Carillo v. DuBois

• Decision Date: 10 September 1998
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 97-10468-RCL.
• Citation: 23 F.Supp.2d 103
• Parties: John CARILLO, Plaintiff, v. Larry DuBOIS, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

23 F.Supp.2d 103

John CARILLO, Plaintiff, v. Larry DuBOIS, Defendant.

Civil Action No. 97-10468-RCL.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

September 10, 1998.

John Carillo, South Walpole, MA, pro se.

Matthew C. Regan, III, Mass. Dept. of Corrections, Boston, MA, Virginia M. McGinn, Supreme Court of Rhode Island, Providence, RI, Richard B. Wooley, Assistant Attorney General, Providence, RI, for Larry DuBois and George Vose, Defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER ON DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO DISMISS FOR FAILURE TO STATE A CLAIM

LINDSAY, District Judge.

Introduction

The plaintiff, John Carillo, appearing pro se, is an individual who has been sentenced to a life term in a Rhode Island correctional facility. The defendant, Larry DuBois, is the commissioner of correction in Massachusetts, to whose custody Carillo has been committed pursuant to the New England Corrections Compact (the "Compact"). See M.G.L.A. § 125 App. §§ 1-2; R.I.G.L. § 13-11-2.¹ Carillo alleges that Dubois has deprived him of the rights to due process and to equal protection guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, by imposing conditions of confinement different from those in Rhode Island and by confining Carillo to segregation without a hearing. Carillo brings this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and asks this court to issue an injunction ordering his return to Rhode Island. DuBois has moved to dismiss Carillo's claims for failure to state a claim, on the sole theory that § 1983 does not provide a cause of action against DuBois in his official capacity. See FED. R.CIV.P. 12(b)(6). DuBois does not otherwise address Carillo's claims.

Facts

Carillo is serving a life sentence under the laws of Rhode Island for the murder of a correctional officer in 1973. On or about February 4, 1993, the Rhode Island Department of Corrections transferred Carillo to the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Cedar Junction ("MCI-Cedar Junction"). For some period after his transfer to MCI-Cedar Junction, Carillo was in segregation; whether he remains so is not clear from the complaint.

In Rhode Island, a prisoner serving a life sentence for a crime committed before 1989 is statutorily eligible for parole after having served ten years of his sentence. See R.I.G.L. § 13-8-13. Pursuant to the Compact, Carillo remains subject to the parole jurisdiction of Rhode Island. See M.G.L.A. § 125 App. §§ 1-2, Art. IV(c); R.I.G.L. § 13-11-2, Art. IV(c). In his complaint, Carillo alleges that a Rhode Island parole board has reviewed his parole status at least four times since his transfer to Massachusetts. In each instance, he claims, the parole board has refused to grant parole to him, and has conditioned parole, in part, on the successful completion by Carillo of at least six months in a minimum security facility.

According to Carillo, it is the policy of the Massachusetts Department of Correction to classify inmates serving life terms at a level of security no lower than medium security. Therefore, Carillo alleges, his ability to satisfy the parole conditions established by the Rhode Island parole board is foreclosed by his incarceration in Massachusetts.

Discussion

On a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6), the court must take as true all well-pleaded factual allegations in the plaintiff's complaint. See Aulson v. Blanchard, 83 F.3d 1, 3 (1st Cir. 1996). A motion to dismiss will be granted only when the facts alleged, if proven, would not justify recovery on any of the plaintiff's claims. Id. Because Carillo is proceeding pro se, the court must construe his pleadings liberally. See Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972); Ahmed v. Rosenblatt, 118 F.3d 886, 890 (1st Cir.1997).

DuBois has moved to dismiss Carillo's claims on grounds that, under § 1983, a state official may not be sued for damages in his or her official capacity. DuBois is correct that § 1983 does not contemplate such relief. See, e.g., Will v. Michigan Dep't of State Police, 491 U.S. 58, 70, 109 S.Ct. 2304, 105 L.Ed.2d 45 (1989) (holding that a suit for damages against a state officer in his or her official capacity is barred by the Eleventh Amendment) (citing Brandon v. Holt, 469 U.S. 464, 471, 105 S.Ct. 873, 83 L.Ed.2d 878 (1985); Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 165-166, 105 S.Ct. 3099, 87 L.Ed.2d 114 (1985); Monell v. Dep't of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 690, n. 55, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978)). Therefore, to the extent that Carillo seeks damages against DuBois in his official capacity for alleged past violations, the motion to dismiss is ALLOWED.²

Section 1983, however, does permit suit for prospective relief against DuBois in his official capacity. See Will, 491 U.S. at 71 n. 10, 109 S.Ct. 2304 ("Of course a state official in his or her official capacity, when sued for injunctive relief, would be a person under § 1983 because `official-capacity actions for prospective relief are not treated as actions against the State.'") (quoting Graham, 473 U.S. at 167 n. 14, 105 S.Ct. 3099). Thus, the court must inquire whether the various due process and equal protection violations Carillo alleges provide grounds for injunctive relief under § 1983.

To state a claim under § 1983, a plaintiff must allege that he was deprived by a person, acting under color of law, of a right, immunity, or privilege secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States. See Pittsley v. Warish, 927 F.2d 3, 6 (1st Cir. 1991) (citing Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 535, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981); Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 140, 99 S.Ct. 2689, 61 L.Ed.2d 433 (1979)).

Carillo alleges that his ineligibility to be classified in the same manner as other Rhode Island prisoners violates his right to equal protection. "The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment commands that no State shall `deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws,' which is essentially a direction that all persons similarly situated should be treated alike." City of Cleburne, Tex. v. Cleburne Living Ctr., Inc., 473 U.S. 432, 439, 105 S.Ct. 3249, 87 L.Ed.2d 313 (1985) (citing Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 216, 102 S.Ct. 2382, 72 L.Ed.2d 786 (1982)). Some jurisdictions have held that, for equal protection purposes, inmates transferred pursuant to an interstate compact are "similarly situated" to those inmates in the receiving institution. See Stewart v. McManus, 924 F.2d 138, 142 (8th Cir.1991); Tucker v. Angelone, 954 F.Supp. 134, 136 (E.D.Va.1997). Indeed, here the Compact itself states that all inmates incarcerated pursuant to the Compact "shall be treated equally with such similar inmates of the receiving state as may be confined in the same institution." M.G.L. c. 125 App. § 1-2 Art. IV(e); R.I.G.L. § 13-11-2, Art. IV(e). Common sense dictates, however, that Carillo cannot be "similarly situated," for purposes of parole, to inmates convicted under the laws of Massachusetts. Unlike Carillo, Massachusetts inmates are not subject to the parole jurisdiction of Rhode Island. Because inmates in one jurisdiction are subject to a different parole authority from inmates in the other jurisdiction, it is pointless, for equal protection purposes, to treat an inmate subject to the parole jurisdiction of Rhode Island as if he were subject to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts parole authorities.

An opinion of a court in the District of Rhode Island supports the notion that Carillo should not be compared to Massachusetts prisoners in this instance. In Bishop v. Moran, 676 F.Supp. 416, 420-21 (D.R.I.1987), the district court held that Rhode Island prisoners incarcerated out-of-state were similarly situated to other Rhode Island prisoners with regard to the right to attend parole hearings. Because Carillo remains subject to the parole jurisdiction of Rhode Island, the court concludes that, for purposes of parole consideration, he is similarly situated to those inmates convicted under the laws of Rhode Island and subject to its penal and parole authorities.

In order to justify the disparate treatment of similarly situated individuals, the state must demonstrate that the difference at issue "bears a rational relation to some legitimate end." Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620, 631, 116 S.Ct. 1620, 134 L.Ed.2d 855 (1996). Here, DuBois has offered no justification at all for the decision to deprive Carillo of the eligibility for minimum security to which Rhode Island inmates are entitled. For that reason, the court determines that Carillo has stated an equal protection claim, and the defendant's motion to dismiss this claim accordingly is DENIED.³

The court next addresses Carillo's due process claim. Liberty interests protected by the Fourteenth Amendment may arise from either the Due Process Clause itself or from the laws of the States. See Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 466, 103 S.Ct. 864, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983). Carillo asserts that the Compact, as well as the Constitution, Rhode Island law, and various state consent decrees, give rise to a liberty interest in the rights he would have had if he had been incarcerated in Rhode Island.

As an initial matter, it is worth noting that the Constitution creates no liberty interest in imprisonment in any particular state and no liberty interest in particular prison privileges. See Olim v. Wakinekona, 461 U.S. 238, 245, 103 S.Ct. 1741, 75 L.Ed.2d 813 (1983); Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 224, 96 S.Ct. 2532, 49 L.Ed.2d 451 (1976) ("That life in one prison is much more disagreeable than in another does not in itself signify that a Fourteenth Amendment liberty interest is implicated ..."). Because Carillo has no constitutional right to remain imprisoned in Rhode Island, he has no inherent right to the privileges he alleges he would enjoy in Rhode Island. See, e.g., Olim, supra (finding no liberty interest in remaining in home state despite, inter alia, fact that inmate wished to...