Guy v. State

• Decision Date: 27 August 1986
• Docket Number: No. 86-206,86-206
• Citation: 396 N.W.2d 197
• Parties: Kerry GUY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of Iowa, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Court of Appeals

Page 197

396 N.W.2d 197

Kerry GUY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of Iowa, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 86-206.

Court of Appeals of Iowa.

Aug. 27, 1986.

Charles Harrington, Appellate Defender, and Michael J. Laughlin, Asst. Appellate Defender, for petitioner-appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Atty. Gen. and Sarah J. Coats, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent-appellee.

Considered by OXBERGER, C.J., and SNELL and SACKETT, JJ.

SACKETT, Judge.

Petitioner Kerry Guy appeals from the district court's denial of his application for postconviction relief. Guy was found guilty by a prison adjustment committee of sexual misconduct and misuse of communications after a letter proposing sexual contact with another prison inmate was found in Guy's cell. Guy contends the district court erred in sustaining the adjustment committee ruling because (1) no prison rules were violated since Guy had not given the letter to a third party; (2) the letter was not a communication within the meaning of prison rules 15 and 40; and (3) the petitioner's first amendment rights were violated. We affirm.

On January 17, 1985, two employees of the Iowa Men's Reformatory in Anamosa discovered a five-page letter written by Guy during a routine search while transferring him from one cell to another. The letter was found in a plastic basket used by prisoners for holding personal belongings. In the letter Guy proposed sexual contact allegedly with another prison inmate:

Hello, I love you, well I guess it will be thirty more days.

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* * *

I've been separated from you long enough. Now I have to wait at least thirty more day [sic]. I'm so damn [sic] depressed, I miss you so much. I can't touch you or even talk to you face to face.

* * *

* * * I'm going to check out on going to the Fort, if you don't want me to let me know. I won't go if you won't. I need to find out first if they will send me cause if you ask they might send you and not me. I don't want to be separated that far apart.

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* * *

I love you. I think you know that by now, well at least you should. My magic sugar man.

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* * *

Its [sic] 6:00 pm and they just played our jam "Loving You." They play it alot [sic] since I requested it. I love that song, but you more. I know you are probably thinking this is a book, but if I think of you, which is always deep, I won't feel so depressed. I really need to know that you feel & care enough for me to wait a little longer, but if you don't I will understand and try to accept it, just tell me beforehand, okay? I told T today that I was going to settle down with you, he looked shocked and said that I wouldn't do it and it would make all those men go mad. Listen I don't care what they think, business is all and that will involve both of us, alot [sic] of these fools will automatically think of a pimp, Ho [whore] thing but I wouldn't do it if I didn't want to do it for us....

* * *

* * *

I was sitting here daydreaming and gave myself three wishes. No. 1. To get out of this place with no string to the court, today. No. 2 Is you with me, well we are together on the streets and No. 3 This is the one I thought of first but, I know its [sic] a almost impossible considering the case, well its [sic] to hear you say "I love you."

* * *

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When and if you ever say it I know you will mean it 'cause you are a real Honey Baby of a man, thats [sic] one of the main things I love about you. I know that even if we aren't together my love will go on forever.

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Please write me back soon, it won't be so hot because I will be on Drange (DD II) and I can come straight to my cell, no middleman.

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I can't wait till Feb., but I have to. I'll be like a virgin, my body can't but my love for you will always be new.

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No one's gonna love you the way I do!

Based on the content of the letter a disciplinary report was written on Guy charging him with several prison rule violations. A disciplinary hearing was held before the prison adjustment committee. Guy admitted he had written the letter and intended to send it. However, Guy testified the letter was intended for a person living in Sioux City and not another inmate. The adjustment committee determined Guy was not being truthful about the intended receiver and from the content of the letter the adjustment committee determined it was intended for another prison inmate at the reformatory. The adjustment committee found Guy guilty of sexual misconduct, prison rule 15, and misuse of communications prison, rule 40. As a result Guy lost 15 days of good conduct, was placed in solitary confinement for seven days and held at DD-I maximum security level for an additional 30 days minimum.

Guy filed an application for postconviction relief in the Jones County District Court. After a hearing to the court, the district court denied Guy's application for postconviction relief, finding there was sufficient evidence to support the disciplinary committee's determination Guy was guilty of prison rule violations. This appeal followed.

I.

Ordinarily, postconviction relief actions are treated as special proceedings at law and review is on assigned errors only. Kelly v. Nix, 329 N.W.2d 287, 291 (Iowa 1983). However, where a fundamental constitutional issue is raised, the appellate court makes its own independent evaluation of the totality of circumstances in a de novo review. Williams v. State, 378 N.W.2d 894, 896 (Iowa 1985). The petitioner has the burden of proof to show a constitutional violation by a preponderance of the evidence. Id. at 897.

II.

The prison adjustment committee found Guy guilty of violating the following rules:

15. Sexual Misconduct: An inmate commits sexual misconduct when the inmate proposes a sexual contact or relationship with another person within the institution through gestures; such as kissing, petting, etc. or by written or oral communications or engages in a consensual sexual contact or relationship....

40. Misuse of Mail, Telephone, and Other Communications: Any inmate commits an offense under this subsection when the inmate fails to follow institutional procedure, regulations or instructions, written or verbal for the use of institutional communication facilities such as the mail or telephone, or uses such facilities without proper authorization. (emphasis added).

Guy contends he did not violate prison rule 15 or 40 because he never sent the letter which prison officials confiscated in his cell. Hence, he argues his subsequent punishment was actually for merely reducing his private thoughts to writing and violated his first amendment rights.

Prisoners are not divested of constitutional rights upon confinement in a correctional institution. Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517, 522, 104 S.Ct. 3194, 3198, 82 L.Ed.2d 393, 401 (1984); Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 555-56, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2974, 41 L.Ed.2d 935, 950 (1974) ("There is no iron curtain drawn between the constitution and prisoners of this country.") Rogers v. Scurr, 676 F.2d 1211, 1215 (8th Cir.1982). Prison inmates "retain those First Amendment rights of speech 'not inconsistent with [their] status as ... prisoner[s] or with the legitimate penological objectives of the corrections system.' " Hudson, 468 U.S. at 523, 104 S.Ct. at 3198, 82 L.E.2d at 401 (quoting Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S. 817, 822, 94 S.Ct. 2800, 2804, 41 L.Ed.2d 495, 501 (1974)). Scurr, 676 F.2d at 1215.

However, while imprisoned persons enjoy many protections of the Constitution, it is also clear imprisonment carries with it the loss of many significant rights:

These constraints on inmates, and in some cases the complete withdrawal of certain rights, are "justified by the considerations underlying our penal system." (citations omitted). The curtailment of certain rights is necessary, as a practical matter, to accommodate a myriad of "institutional needs and objectives" of prison facilities, (citations omitted) chief among which is internal security (citations omitted).

Hudson, 468 U.S. at 522-24, 104 S.Ct. at 3198-99, 82 L.E.2d at 401-02. See Pell, 417 U.S. at 822, 94 S.Ct. at 2804, 41 L.Ed.2d at 501. Thus, challenges to prison restrictions asserted to inhibit first amendment interests must be analyzed in terms of the legitimate policies and goals of the correctional institution. Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 547, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1878, 60 L.Ed.2d 447, 473 (1979); Safley v. Turner, 777 F.2d 1307, 1310-11 (8th Cir.1985); Williams, 378 N.W.2d at 897, 899.

The supreme court has indicated that even in the presence of legitimate first amendment concerns, considerable deference is due to the "expert" judgment of prison administrators:

[T]he problems that arise in the day-to-day operation of a corrections facility are not susceptible of easy solutions. Prison administrators should be accorded wide-ranging deference in the adoption and execution of policies and practices that in their judgment are needed to preserve internal order and discipline and to maintain institutional security. (citations omitted). "Such considerations are peculiarly within the province and professional expertise of corrections officials, and, in the absence of substantial evidence in the record to indicate that the officials have exaggerated their response to these considerations, courts should ordinarily defer to their expert judgment in such matters." Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S., at 827 [94 S.Ct. at 2806].

Bell, 441 U.S. at 547-48, 99 S.Ct. at 1878-79, 60 L.Ed.2d at 473-74. See Gomes v. Fair, 738 F.2d 517, 524 (1st Cir.1984).

In Gomes, an inmate was reclassified to a maximum security institution for violating a prison rule regarding use of obscene language or actions after giving sexually explicit poems to a prison employee to read. Gomes, 738 F.2d at 521-22. The inmate claimed he had not directed obscene language or actions to the prison employee, but rather he was simply exercising his first amendment rights in asking the prison employee to "proofread" his...