Brown v Phillips
Eugene Brown is civilly committed to the Rushville Treatment and Detention Center under Illinois's Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act. The Act authorizes detention of persons who are determined through a civil proceeding to be a "sexually violent person." See 725 ILCS 207/40. Brown and 17 others confined at Rushville sued the facility's officials and clinical staff under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. They allege that policies restricting their access to movies, video games, and video game consoles violate the First Amendment. The district court entered summary judgment for the defendants, and only Brown appealed. Because the record does not contain a sufficient basis to conclude that the ban on movies and video games is reasonably related to the state's interests in security and rehabilitation, we vacate the judgment in part.
A "sexually violent person" includes someone who has been convicted of a sexually violent offense and "suffers from a mental disorder that makes it substantially probable that the person will engage in acts of sexual violence." 725 ILCS 207/5(f). Brown was convicted of five counts of aggravated sexual assault for raping adult women. See In re Commitment of Brown, No. 1-11-0732, 2012 WL 6962055, *1, *3-4 (Ill. App. Ct. Oct. 30, 2012). He was diagnosed with paraphilia (specifically, sexual attraction to non-consenting women) and personality disorder with antisocial and narcissistic traits. Id. at *4-5. If, as in Brown's case, a court or jury finds beyond a reasonable doubt that the person is sexually violent, he is committed to the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services "for control, care and treatment until such time as the person is no longer a sexually violent person." 725 ILCS 207/5(a), 207/35(f), 207/40(a).
Before this lawsuit began, Rushville prohibited its residents from watching all R-rated movies and playing any M-rated video game. (The rating "M" for "mature" is defined by the Entertainment Software Rating Board as denoting material that is "generally suitable for ages 17 and up" and may "contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language." See ESRB Ratings Guide, ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE RATING BOARD, http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp (last visited Sept. 3, 2015).)
After Brown sued to contend that these prohibitions violated the First Amendment, Rushville replaced its complete ban on all R and M-rated media with a list of banned movies and video games. In addition, after this suit began, Rushville discovered that two residents were using a video game console to access the internet to view forbidden material. So Rushville also banned residents from possessing video game consoles capable of accessing the internet. These new restrictions led Brown to contend that Rushville had retaliated against him for suing.
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Accordingly, we VACATE the judgment with respect to Brown's challenge to the policy restricting his access to movies and video games, and REMAND for further proceedings.
Brown has abandoned his request for monetary damages, so the only defendant remaining on remand is Gregg Scott, the current program director responsible for implementing policies at Rushville.
In all other respects we AFFIRM the district court's judgment.
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