Kritsky v. McGinnis

• Decision Date: 12 June 1970
• Docket Number: No. 69-CV-276.,69-CV-276.
• Citation: 313 F. Supp. 1247
• Parties: John KRITSKY, and United States of America ex rel. John Kritsky, Plaintiff-Petitioner, v. Paul D. McGINNIS, Commissioner of Correction; Russell G. Oswald, Chairman of the Board of Parole, J. Edwin LaVallee, Warden and Chairman of the Prison Board of Clinton State Prison, New York State Board of Parole and New York State Department of Correction, Defendants-Respondents.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York

313 F. Supp. 1247

John KRITSKY, and United States of America ex rel. John Kritsky, Plaintiff-Petitioner, v. Paul D. McGINNIS, Commissioner of Correction; Russell G. Oswald, Chairman of the Board of Parole, J. Edwin LaVallee, Warden and Chairman of the Prison Board of Clinton State Prison, New York State Board of Parole and New York State Department of Correction, Defendants-Respondents.

No. 69-CV-276.

United States District Court, N. D. New York.

June 12, 1970.

Richard A. Kohn, Albany, Appointed Counsel, for plaintiff.

Louis J. Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen., State of New York, for respondents; Jack W. Hoffman, Timothy F. O'Brien, Asst. Attys. Gen., of counsel.

JAMES T. FOLEY, Chief Judge.

MEMORANDUM—DECISION and ORDER

The plaintiff filed a handwritten complaint based upon the civil rights statutes and petition for habeas corpus in the same combined form with similar issues as filed in Rodriguez v. McGinnis (N.D.N.Y.—December, 1969) 307 F. Supp. 627, that after trial I ruled upon in favor of Rodriguez. He paid the $15.00 filing fee and thereafter I granted leave to prosecute his action in forma pauperis. Attorney Richard A. Kohn, who appeared for Rodriguez, agreed to act as counsel for plaintiff, for which assistance the Court is again grateful inasmuch as there is no provision for compensation of any kind or reimbursement for expenses. Attorney Kohn represented the plaintiff at the hearing held and submitted a substantial brief in his behalf on the law and facts after the transcript was available. Transcription of the minutes of the hearing understandably took some time and caused delay in the briefing. Two court reporters in this busy two Judge Court, where we have the flow also of other purely federal and important private and government civil and criminal cases as other District Courts do, place substantial burdens upon them in the coverage of our large geographical area to the same extent as it does upon the Judges deluged with state prisoner applications of every kind. Pressures of other work that I thought should be given priority prevented on my part the speedy disposition we try to give State prisoner applications where immediate liberty may be at stake. However, the filing in this Court of a substantial number of civil rights complaints for every grievance imaginable by New York State prisoners in recent years has slowed considerably the disposition within the desired reasonable time. However, in my judgment, the other numerous and substantial cases filed in this District Court in behalf of important private and governmental interests have the right to be processed, heard and decided also with reasonable dispatch. I reaffirm my statements in Rodriguez that it is my firm belief it would best serve the interests of justice and all concerned and be sensible if a little abstention were authorized when proper in the federal courts to allow a fully manned and recognized competent State Court system to hear these civil rights claims that primarily involve State interests, problems and concerns (See Wright v. McMann, 387 F.2d 519, at 528, Chief Judge Lumbard concurring).

A satisfactory hearing in this claim was held and references herein shall be to the transcript of it. In the complaint, the plaintiff requests a judgment declaring the disallowance of 939 days good behavior time toward the conditional release he elected formally for under certain New York statutory provisions was adjudged in such manner to be violative of constitutional rights of due process and imposing cruel and unusual punishment. (Pl.Ex. 1, §§ 230-a, 803(1), N.Y. Correction law (McKinney's Consol.Laws, c. 43, 1968 ed.); New York Penal Law, 70.30(4) (a); 70.40(1), (b), (McKinney's Consol.Laws, c. 40, 1967 ed.).

The position of the Assistant Attorney General in behalf of the defendants is the same as that taken and offered in Rodriguez, supra. The contentions (1) there is not jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3), as so invoked to entertain the civil rights claim authorized by 42 U.S. C. § 1983, (2) that conditional release is in the same category as parole, being a matter of grace to be withheld at will, are answered in my Rodriguez writing in relation thereto and are adhered to by reference herein. (See also the difference between parole and conditional release—Task Force Report on Correction, issued by the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, p. 86). In Rodriguez, I pointed out that New York rulings expressly held that discretionary reductions for good behavior time cannot be arbitrarily withheld. (People ex rel. Stark v. Deegan (1968) 56 Misc.2d 567, 289 N.Y.S.2d 285; People ex rel. Roy v. Murphy (1962) 36 Misc.2d 501, pp. 503-504, 233 N.Y.S.2d 382). Inasmuch as New York seems adamant in arguing need for exhaustion of state remedies and lack of jurisdiction in a problem of this kind concerning loss of good time allegedly disallowed unconstitutionally, appeal is invited again to be expedited that may settle once and for all these questions that by now must be ripe for federal appellate review and rulings. Such appellate guidance will be of great assistance to this District Court in the planning and management of its calendars. (See Sostre v. Rockefeller et al., 312 F.Supp. 863, (S.D.N.Y.—68 Civ. 4058—Motley, J.) decided May 14, 1970).

The challenge of the petitioner who was produced in Albany on a writ of habeas corpus from Clinton Prison, two hundred miles away, was reduced before the hearing after conference with his attorney from 939 days disallowed to 590 days. This good time disallowance was thus narrowed to a single episode, unquestionably a serious one, that occurred in Auburn State Prison during March 1962. Two witnesses testified at the hearing, the plaintiff, who in my judgment was as articulate a witness who could be heard and who gave his version of the serious incident in which he was admittedly involved, and that led to the judgment of the Principal Keeper set forth in Plaintiff Ex. A in this brief fashion: "To Segreg.—1½ years Lost Time". The lost time, or good behavior time credits taken for a year and one-half are computed to be 545 days, and the length of his segregation from March 14 to April 10, 1962 at Auburn and April 10 to July 28, 1962 at Clinton Prison, Dannemora, is the basis for the additional 45 days good time loss in issue. No good time by prison rule is earned while confined in segregation. (Def. Ex. B—Inmate's Rule Book, pp. 4-5). The only other witness, who testified was Francis Ryan, called by the plaintiff, Head Correctional Clerk at Clinton Prison who explained the law and rules and procedures applicable and the internal administrative methods followed by the so-called Prison Commutation Board to comply with the statutory review provision when good time forfeiture is reviewed and not restored (Tr. 75 et seq., §§ 234, 235, 236, N.Y.Corr. Law; 7 N.Y. C.R.R. (Correction—Codes, Rules & Regulation, § 60.4(e). Ryan with a long experience in Prison administration evidenced familiarity with all the procedures and at times as he testified sat when necessary as a member of the Commutation Board and was able to tell the full details of the way it actually operates and arrives at decision. (See particularly Tr. 96-105.)

The Plaintiff Kritsky was convicted in the former Court of General Sessions of New York County of Robbery First Degree on May 1, 1957. He was sentenced to an indeterminate term of 15-18 years. At the time of sentence, he was about 22 years of age and has been now more than 13 years in prison confinement.

The serious incident referred to previously was described by Kritsky in his testimony that stands in every respect uncontradicted in this record by other testimony concerning the circumstances of its happening. It seems that in 1962 the prisoners at Auburn in a protest move that Kritsky said occurred throughout the entire State prison system in an effort to persuade the New York legislature to grant by legislation ten days off the maximum sentence that would enable some prisoners to gain earlier release. (Tr. 28-29). Apparently, this protest later bore fruit and such legislation came into being (See also People ex rel. Clemente v. Warden (1961) 9 N.Y.2d 216, 213 N.Y.S.2d 55, 173 N.E.2d 784). Kritsky characterized the conduct of the prisoners as peaceful and said it consisted only of the prisoners entering and staying in their cells and refusing to come out to go to their work or other type assignments in the daily prison routine. The protest by their action...