Charles N. Watson v. C. Mark Caton

The appellant, Charles N. Watson, was an inmate in the Maine correctional system, incarcerated at the Downeast Correctional Facility, and later at the Charleston Correctional Facility, at all times relevant to this lawsuit. In November 1991 Watson filed a complaint in federal court which alleged that the defendants, all officials of the Maine Department of Correction or the Downeast or Charleston prisons, had violated his federal constitutional rights, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Watson’s complaint contained four counts, only three of which are at issue in this appeal. 1 In his first…