Kim v. Hurston

• Decision Date: 22 October 1998
• Docket Number: Docket No. 98-7051
• Parties: (2nd Cir. 1999) YOUNG AH KIM, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MARJORIE L. HURSTON, Chairperson, Temporary Release Committee, Parkside Correctional Facility of the Department of Correctional Services of the State of New York, in her individual capacity and DOLORES THORNTON, Chairperson, Temporary Release Committee, Bedford Hills Correctional Facility of the Department of Correctional Services of the State of New York, in her individual capacity, Defendants-Appellees. August Term 1998 Heard:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 113

182 F.3d 113 (2nd Cir. 1999)

YOUNG AH KIM, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MARJORIE L. HURSTON, Chairperson, Temporary Release Committee, Parkside Correctional Facility of the Department of Correctional Services of the State of New York, in her individual capacity and DOLORES THORNTON, Chairperson, Temporary Release Committee, Bedford Hills Correctional Facility of the Department of Correctional Services of the State of New York, in her individual capacity, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 98-7051

August Term 1998

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

Heard: October 22, 1998

Decided: June 17, 1999

Appeal from the December 17, 1997, judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Robert L. Carter, District Judge) granting judgment as a matter of law to defendants-appellees Hurston and Thornton after a jury awarded plaintiff-appellant compensatory and punitive damages against them for denial of procedural due process in connection with revocation of temporary work release.

Affirmed as to Thornton; reversed in part as to Hurston, and remanded with instructions to enter a judgment against her for nominal damages. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Michael Yucevicius, New York, N.Y., for plaintiff-appellant.

Rebecca Ann Durden, Asst. Atty. Gen., New York, N.Y. (Dennis C. Vacco, N.Y. State Atty. Gen., Richard J. Cardinale, Asst. Atty. Gen., New York, N.Y., on the brief), for defendants-appellees.

Before: NEWMAN and JACOBS, Circuit Judges and TSOUCALAS,^* Judge.

JON O. NEWMAN, Circuit Judge:

This appeal primarily concerns a claimed violation of one of the most basic procedural rights -- the right to be informed of the reason for a deprivation of liberty. The claim arises in the context of an inmate's removal from a work release program. Young Ah Kim ("Kim" as she is referred to by her counsel) appeals the December 19, 1997, judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Robert L. Carter, District Judge), granting the motion of defendants-appellees Marjorie L. Hurston and Dolores Thornton for judgment as a matter of law after a jury verdict in Kim's favor. We conclude that the inmate had a protectable liberty interest in remaining in the work release program and that her removal, though undoubtedly justified, was accomplished without the minimal requirements of procedural due process. We also conclude, as the District Court ruled, that the evidence does not support an award of compensatory damages. We therefore reverse in part and remand with instructions to enter judgment for nominal damages as to the one defendant who is liable for the challenged action.

Background

Kim's procedural due process claim arises in the somewhat complicated context of the jurisdictional rules that apply to the confinement of New York prisoners, their classification for mental health purposes, their eligibility for work release, and their eligibility for parole.

Kim was convicted of conspiracy in the second degree and sentenced to 18 to 54 months in New York state prison. After serving part of her sentence, she was placed in a form of work release, administered by the New York State Department of Correctional Services ("DOCS"), known as the Temporary Release Program ("TRP"). To participate in the work release program, Kim was transferred in January 1995 to the Parkside Correctional Facility ("Parkside"), a TRP facility in New York City. She progressed to the Day Reporting Center Program of the TRP, which permitted her to be released from physical confinement at Parkside and live at home while continuing to work.

To be eligible for a TRP, an inmate must have a mental health classification of at least six on the seven-level scale administered by the New York State Office of Mental Health ("OMH"). When transferred to the Parkside TRP, Kim was classified at level six, indicating that she had had some mental health treatment but needed no current monitoring.

In February 1995, Kim underwent a random urinalysis test, required of all work release program participants. A few days later, when the urinalysis indicated the presence of opiates, Kim was confined to the Parkside facility, and her participation in work release ended. She testified that this occurred on March 3 or 4. Kim insisted that she had not taken drugs and became very upset at the accusation implied by the lab report. She locked herself in a bathroom and refused to eat or drink, contending that possibly something had been placed in her food that contaminated the urinalysis test result. She made statements that could be construed as suicidal and threatening harm to other persons. The DOCS officials at Parkside became concerned and called in an OMH psychologist who examined Kim that day. The psychologist concluded that Kim was a threat to herself and others, diagnosing her as having an "[a]djustment disorder with depressed mood." He downgraded her mental health level to two. With this change, Kim was no longer eligible for work release and, under DOCS regulations, had to be transferred to a facility providing level two care.

Within a few days after her reconfinement at Parkside, Kim was transferred to Bedford Hills Correctional Facility ("Bedford Hills"), which provides mental health care for those classified in levels two or one. At intake there, she was downgraded from level two to level one after telling the OMH psychiatric nurse in charge that she wanted to die if she could not prove that she had not taken drugs and that the results of the urinalysis were incorrect. The OMH personnel believed that Kim's distress derived solely from the pending disciplinary process relating to the drug test. Eventually, the misconduct proceeding triggered by the positive drug test was dismissed as untimely. There is no evidence that Kim was ever informed of this development.

At the time of her transfer to Bedford Hills in March, Kim had been scheduled to appear before the April meeting of the parole board. However, because she was still technically under the jurisdiction of Parkside, she could not appear before the parole board at Bedford Hills.¹ Because of internal rules of DOCS and the Division of Parole, Kim had to be "assigned" from Parkside to Bedford Hills in order to appear before its Parole Board.

To accomplish this reassignment and to allow Kim to apply for parole, the Temporary Release Committee ("TRC") at Parkside held a hearing on April 10, 1995, to remove Kim from the jurisdiction of the Parkside TRP. The Committee voted to remove Kim from the Parkside TRP because she was "medically unsuitable." Kim did not receive notice of the hearing, was not present at it, and received no statement of the reason for her removal. Both sides agree that Kim did not know she had been jurisdictionally removed from the Parkside TRP on April 10; she had already been physically confined at Bedford Hills for a month.

In May 1995, Kim's mental health status was upgraded to level six. She then applied for and was granted reinstatement to a TRP, and was transferred back to Parkside in June.

In March 1996, Kim filed the present lawsuit against several DOCS personnel, including defendants-appellees Hurston and Thornton. Hurston, at the relevant times, was chairperson of the TRC at Parkside, and Thornton held that position at Bedford Hills. Kim contended that the defendants deprived her of a liberty interest in continued participation in work release without procedural due process when they removed her from the Parkside TRP without at least twenty-four hours notice of the removal hearing and a statement of the reason for the removal.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of Kim on her claims against Hurston and Thornton, and in favor of all of the remaining defendants who had not been previously dismissed. The jury awarded compensatory damages of $2,750, and punitive damages of $2,000 each against Hurston and Thornton.

After the jury was excused, Judge Carter granted the renewed motions of Hurston and Thornton for judgment as a matter of law. He noted that "there is really no evidence that [Kim] even knew that she had been removed" from the work release program. He also noted that "there is no evidence that she had any trauma based upon the fact that she was removed and had no notice."

Discussion

A district court's determination of a Rule 50 motion for judgment as a matter of law is reviewed de novo. See Vermont Plastics, Inc. v. Brine, Inc., 79 F.3d 272, 277 (2d Cir. 1996); In re Joint Eastern & Southern District Asbestos Litigation, 52 F.3d 1124, 1131 (2d Cir. 1995). We are required to apply the same standard that a district court must use: a Rule 50 motion may be granted only "when `drawing all reasonable inferences regarding the weight of the evidence and the credibility of witnesses in favor of [the non-movant], a reasonable jury could only have found for the [movant].'" Vermont Plastics, 79 F.3d at 277 (quoting Asbestos, 52 F.3d at 1131).

I. Liberty Interest in Work Release

Kim's procedural due process claim turns initially on the existence of a liberty interest protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. This Court has held that a prisoner has a protected liberty interest in continuing in a work release program. See Tracy v. Salamack, 572 F.2d 393, 395-96 (2d Cir. 1978); see also Severino v. Negron, 996 F.2d 1439, 1441 (2d Cir. 1993). Tracy grounded the liberty interest partly on a loss of liberty described as "grievous,"² 572 F.2d at 395, and partly on the narrow bounds of discretion that state law established for exercising discretion to grant admission to a work release program, see id. n.9. To the extent that the decision rested on the latter ground, it was placed in some doubt by the Supreme Court's decision in Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472 (1995). In Sandin, the Court abandoned reliance on the extent to which state regulations narrowed prison officials' discretion as a test for a prisoner's...