Bills v. Henderson

Decision Date13 November 1980
Docket NumberNo. 78-1172,78-1172
Citation631 F.2d 1287
PartiesWendell BILLS et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Murray HENDERSON et al., Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Robert A. O'Connell, Knoxville, Tenn., Carol S. Nickle, Dept. of Interior, Knoxville, Tenn., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Brooks McLemore, Atty. Gen., Henry E. Hildebrand III, Patricia J. Cottrell, Asst. Attys. Gen., Nashville, Tenn., for defendants-appellees.

Before EDWARDS, Chief Judge, and WEICK and KENNEDY, Circuit Judges.

CORNELIA G. KENNEDY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs, inmates at Brushy Mountain State Prison in Tennessee, filed this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging that procedures used in disciplinary proceedings at Brushy Mountain violated their right to due process under the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution. They appeal the District Court's judgment which granted only partial relief. Plaintiffs claim that the procedures followed when placing them in administrative segregation, punitive segregation, and in revoking their accrued good and honor time abridge their due process rights both by failing to comply with the minimal due process requirements set forth in Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974), and by failing to comply with the procedural requirements of the rules and regulations of the Tennessee Department of Correction.

The District Judge held that the plaintiffs had protected liberty interests in good and honor time and in not being placed in punitive segregation and the plaintiffs were denied their due process rights to the extent that they were deprived of those liberty interests without the due process requirements set forth in Wolff v. McDonnell, supra. He ruled that plaintiffs had no protected liberty interest requiring a hearing on transfer to administrative segregation. The judge further held that procedural regulations issued by the Tennessee Department of Correction created no protected liberty interests and that the due process clause did not therefore require that Tennessee adhere to its own procedural regulations in connection with the transfer of prisoners to punitive or administrative segregation. Bills v. Henderson, 446 F.Supp. 967 (E.D.Tenn.1978).

I.

We first address the question of whether plaintiffs have a protected liberty interest that requires certain due process standards be met prior to a transfer to administrative segregation. 1 The first question that must be answered in an analysis of this type is whether the interest claimed by plaintiffs is a life, liberty or property interest within the meaning of the due process clause. Walker v. Hughes, 558 F.2d 1247, 1250 (6th Cir. 1977); Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 223-24, 96 S.Ct. 2532, 2537-38, 49 L.Ed.2d 451 (1976). Plaintiffs claim a liberty interest in freedom from transfer to administrative segregation. It is clear that the due process clause of the Constitution does not, of itself, make a state prisoner's freedom from transfer to administrative segregation a protected liberty interest.

As long as the conditions or degree of confinement to which the prisoner is subjected is within the sentence imposed upon him and is not otherwise violative of the Constitution, the Due Process Clause does not in itself subject an inmate's treatment by prison authorities to judicial oversight.

Montanye v. Haymes, 427 U.S. 236, 242, 96 S.Ct. 2543, 2547, 49 L.Ed.2d 466 (1976). See also Walker v. Hughes, supra, 558 F.2d at 1252.

A protected liberty entitlement can also be created by state law, however. When a liberty interest has been created, the due process clause acts to insure that the state-created right is not arbitrarily abrogated. Meachum v. Fano, supra, 427 U.S. at 226, 96 S.Ct. at 2539. Wolff v. McDonnell, supra, 418 U.S. at 557, 94 S.Ct. at 2975. See Vitek v. Jones, 445 U.S. 480, 488, 100 S.Ct. 1254, 1261, 63 L.Ed.2d 552 (1980). Liberty interests can be created by state rules or mutually explicit understandings as well as by statute. In the area of liberty entitlements claimed by prison inmates, this Court has explicitly ruled that liberty interests can be created by policy statements and other promulgations by prison officials. Walker v. Hughes, supra, 558 F.2d at 1255.

Consequently, this Court must determine whether state statutes, mutually explicit understandings, or rules, including prison policy statements or other promulgations, created for plaintiffs a liberty entitlement or expectation that they would not be transferred to administrative segregation except upon the occurrence of specific events. E. g., Wolff v. McDonnell, supra, 418 U.S. at 557, 94 S.Ct. at 2975 (state-created right to "good time" credit by statute which specified that it would only be forfeited based on serious misbehavior); Montanye v. Haymes, supra, and Meachum v. Fano, supra (inmates had no due process rights to a hearing prior to transfer to another state prison where living conditions were substantially less favorable in the absence of a state law or practice conditioning such transfers on proof of serious misconduct or the occurrence of other specific events); Walker v. Hughes, supra, 538 F.2d at 1256 (federal inmates had due process rights not to have segregation, transfer to other prisons, forfeiture of good time credits, or loss of privileges imposed on them absent a finding of major misconduct, based on prison policy statement indicating that these sanctions would not be imposed absent such a finding by an adjustment committee). In determining whether such an expectation exists, the Court must focus on the nature of the interest rather than on its weight. Greenholtz v. Nebraska Penal Inmates, 442 U.S. 1, 7, 99 S.Ct. 2100, 2104, 60 L.Ed.2d 668 (1979); Meachum v. Fano, supra, 427 U.S. at 223-24, 96 S.Ct. at 2537-38; Walker v. Hughes, supra, 558 F.2d at 1251-52. The plaintiffs must have a legitimate claim of entitlement to the interest, not simply a unilateral expectation of it. Greenholtz v. Nebraska Penal Inmates, supra, 442 U.S. at 7, 99 S.Ct. at 2104; Walker v. Hughes, supra, 598 F.2d at 1251.

Rule 4.602 of the Adult Service Policies and Procedures Manual of the Department of Correction (Guidelines) sets forth the purposes of administrative segregation and some of the guidelines to be used in imposing it.

Administrative Segregation. Administrative Segregation will be implemented by transferral of the inmate to the adjustment center for an indeterminate period of time. The purpose of administrative segregation is to provide a place of maximum custody to protect an individual, others, and to promote and maintain order. Administrative segregation is recommended for those men with serious problems of maladjustment, mental illness or sexual abnormality to the degree that their safety or the safety of others is threatened in their normal day to day station.

Rule 4.602 (emphasis supplied).

The question here is whether this section of the rule created a protected expectation that plaintiffs would not be transferred to administrative segregation absent a finding that such transfer was necessary to protect that individual or others or to maintain order or that the transfer was based on problems such as serious maladjustment, mental illness, or sexual abnormality.

There are two lines of cases dealing with similar problems which assist in determining the answer to this question. First, there are cases dealing with the analogous condition of punitive segregation. In Walker v. Hughes, supra, 538 F.2d at 1256, this Circuit ruled that a prison policy statement indicating that sanctions such as segregation, transfers to other prisons, forfeiture of good time credits, and loss of privileges could not be imposed absent a finding by an adjustment committee of major misconduct, created an expectation interest in the prisoners that those sanctions would not be imposed in the absence of such a finding. This Court ruled that the fact that these policy statements were created and could therefore be changed by the Bureau of Prisons did not preclude the existence of a protected interest because executive officials cannot create a liberty interest and then provide procedural protections beyond the review of the courts. Walker v. Hughes, supra, 558 F.2d at 1254. The District Court made a similar ruling in the instant case with regard to punitive segregation. Bills v. Henderson, supra, 446 F.Supp. at 973. See also Wolff v. McDonnell, supra, 418 U.S. 544-58, 94 S.Ct. 2969-76; Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308, 96 S.Ct. 1551, 47 L.Ed.2d 810 (1976).

The other line of cases deals with regulations regarding transfer of inmates to other prisons which leave the matter entirely within the discretion of prison officials and which provide no guidelines regarding transfer. In Meachum v. Fano, supra, and Montanye v. Haymes, supra, the Supreme Court ruled that no expectation or protected liberty interest was created by a statute which allowed prison officials the discretion to transfer prisoners for any reason, not limited to instances of serious misconduct. This was held to be true even though decisions to transfer might often be based on instances of misconduct and even though misconduct might have prompted the decision to transfer in an individual case. Meachum v. Fano, supra, 427 U.S. at 228, 96 S.Ct. at 2540. Montanye v. Haymes, supra, 427 U.S. at 243, 96 S.Ct. at 2547. The Court noted that decisions by prison officials under the statute would often involve no more than "informed predictions as to what would best serve institutional security or the safety and welfare of the inmate". Meachum v. Fano, supra, 427 U.S. at 225, 96 S.Ct. at 2538.

The demarcation between these two lines of cases is fairly clear. Where statutes or prison policy statements have limited prison officials' discretion by imposing a specific...

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