Griffin v. Spratt

• Decision Date: 04 June 1991
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 90-3286.
• Citation: 768 F. Supp. 153
• Parties: Eddie GRIFFIN v. John SPRATT and J. Kevin Kane.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

768 F. Supp. 153

Eddie GRIFFIN v. John SPRATT and J. Kevin Kane.

Civ. A. No. 90-3286.

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

June 4, 1991.

Blank, Rome, Comisky & McCauley, Grant S. Palmer, Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiff.

Sue Ann Unger, Office of Atty. Gen., Philadelphia, Pa., for Spratt and Kane.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

SHAPIRO, District Judge.

In this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, plaintiff Eddie Griffin, a prisoner at the State Correctional Institution, Graterford, claims that the defendants placed him in disciplinary custody for possession and consumption of contraband-intoxicants in violation of due process of law. The parties have filed cross-motions for summary judgment. Appointed counsel filed a supplemental memorandum on behalf of plaintiff and represented him at oral argument.

I. FACTS

The undisputed facts are as follows:

On March 29, 1990, defendant John Spratt found a bucket and plastic container filled with liquid during a search of Griffin's cell. Based on the odor of the liquid and his observation that it contained particles of fruit, Spratt determined that the liquid was a fermented beverage and ordered Griffin to dump it down the toilet. Spratt charged Griffin with three misconducts: making a fermented beverage, possession of intoxicants used for fermentation, and possession or consumption of an intoxicating beverage.

A disciplinary hearing was held before defendant Kane at which Griffin contended that the liquid was a fruit juice, not a fermented beverage. Spratt testified that the beverage had fermented and he ordered Griffin to destroy it. Griffin asked Spratt why he did not test the beverage to determine if it had fermented or save a sample of the liquid so it could be analyzed at a later date. Kane ruled that those questions were irrelevant and did not allow Spratt to answer. Kane also ruled irrelevant questions about the prison's policies concerning testing and preservation of evidence and the consent decree governing prison disciplinary procedures.

Kane found Griffin not guilty of making fermented beverages, but guilty of possession of contraband-intoxicants used for fermentation and possession or consumption of intoxicating beverages. Kane imposed a sanction of sixty days in disciplinary custody.

II. DISCUSSION

Griffin maintains that the disciplinary hearing violated due process in several respects. He claims that Spratt's failure to test or preserve the liquid found in his cell and Kane's decision to limit cross-examination at the hearing deprived him of the right to present evidence in his defense. Griffin also contends that he was not properly advised of his right to appeal in accordance with Administrative Directive 801.VI.A.5 and that the prison did not respond to his post-hearing grievance. Finally, Griffin claims that Spratt's actions violated Administrative Directive 203.II.B.7 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

A. Due Process Claims Under Administrative Directive 801

Bureau of Corrections Administrative Directive 801 sets forth regulations for the administration of Pennsylvania prisons. That directive creates for prisoners a liberty interest in remaining in the general prison population that is protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 472, 103 S.Ct. 864, 871, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983).

In Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974), the Court established the minimum procedural protections to which a prisoner is entitled in disciplinary hearings: "(1) advance written notice of the disciplinary charges; (2) an opportunity, when consistent with the institutional safety and correctional goals, to call witnesses and present documentary evidence in his defense; and (3) a written statement by the factfinder of the evidence relied on and the reasons for the disciplinary action." Superintendent, Massachusetts Correction Institution v. Hill, 472 U.S. 445, 454, 105 S.Ct. 2768, 2773, 86 L.Ed.2d 356 (1985) (citing Wolff). There is no allegation that plaintiff was deprived of adequate notice, the opportunity to call witnesses, or a written explanation of the reasons for his punishment. Griffin's claims focus on the restriction of his right to present evidence in his defense.

1. Presentation of Physical Evidence

a. Liability

In Young v. Kann, 926 F.2d 1396 (3d Cir.1991), the Court of Appeals addressed the extent of a prisoner's right to produce and view evidence at a disciplinary hearing. The prisoner was charged with threatening another inmate with bodily harm. The prisoner had given a guard a letter allegedly containing threats against the prisoner's cellmate but the letter was not produced at the disciplinary hearing. The examiner excused the prisoner from the room, heard testimony from the guard concerning the contents of the letter, and informed the prisoner that the letter was irrelevant and the hearing would proceed. Despite the prisoner's protests that he never verbally threatened his cellmate and that the letter contained no threats, he was found guilty and received a sanction of 30 days in disciplinary custody and a loss of 40 days statutory good time. Id. at 1398.

Relying on Wolff, the Court of Appeals stated, "a prisoner's right to produce evidence in his or her defense is limited only by the demands of prisoner safety and institutional order, as determined by the sound discretion of the prison authorities." Id. at 1400. In the absence of evidence that the hearing examiner had some valid security reason for denying access to the letter, the court held that the examiner's refusal to order its production violated the prisoner's due process rights. Id. at 1402. The court warned that a hearing officer's reliance on a prison employee's oral summary of the evidence against an inmate, without any form of corroborative evidence, is inherently suspect. The court stated:

A determination of guilt on such a record, with no primary evidence of guilt in the form of witness statements, oral or written, or any form of corroborative evidence, amounts to a determination on the blind acceptance of the prison officer's statement. Such a practice is unacceptable; it does not fulfill Wolff's perception of "mutual accommodation between institutional needs and objections" and constitutional requirements of due process.

Id. at 1402 (quoting Helms v. Hewitt, 655 F.2d 487 (3d Cir.1981), rev'd on other grounds, 459 U.S. 460, 103 S.Ct. 864, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983)). Accordingly, the court reversed the dismissal of the prisoner's claim and remanded for further proceedings.

Here the facts are somewhat different, but the principles set forth in Young govern this case. Griffin maintained that the liquid found in his cell had not fermented. But his ability to mount a defense to the charge of possessing a fermented beverage was severely restricted because the only physical evidence of his guilt was destroyed before it could be tested for fermentation or observed by a third party. The failure to produce this evidence at the disciplinary hearing, in the absence of a valid security concern, violated Griffin's due process right to "present documentary testimony" and "marshall the facts in his defense." Wolff, 418 U.S. at 566, 564, 94 S.Ct. at 2979, 2978. Furthermore, Griffin was found guilty of a misconduct based solely on Spratt's oral testimony that he found a fermented beverage in Griffin's cell. Hearing examiner Kane "relied exclusively upon a prison employee's oral summary of information implicating the prisoner." Young v. Kann, at 1402. That practice is prohibited by Young.

Defendants contend that the prison's institutional safety interest in disposing of fermented beverages outweighs Griffin's right to produce evidence at his disciplinary hearing. Defendants rely on a Graterford correction officer's statement that saving confiscated fermented beverages (30 to 40 gallons per week) would be unsafe and disruptive to institutional order because closed containers of the beverages have a tendency to explode and must be stored in a secure area. See Def. Br. at Ex. E. Defendants have overstated the institutional interest at stake. Due process does not require prison authorities to preserve all the beverage found during a cell search but only a small sample that can be tested by a laboratory or observed by the hearing examiner. Saving a small quantity of the beverage in a test tube, stored in a freezer to halt the fermentation process, may inconvenience prison officials to some degree, but such a procedure ensures that prisoners charged with making fermented beverages (apparently quite a few) receive due process of law in disciplinary hearings.

The principles set forth in Young v. Kann, and applied here, are not inconsistent with Arizona v. Youngblood, 488 U.S. 51, 109 S.Ct. 333, 102 L.Ed.2d 281 (1988). In that case, the police obtained and preserved blood and saliva samples collected from a victim of sexual assault, but failed to test or preserve semen samples found on the victim's clothing. The defendant maintained that he had been denied due process because the timely performance of blood typing tests on the clothing might have completely exonerated him. The court refused to reverse the defendant's conviction, holding that "unless a criminal defendant can show bad faith on the part of the police, failure to preserve potentially useful evidence does not constitute a denial of due process of law." 488 U.S. at 58, 109 S.Ct. at 337.

Youngblood is distinguishable. In that case, the defendant was not prejudiced by the police's failure to conduct tests on certain evidence. The police collected all available evidence the night of the crime and provided defendant access to it. None of the saliva, blood, or semen samples collected were used as evidence against defendant. Any prejudice the defendant may have suffered was corrected by the trial court's instruction to the jury that "i...