Beckhorn v. N.Y. State Dep't of Corr.
| Decision Date | 16 January 2019 |
| Docket Number | 18-CV-1452 |
| Parties | DANA BECKHORN, Plaintiff, v. NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND COMMUNITY SUPERVISION, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of New York |
On December 12, 2018, the plaintiff, Dana Beckhorn, an inmate at Wyoming Correctional Facility, filed this action against the defendants under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") and the Rehabilitation Act ("RA"). Docket Item 1. On the same day, Beckhorn moved for a preliminary injunction and to expedite hearing and briefing on his motion for a preliminary injunction. Docket Item 2. On December 13, 2018, the Court ordered an expedited briefing schedule and hearing. Docket Item 3. On December 24, 2018, the defendants answered and responded to Beckhorn's motion for a preliminary injunction. Docket Items 7 and 8. On December 28, 2018, Beckhorn replied, Docket Item 9, and on January 2, 2018, this Court held a hearing at which Beckhorn testified and heard oral argument on the motion.1 Docket Item 11. For the reasons that follow, Beckhorn's motion for a preliminary injunction is GRANTED.
The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision ("DOCCS") runs a three-phase program for inmates with histories of substance abuse, called the Comprehensive Alcohol and Substance Abuse Treatment ("CASAT") program, to prepare them to return to the community. 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 1950.1. The first phase is six months of residential substance abuse treatment in a DOCCS facility. 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 1950.02(a). The second phase is a "transitional period [with] a community reintegration component, which would include transfer to a work release facility for employment and placement in appropriate community-based programs." 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 1950.02(b). The community reintegration component could involve community service leave, furlough, industrial training leave, educational leave, or work release. 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 1900.3(b)-(f). The third phase involves parole supervision and aftercare once participants are granted release by the parole board. 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 1950.02(c).
The Merit Time Program—another DOCCS program—allows inmates serving sentences for certain nonviolent crimes to receive time off their sentences if they achieve "certain significant programmatic objectives, have not committed any serious disciplinary infractions and have not filed any frivolous lawsuits." 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 280.1. But even if an inmate meets the criteria to earn merit time, the inmate nevertheless will be ineligible for a merit time allowance if the inmate "was a participant in the temporary release program but was removed for any reason other than an intervening circumstance beyond the control of the inmate." 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 280.2(d)(2)(ii). This provision was intended to encourage inmates' sincere participation in DOCCS programs. N.Y. Reg. 7 (Mar. 22, 2006).
Beckhorn is currently serving a four-year sentence for a non-violent offense, having entered DOCCS custody on April 29, 2016. Docket Item 1 at 6. In 2014, before he was incarcerated, Beckhorn suffered an injury to his left shoulder while working as a crane operator. Docket Item 2-6 at 1. That injury has limited his ability to work; as a result, he applied for worker's compensation benefits. Id. at 2.
According to the complaint, Beckhorn completed Phase I of the CASAT program at Hale Creek Correctional Facility. Docket Item 1. In March 2018, Beckhorn received a merit time allowance for hours of outside work and completion of a substance abuse certification. Docket Item 2-9. That merit time allowance made Beckhorn eligible to appear before the parole board in May 2018, id., and eligible for parole release on July 6, 2018, Docket Item 2-6 at 5.
On March 6, 2018, Beckhorn was transferred to the Rochester Correctional Facility to complete Phase II of CASAT. Id. at 7. There, Beckhorn met with Offender Rehabilitation Counselor ("ORC") Beverly Penzo. Docket Item 2-6 at 2. Beckhorn told Penzo that he could no longer work as a crane operator and "about the occupational injury to [his] left shoulder and [his] application for worker's compensation benefits." Id. at 3. According to Beckhorn, Penzo responded that Beckhorn might not be able to perform work release, that he should therefore voluntarily sign out of the work release program, and that he instead should apply for the community service leave program. Id. Beckhorn also says that Penzo assured him that doing this would not jeopardize his eligibility for merit release from incarceration on July 6, 2018. Id. at 3.
Penzo recalls things differently. She denies preventing Beckhorn from pursuing outside employment due to his disability or suggesting that he pursue communityservice instead. Docket Item 7-2. In fact, Penzo's notes indicate that it was Beckhorn who "reported he cannot work due to his Workmen's Compensation." Id., Exhibit A.
Beckhorn says that he then "went out on a community service trip" to "rak[e] leaves and pick[] up trash at a park in Rochester" and "left the facility several other times for various furloughs." Docket Item 2-6 at 3. Around that time, Beckhorn appeared before the Temporary Release Committee ("TRC")2 for the first time. Beckhorn says that at that meeting, "the TRC members told [him] that, because of [his] disability, they thought it would be best if [he] remained at the facility and worked in the kitchen until [his] merit release date." Id.
According to Rochester Correctional Facility Superintendent Akinyemi Awopetu, by March 16, 2018, Beckhorn had not sought work as required by the Temporary Release Program. Docket Item 7-3 at 2. After more than a month of Beckhorn's refusing to seek taxable employment, Awopetu removed Beckhorn from the Temporary Release Program. Id.
About a month after arriving at the Rochester Correction Facility, on April 9, 2018, Beckhorn appeared before the TRC for a second time. Docket Item 2-10. The TRC Review Form states that Beckhorn was referred by Penzo after he "was denied community service leave by supt. due to inmate's request to remain unemployed and statement of not being able to work, because he's involved in a worker's compensationcase." Id. At the TRC hearing, the Chairperson, Joanne Marion, read that reason for referral into the record, and Beckhorn agreed to its accuracy. Docket Item 2-11 at 2. During the course of the hearing, however, Beckhorn insisted that he indeed was capable of working with limitations and that he wanted to work; in fact, he pointed to physical work he had been doing at the facility to demonstrate that. Id. at 3. Chairperson Marion replied that Beckhorn had Id. Beckhorn suggested that he could do secretarial work, to which Chairperson Marion responded:
I want you to understand this, okay? I need you to listen closely and understand this when I say this, alright? Okay, you go get a job as a secretary at Xerox, okay? All of a sudden, you're sitting at your chair. You fall. Hypothetical case. Just, like, by chance something happens. Guess what happens? I guess you know what happens next, right? So, what New York State is saying is that we can't take that risk with you. We can't. You know? You're saying you're already [inaudible].
Id. at 5. Beckhorn then asked why he could not do community service, and ORC Lipinski, another member of the TRC, explained that the superintendent had denied Beckhorn's application for community service. Id. at 7. Lipinski insisted that the TRC was "trying to be protective of you and your [worker's compensation] case on the outside." Id. Following the hearing, the TRC recommended that Beckhorn be removed Docket Item 2-14.
Days later, DOCCS transferred Beckhorn to the Wyoming Correctional Facility, which does not offer temporary release programming. Docket Item 2-6 at 5. On April24, 2018, Beckhorn was told that his merit time allowance had been revoked "due to refusing work." Docket Item 2-13. A letter from Jeff McKoy, Deputy Commissioner for Program Services, confirmed on August 27, 2018, that Beckhorn became "ineligible for Merit Time based upon [his] removal from Temporary Release, which was due to [his] refusal to seek employment." Docket Item 2-15. For that reason, he did not appear before the parole board in May 2018 as had been previously scheduled. Docket Item 2-6 at 5.
Beckhorn appealed, but his appeal was denied, Docket Item 9-2, and he remains incarcerated at Wyoming Correctional Facility, Docket Item 1 at 2. His earliest possible eligibility for release is now February 4, 2019. Docket Item 2-6 at 6. Beckhorn argues in this action that the defendants violated the ADA and RA by denying him access to the temporary release program because of his disability, which ultimately resulted in the revocation of his merit time allowance and his continued incarceration. He asks the court for a preliminary injunction reinstating his merit time allowance and ordering the defendants to hold a parole hearing. Docket Item 2-2.
"A preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy never awarded as of right." Winter v. Natural Res. Def. Council, 555 U.S. 7, 24 (2008). A party seeking a preliminary injunction must show: (1) a likelihood of success on the merits; (2) a likelihood of irreparable harm in the absence of the injunction; (3) that the balance of hardships tips in the movant's favor; and (4) that the public interest is not disserved by the issuance of the injunction. Salinger v. Colting, 607 F.3d 68, 79-80 (2d Cir. 2010). The movant ordinarily must establish these elements "by a clear showing." Mazurek v.Armstrong, 520 U.S. 968, 972 (1997) ...
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