Madison v. Parker, 96-40240

Decision Date31 January 1997
Docket NumberNo. 96-40240,96-40240
Citation104 F.3d 765
PartiesNesbitt Edwin MADISON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Lt. R. PARKER, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Nesbitt Edwin Madison, Tennessee Colony, TX, pro se.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Before REYNALDO G. GARZA, JONES and DeMOSS, Circuit Judges.

REYNALDO G. GARZA, Circuit Judge:

Nesbitt Edwin Madison, an inmate currently confined in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, filed a civil rights suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging violations of his constitutional rights during his confinement in the state penitentiary. A hearing was held by Magistrate Judge Judith K. Guthrie of the Eastern District of Texas after which she held, inter alia, that a prisoner has no liberty interest in his good conduct credit time and dismissed Madison's claim. Upon reviewing the facts in the record along with the laws of Texas we vacate the lower court's decision and remand for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.

BACKGROUND

Madison is incarcerated at the Beto I Unit in Tennessee Colony, Texas. On May 18, 1995, Madison was in his prison cell when his cellmate, Garcia, was severely injured. A security officer on duty that evening, Officer Goodwin, was conducting a security check when he saw Garcia standing by the bars with blood on his face and clothes. Goodwin called for Lieutenant R. Parker, a correctional officer at the Beto I Unit. When Parker arrived at the scene he was told by both inmates that Garcia had fallen out of his bunk. Despite Garcia's and Madison's statements, Lt. Parker concluded that the numerous facial injuries sustained by Garcia indicated that he had been assaulted. Madison was removed from the cell and placed in prehearing detention.

A disciplinary hearing was held on May 23, 1995. Parker testified that, although he did not witness the alleged fight, Madison continually tried to assault Garcia after he arrived. Madison tried to rebut Parker's testimony by attempting to introduce his medical records of that evening to show that he had not been injured. He also tried to introduce a witness statement from Officer Goodwin stating that Garcia had told him that he had injured himself by falling from his bunkbed. However, Captain Emerson, the officer presiding over the hearings, denied both of these requests. Madison was ultimately found guilty and punished to 30 days of commissary restriction, 30 days of cell restriction, and 30 days loss of good time already accumulated.

Madison filed suit contending his civil rights were violated under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and requested, as relief, that the disciplinary case be expunged from his record and that he be awarded $8,000 from Lt. Parker and $3,000 from Capt. Emerson. Madison and the defendants consented to have this case heard by a magistrate judge. A hearing in accordance with Spears v. McCotter, 766 F.2d 179 (5th Cir.1985), was held on February 20, 1996. Upon reviewing the case, the lower court dismissed Madison's complaint as frivolous on the grounds that the punishment Madison received was not sufficient to trigger due process.

DISCUSSION
I. Standard of Review

We review a judgment rendered by a magistrate judge just as we do a judgment rendered by a district judge. 28 U.S.C. § 636(c)(3). The identification of the liberty interests that are protected by the Due Process Clause is a question of federal constitutional law that we review de novo. See Memphis Light, Gas & Water Div. v. Craft, 436 U.S. 1, 9, 98 S.Ct. 1554, 1560, 56 L.Ed.2d 30 (1978).

II. Due Process

Madison complains that he was denied due process at his disciplinary hearing in that he was refused the opportunity to present witnesses and offer documentary evidence. In evaluating Madison's claim, we must first address the issue of whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to this situation.

Although lawful incarceration brings about the necessary withdrawal of many privileges and rights, prisoners do not shed all their rights at the prison gate. In fact, the Supreme Court has recently reiterated and clarified which rights receive constitutional protection in Sandin v. Conner, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995). The Court continued to follow its prior decision in Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974), in holding that states may, under certain circumstances, create liberty interests which are protected by the Due Process Clause. However, it held that these interests are generally limited to state created regulations or statutes which affect the quantity of time rather than the quality of time served by a prisoner. In coming to this conclusion, the Court first laid down the principle that the Due Process Clause does not protect every change in the conditions of confinement which has a substantial adverse effect upon a prisoner. Id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2297 (citing Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 224, 96 S.Ct. 2532, 2538, 49 L.Ed.2d 451 (1976)).

We agree that Madison's 30 day commissary and cell restrictions as punishment are in fact merely changes in the conditions of his confinement and do not implicate due process concerns. They are penalties which do not represent the type of atypical, significant deprivation in which a state might create a liberty interest. However, his loss of 30 days good time credit calls for a more careful analysis.

The Constitution does not guarantee good time credit for satisfactory behavior while in prison. Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 557, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2975, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974). However, some states create such a right. When a state creates a right to good time credit and recognizes that its revocation is an authorized sanction for misconduct, a prisoner's interest therein is embraced within the Fourteenth Amendment "liberty" concerns so as to entitle him to those minimum procedures appropriate under the circumstances and required by the due process clause to insure that this state-created right is not arbitrarily abrogated. Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 557, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2975, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974). In Texas, a prisoner may be awarded good conduct time based on his or her specific behavior in various vocations. TEX.GOV.CODE ANN. § 498.003(a) (Vernon 1996). If an inmate commits an offense or violates an institutional rule during the course of his confinement, the Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice--Institutional Division ("TDCJ-ID") is empowered to forfeit all or any part of the inmate's accrued good time. TEX.GOV.CODE ANN. § 498.004(a) (Vernon 1996). Once an inmate acquires good time, the only way it can be revoked is if he or she commits an offense or violates an institutional rule. The question here is whether Texas has created a liberty interest in disseminating good conduct credit, thereby invoking the due process requirements under the Fourteenth Amendment.

There are two ways in which a prisoner becomes eligible for release under Texas law. The first is by parole and the second is under a mandatory supervised release program. "Parole" means the discretionary and conditional release of an eligible prisoner sentenced to the institutional division so that the prisoner may serve the remainder of his sentence...

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