A nonsmoking prisoner filed a pro se lawsuit, alleging that his constitutional rights were violated because he was exposed to secondhand smoke while incarcerated at the Kettle Moraine Correctional Institute (KMCI) in Wisconsin. Wilke did not allege that he suffers from current physical harm from the exposure but, rather, that he would be at increased risk of future harm to his health. The U.S. District Court granted the defendant prison officials’ motion for summary judgment, ruling that Wilke “has not shown that he faces any increased risk of developing a serious medical condition and that such risk was proximately caused by his ETS [environmental tobacco smoke] exposure at KMCI.” The Court also ruled that if Wilke “had concerns about being exposed to second-hand smoke while in his cell by staff smoking in designated smoking areas [located outside the window of his cell], he could have closed his window.”
2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32188 (U.S.D.C. E.D. Wis. 2013).