Wright v. Smith, 607

Citation21 F.3d 496
Decision Date06 April 1994
Docket NumberNo. 607,D,607
PartiesHuey B. WRIGHT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Harold SMITH and Thomas A. Coughlin, III, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 93-2415.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)

William G. Bauer, Woods, Oviatt, Gilman, Sturman & Clarke, Rochester, NY, submitted a brief for plaintiff-appellant.

Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen., Peter H. Schiff, Deputy Sol. Gen., Nancy A. Spiegel and Martin A. Hotvet, Asst. Atty. Gens., Albany, NY, submitted a brief for defendants-appellees.

Before: NEWMAN, Chief Judge, OAKES and CARDAMONE, Circuit Judges.

JON O. NEWMAN, Chief Judge:

The primary question on this appeal is whether an inmate's extended confinement without a hearing in a correctional facility's Special Housing Unit (SHU) violates a Fourteenth Amendment liberty interest. Huey B. Wright, formerly an inmate at Attica Correctional Facility, appeals from the June 11, 1993, judgment of the District Court for the Western District of New York (Kenneth R. Fisher, Magistrate Judge) granting defendants' motion for summary judgment and dismissing with prejudice Wright's complaint under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1988) against defendants Harold Smith, the Superintendent of Attica Correctional Facility, and Thomas Coughlin, the Commissioner of the New York Department of Correctional Services. We conclude that Wright's complaint alleging involuntary confinement in an SHU for 67 days without a hearing stated a cause of action under section 1983 for violation of a protected liberty interest. We also conclude that the defendants are not shielded by qualified immunity because both the case law of this Circuit and New York regulations clearly prohibited the extended confinement of the plaintiff in the SHU without a hearing. Finally, while we agree with the District Court that Commissioner Coughlin was not personally involved in confining the plaintiff without a hearing, and thus cannot be held liable for damages, Superintendent Smith was personally responsible since he had received at least constructive notice of the violation. We therefore affirm as to Coughlin and reverse and remand as to Smith.

Background

On July 17, 1983, Wright, while an inmate at Attica Correctional Facility, was assaulted by two other inmates in his own cell. After receiving numerous stitches for facial wounds at the prison hospital, he was moved to the SHU on the same day based on charges that he violated prison rules 100.10 (prohibiting inmates from assaulting other prisoners) and 100.11 (prohibiting inmates from engaging in fighting). See Docket Entry # 21, Exh. E. A disciplinary hearing held on July 20, 1983, resulted in both charges being dismissed because Wright was "allegedly assaulted [and] was defending himself." Id., Exh. D. Wright was nonetheless retained in the SHU. The Magistrate Judge found that "although plaintiff's admission to ... [the] SHU may have been dually motivated, his retention there was solely for protective reasons." Decision at 3.

Under New York regulations, Wright was entitled to a hearing on his protective confinement in the SHU within 14 days of his admission. In 1983, New York's regulations provided, in pertinent part:

Where an inmate does not consent to a protective admission to a special housing unit, or where the inmate requests reassignment and such reassignment is not made within two weeks of the date of request, a proceeding will be held within 14 days of the date of such admission or such request to determine if there is substantial evidence that protective custody is necessary.

7 N.Y.C.R.R. Sec. 304.3(c) (1986) (emphasis added). Although Wright was kept in the SHU for 67 days, he never received the required hearing on his protective confinement. The Magistrate Judge noted some mention in Wright's records of a Superintendent's Proceeding held July 17, 1983, but he concluded that no such proceeding actually occurred. See Decision at 6, 8.

On August 8, 1993, Wright, through Prison Legal Services, petitioned a New York state court for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to Article 70 of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules. After receiving Wright's petition, alleging illegal detention and the deprivation of a myriad of rights connected with a hearing, defendant Smith took no action on his own to investigate the legality of Wright's detention in the SHU or whether Wright had received a hearing. Instead, Smith forwarded the writ to state counsel on August 26, 1983. A hearing on the writ in New York state court on September 14, 1983, was adjourned until October 19. Wright was released from the SHU on September 22, 1983, having spent 67 days there. On October 19 an order of stipulation was entered in New York state court. The stipulation restored Wright's good time credits, and "expunge[d] from [his] institutional files [ ] any reference to the Superintendent's Proceeding of July 17, 1983...." Docket Entry # 21, Exh. L., at 1-2. Thereafter, Wright brought this suit in the District Court, seeking damages for his SHU confinement.

Discussion
A. Liberty Interest in Not Being Placed in an SHU

The initial issue is whether appellant has a liberty interest, protected by the Due Process Clause, in not being placed in an SHU. The Supreme Court has made clear that, with respect to a prisoner serving a sentence, not every aspect of restrictive confinement within a penal institution impairs a constitutionally protected liberty interest. See Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 103 S.Ct. 864, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983). Moreover, as the Court has pointed out, "administrative segregation," imposed for such purposes as protection of the prisoner's own safety, does not impair an interest "independently protected by the Due Process Clause." Id. at 468, 103 S.Ct. at 870; see also Russell v. Scully, 15 F.3d 219, 222 (2d Cir.1994) (suggesting that in absence of state law creating liberty interest, "strictly administrative" confinement in SHU after hearing and pending appeal does not violate due process). Nevertheless, Helms also makes clear that, under certain circumstances, state law can create a constitutionally protected liberty interest. Unfortunately, the Court's choice of words in articulating the relevant circumstances has created some confusion as to the Court's meaning.

What is clear is that a liberty interest is created whenever state law identifies "specified substantive predicates" as prerequisites for the imposition of administrative segregation. Id., 459 U.S. at 472, 103 S.Ct. at 871 (emphasis added). For example, in Helms, Pennsylvania had provided by regulation that administrative segregation could be imposed upon a determination of "a threat of a serious disturbance" or "a serious threat to the individual or others." Id. at 470 n. 6, 103 S.Ct. at 871 n. 6. Cf. Sher v. Coughlin, 739 F.2d 77, 81 (2d Cir.1984) (no liberty interest impaired by placement in restrictive confinement for purposes of reclassification where regulation accorded officials "unfettered discretion"). What is less clear is whether a liberty interest arises from state procedural requirements. Generally, state procedural requirements, without more, do not create federally enforceable liberty interests, see, e.g., Olim v. Wakinekona, 461 U.S. 238, 250-51 & n. 12, 103 S.Ct. 1741, 1748 & n. 12, 75 L.Ed.2d 813 (1983) (state prison regulations requiring a particular kind of hearing did not create a liberty interest, where Administrator was left with unfettered discretion to transfer prisoner); Maust v. Headley, 959 F.2d 644, 648 (7th Cir.1992) ("[S]tate-created procedural rights do not, standing alone, constitute protected liberty interests."); such requirements remain available for enforcement in state court. However, some language in Helms has opened up the possibility that, in the context of restrictive confinement within a prison, procedural requirements may create a liberty interest. In ruling that Pennsylvania had created a liberty interest, the Court said that the State "has used language of an unmistakably mandatory character, requiring that certain procedures 'shall,' 'will,' or 'must' be employed ... and that administrative segregation will not occur absent specified substantive predicates...." Id., 459 U.S. at 471-72, 103 S.Ct. at 871 (emphasis added).

We think the Court did not mean to constitutionalize all aspects of state procedure bearing on placement in restrictive confinement. The quoted sentence follows a discussion of the virtues of "procedural guidelines to channel the decision-making of prison officials." Id. at 471, 103 S.Ct. at 871. Thus, the "procedures" that can trigger a liberty interest in this context are not the full panoply of procedural rights that a state might accord, such as the number of witnesses allowed, or the number of hours or days of preparation time, but instead refer to procedures that "channel decision-making," i.e., that establish the substantive predicates for the decision-makers' action. Cf. Olim, 461 U.S. at 250-51, 103 S.Ct. at 1748 (where procedures did not channel decision-making, no liberty interest created); Sher, 739 F.2d at 81 (same). If procedures of this latter sort are mandatory and not merely a matter of guidance, they trigger a liberty interest. See, e.g., Rogers v. Okin, 738 F.2d 1, 7 (1st Cir.1984) (mandatory language prescribing substantive predicates required before patients in mental hospital could be forcibly medicated created liberty interest); Parks v. Watson, 716 F.2d 646, 657 (9th Cir.1983).

In Matiyn v. Henderson, 841 F.2d 31 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 487 U.S. 1220, 108 S.Ct. 2876, 101 L.Ed.2d 911 (1988), we made two rulings pertinent to our current issue. First, we ruled that New York's regulations specifying the circumstances under which administrative segregation could be imposed sufficiently established mandatory substantive predicates under Helms to create a liberty interest. Id. at 36. But we also ruled that the creation of a...

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