A federal court has dismissed the lawsuit of a Black man incarcerated at the Bureau of Prisons’ Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, finding insufficient evidence that prison officials were deliberately indifferent to his safety and facilitated an attempted white supremacist attack.

U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson concluded that a prison investigation did not support the narrative of Randy Tracy Shaw, nor does his continued incarceration pose a substantial risk of harm.

“In sum, it is clear to this Court that Mr. Shaw believes that there is racism at [Florence], and that as an African American man, he has been the victim of racial slurs and discriminatory conduct. He considers inmates who are members of white supremacy gangs to be a threat to his safety,” Jackson wrote in a Sept. 13 order. But, Jackson continued, Shaw was unable to plausibly show that any of the employees he named were responsible for putting him in danger.

According to Shaw, he was using the law library on Jan. 22, 2019 — meaning no other inmates were supposed to be out at the super maximum security prison — when an unidentified correctional officer opened three secured doors electronically. The law library door opened, as did the cell, to an alleged high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood gang.

Shaw was able to physically subdue the inmate before the man could retrieve a weapon from another inmate’s cell, with a mop bucket reportedly in the way to obstruct the view of cameras. Shaw allegedly heard the N-word over the law library’s intercom, which, to him, indicated that one or more prison employees orchestrated the attempted attack.

After Shaw contacted the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, the warden of the Florence facility, Andre Matevousian, reportedly wrote back to him with the government’s narrative of the law library incident. Matevousian wrote that on Jan. 22, “staff responded to a report of an activation of a body alarm in Echo Unit. Specifically, an inmate orderly was mopping on Echo 2 range. The secure door to the law library was inadvertently opened while you were inside.

“You then exited the law library and ran up behind the inmate orderly and began striking him in the head and upper torso, knocking him to the floor,” Matevousian continued. “All video footage and supporting documentation was reviewed. Appropriate action was taken upon conclusion of the investigation. Furthermore, it was determined there was no evidence to suggest that the law library door was opened for any reason other than inadvertent error.”

Shaw said that after the incident, he and the alleged Aryan Brotherhood inmate were moved to a special housing unit, where he heard he had been targeted for death.

In February 2020, Shaw filed a lawsuit against the correctional officer who opened the door, named only as “John/Jane Doe,” as well as “C. Roberts,” who wrote a disciplinary report on the incident, and “Captain Humphrey,” who was reportedly the chief of security. Shaw, representing himself, alleged violations of his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment. He asked for $500,000, a review of racial bias incidents at Florence and his removal from federal Bureau of Prisons facilities.

Shaw presented statements from two inmates who were living in Echo Unit while Shaw was in the library that day. One inmate corroborated that the doors opened, the Aryan Brotherhood member was let out, and the inmate subsequently “heard staff laughing an [sic] saying this should get the federal government funded.” The attack happened during a shutdown of the federal government due to a spending impasse.

The second inmate also described the opening of doors, and said the episode fit within a pattern of prison staff trying to inflame racial tension between the white and Black prisoners.

But Jackson did not mention those inmate statements. Instead, the judge explained that in order for Shaw to succeed on his Eighth Amendment claim, a prison official had to know of an excessive risk to an inmate’s health or safety and disregard it.

“To be sure, if any correctional officer purposefully opened electronically operated doors with the intent to put an inmate in harm’s way, that would be a serious offense,” Jackson noted in his order.  But Shaw had described “one isolated incident. He was not threatened by the white inmate. He was not assaulted or injured by the white inmate. Indeed, by his own account, Mr. Shaw instigated the physical contact with the white inmate and ‘subdued’ him. The incident occurred more than two and a half years ago. There is no allegation that either before or after the incident Mr. Shaw has ever been assaulted by any other inmate.”

Shaw also claimed there was a “systemic racial issue” within the prison system, and that some correctional officers assist white supremacist gangs. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project found that in the 1990s, the Bureau of Prisons moved several Aryan Brotherhood leaders to Florence in hopes of disrupting their communications to each other and the outside world. But in 2008, Aryan Brotherhood members there sparked a riot with Black inmates, resulting in the shooting deaths of two people.

Gang leaders “always find way to communicate with each other and to transmit and receive reports, requests, and orders from prison to prison and down through the ranks,” the SPLC wrote, adding that the transmissions could occur in part by bribing guards.

The case is Shaw v. C. Roberts et al.