Jenkins v. Fauver

• Citation: 219 N.J.Super. 420,530 A.2d 790
• Parties: Charles JENKINS, et al., Appellants, v. William H. FAUVER, et al., Respondents.
• Decision Date: 01 April 1986
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court – Appellate Division

Page 420

219 N.J.Super. 420

530 A.2d 790

Charles JENKINS, et al., Appellants, v. William H. FAUVER, et al., Respondents.

Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division.

Argued March 4, 1986.

Decided April 1, 1986.

Steven E. Nelson, Oakhurst, for appellants (Karasic, Stone & Susser, attorneys; Mr. Nelson of counsel and on the brief).

Catherine M. Brown, Deputy Atty. Gen., for respondents Fauver, Hilton, Seidl, Moss, Ironhorn, Rafferty, Julian and Miller (W. Cary Edwards, Atty. Gen., attorney; James J. Ciancia, Asst. Atty Gen., of counsel; Arthur W. Burgess, Director of Law, Woodbridge; Catherine M. Brown, on the brief).

Mark P. Rockwell, Raritan, for respondent Philip M. Cerria, Mayor of Woodbridge (Franchino, Lenahan & Cross, attorneys; Mark P. Rockwell, on the brief).

Before Judges PRESSLER, DREIER and BILDER.

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiffs-appellants have appealed from administrative orders affecting their residences and status. They are 45 Rahway State Prison inmates who contend they were denied due process when they were transferred from the minimum-security Rahway Camp to residences within the adjacent main prison. Their custodial classification was changed from "full minimum" to "full minimum, inside only" or "gang minimum." Since we here determine that the change in housing did not affect a protectible interest and the reclassification of some inmates to the makeshift category of "full minimum, inside only" did not constitute an actionable deprivation, we affirm the administrative action in substantial part. We remand, however, for a determination of whether those few inmates whose status was increased to "gang minimum" were afforded the procedural safeguards provided by Department of Correction (D.O.C.) standards.

In August 1984 an inmate escaped from the Rahway Camp. On September 6, 1984 the Municipal Council of nearby Carteret demanded the resignation of the prison superintendent "by virtue of his apparent inability to protect the citizens of the Borough of Carteret." On September 23, 1984 another inmate escaped. Both had been convicted of violent crimes, one for murder. The next day the mayor of Woodbridge, another neighboring municipality, instituted legal proceedings in the Chancery Division to close Rahway Camp. Three days later an assistant commissioner of the D.O.C. directed the prison superintendent to relocate men with homicide histories or whose convictions were for crimes engendering notoriety from the Camp to the main prison. Following meetings of the D.O.C.'s Classification Committee, 94 inmates were relocated and reclassified. Although a number were transferred with "full minimum" status within other minimum security facilities, those who have remained at Rahway under both "full minimum--inside only" and "gang minimum" status have prosecuted this appeal.

Liberty interests protected by the Fourteenth Amendment may arise from either the Due Process Clause itself or the laws of the States. Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 466, 103 S.Ct. 864, 868-69, 74 L.Ed.2d 675, 685 (1983). Even state statutes and regulations governing the daily operation of prisons can give rise to a liberty interest where the language is "of an unmistakably mandatory character." Id. at 471, 103 S.Ct. at 871, 74 L.Ed.2d at 688. Not only can state rules create liberty interests apart from those found in the Due Process Clause, but our judicial interpretation of corresponding provisions in our State Constitution, N.J. Const. (1947), Art. I, p I, can afford protection greater than that provided by the Federal Constitution. See State v. Roth, 95 N.J. 334, 344-345, 471 A.2d 370 (1984). Thus under Avant v. Clifford, 67 N.J. 496, 520-521, 341 A.2d 629 (1975), we must consider whether the procedures employed were "fair" and "right" in relationship to the purported deprivations. Also under N.J. Parole Bd. v. Byrne, 93 N.J. 192, 197, 460 A.2d 103 (1983) we should examine the legitimacy of any expectations which the inmates may have had for continued status derived from the applicable D.O.C. Standards. We will, therefore, direct our inquiry first to the transfer of residence and next to the changes in classification.

I

Inmates do not have a protectible interest arising from the Due Process Clause alone in residing in a particular environment. In Hewitt, plaintiff was removed from the general prison population and placed in "administrative segregation" ¹ pending the investigation of disciplinary charges against him. The Court declared that "[i]t is plain that the transfer of an inmate to less amenable and more restrictive quarters for non-punitive reasons is well within the terms of confinement ordinarily contemplated by a prison sentence." 459 U.S. at 468, 103 S.Ct. at 869. Nevertheless, the court found that the inmate's expectation of remaining in the general population arising from Pennsylvania statutes and regulations warranted employment of the procedural safeguards contained in those provisions.

Here no reasonable expectation of housing in a less restrictive facility would arise from D.O.C. Standards. Standard 853.3c provides that:

Inmates classified as full minimum must be assigned to either: (1) work details, jobs, or programs outside the main institution, on or off institutional grounds, with minimal supervision, or (2) a satellite unit or minimum security trailer unit, or (3) both (1) and (2).

The disjunctive "or" makes unreasonable the alleged inmate expectation that if he is classified "full minimum," he must be housed in a satellite or minimum security trailer unit. The Standard could be satisfied simply by assigning the inmate to a minimally supervised work detail outside the main institution.

Even if plaintiffs had some interest in more amenable housing, such interest would be outweighed by well-founded safety concerns expressed by local communities. In view of the need for community support for many ongoing correctional programs such as work release, halfway houses, or the like, the reasonably-based sentiment of the communities surrounding a prison is a valid consideration for decisions affecting prison policies. To the extent the transfer was a manifestation of the D.O.C.'s legislative mandate to securely house inmates and was an accommodation to surrounding communities, the D.O.C. could fairly strike the balance it did between competing interests. Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 335, 96 S.Ct. 893, 903, 47 L.Ed.2d 18, 33 (1976). The summary transfer was within the "wide-ranging deference" accorded prison administrators "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." Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 547, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1878, 60...