right for more sleep

In this round-up post a few months ago, I noted a story about a Fifth Circuit ruling enabling a a Texas prisonser to continue with his Eighth Amendment lawsuit that his prison’s schedule and conditions leaves too little time for sleep.  I just now saw that the Texas Observer has a couple of recent pieces about the suit and the prisoner litigating it:

“Some Texas Prisoners Allowed Only Four Hours Of Sleep A Night, Lawsuit Says: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a man incarcerated at the Estelle Unit who has been suing over his sleep schedule for a decade.”

“Taking Prison To Court: Fighting For The Right To Sleep: Michael Garrett sued the Texas Department of Criminal Justice more than a decade ago, and he’s working from inside to keep the case alive.”

These pieces are interesting reads, and here is a snippet from the second one:

In March 2013, Garrett filed a federal lawsuit against TDCJ while he was housed at the McConnell Unit in South Texas.  The suit said the prison’s 24-hour schedule was so packed and security checks so frequent that people inside were only being allowed about four hours of sleep per night, and even those were interrupted.  The result is prolonged sleep deprivation that he says is damaging his health and violates his Eighth Amendment rights, which protect against cruel and unusual punishment.

Each night, Garrett struggles to fall and stay asleep. He lies in his bed and tries to block out the light and ignore the sounds — chatter among other prisoners, guards coming and going.  But he can’t ignore the head count that happens just a couple of hours after he closes his eyes.  His case describes his migraine headaches, high blood pressure, and seizures, though in an interview Garrett seems far from frail.  He’s tall and strongly built. His hair is shorn close to his scalp, and he sports a mustache and a mid-length beard that’s streaked with white on one side. He speaks softly but confidently about his case.

Now 54 years old, Garrett has been fighting the behemoth prison system in court for more than a decade.  Initially, he represented himself, later winning the support of a civil attorney, and he recently managed to get the conservative Fifth Circuit to side with him for a third time, something one of his lawyers said must be “some sort of record.” Three times, federal district court judges ruled against Garrett, saying there was no constitutional right to sleep in prison and that he couldn’t prove his medical conditions were caused by sleep deprivation or that TDCJ was “intentionally” or “wantonly” withholding sleep from people inside.  And three times, the Fifth Circuit reversed these decisions. The courts, circuit judges repeatedly declared, couldn’t unfairly dismiss Garrett’s concerns.