Nichols v. Hofmann, 08-510.

• Decision Date: 30 April 2010
• Docket Number: No. 08-510.,08-510.
• Citation: 998 A.2d 1040,2010 VT 36
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court
• Parties: James NICHOLS, Kirk Wool and All Other Vermont Inmates Similarly Situatedv.Robert HOFMANN, Commissioner of Corrections.

998 A.2d 1040

2010 VT 36

James NICHOLS, Kirk Wool and All Other Vermont Inmates Similarly Situatedv.Robert HOFMANN, Commissioner of Corrections.

No. 08-510.

Supreme Court of Vermont.

April 30, 2010.

Matthew F. Valerio, Defender General, and Dawn Seibert, Prisoners' Rights Office, Montpelier, for Plaintiff-Appellant Nichols.

William H. Sorrell, Attorney General, and Jon Jeffrey Tyzbir, Assistant Attorney General, Montpelier, for Defendant-Appellee.

Present: REIBER, C.J., DOOLEY, JOHNSON, SKOGLUND and BURGESS, JJ.

DOOLEY, J.

¶ 1. Plaintiffs, prison inmates housed at the Lee Adjustment Center, a privately operated prison in Beattyville, Kentucky, appeal the dismissal of their petition for injunctive relief seeking both the right to use debit cards for telephone calls and the availability of free postage stamps. We reverse and remand.

¶ 2. Plaintiffs were convicted and sentenced in Vermont and then transferred to the Kentucky prison pursuant to a contract between the Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the company that manages the prison. Since plaintiffs' arrival at the prison, CCA has not permitted them access to debit calling cards to place telephone calls, instead requiring them to make collect calls. This restriction has caused hardship on plaintiffs due to the comparatively high cost of collect calls, as well as the circumstance that some of their family members possess only cell phones, which are not able to receive collect calls. Furthermore, CCA has refused to provide free postage stamps to inmates, a benefit enjoyed by all inmates housed in Vermont pursuant to DOC policy.

¶ 3. In December 2007, plaintiffs filed a petition for injunctive relief, seeking access to debit calling cards under 28 V.S.A. § 802a(c) and free postage stamps pursuant to a stipulation entered into by DOC in 1981 in a federal court case. The State filed a motion to dismiss under Vermont Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) in June 2008, contending that plaintiffs' claims failed as a matter of law. The court granted the State's motion, concluding that this Court's decision in Daye v. State, 171 Vt. 475, 769 A.2d 630 (2000), precluded the relief sought by plaintiffs. Plaintiffs filed a timely appeal.

¶ 4. We review the trial court's disposition of the motion to dismiss de novo Girouard v. Hofmann, 2009 VT 66, ¶ 6, 186 Vt. 153, 981 A.2d 419, taking all facts alleged by plaintiffs as true Amiot v. Ames, 166 Vt. 288, 291, 693 A.2d 675, 677 (1997). To maintain open access to the courts and to implement our preference for dispositions on the merits, courts should view Rule 12(b)(6) motions with disfavor and rarely grant them. Bock v. Gold, 2008 VT 81, ¶ 4, 184 Vt. 575, 959 A.2d 990 (mem.); Endres v. Endres, 2006 VT 108, ¶ 4, 180 Vt. 640, 912 A.2d 975 (mem.). A court should therefore grant a Rule 12(b)(6) motion only if “it is beyond doubt that there exist no facts or circumstances that would entitle the plaintiff to relief.” Richards v. Town of Norwich, 169 Vt. 44, 48, 726 A.2d 81, 85 (1999) (quotation omitted).

¶ 5. Plaintiffs first contend that CCA's refusal to allow access to debit calling cards violates 28 V.S.A. § 802a(c), which provides in relevant part: “When an inmate requests and receives a list of parties approved to receive telephone calls, the inmate shall be provided the option of using a debit or collect call system to place such calls.” The trial court answered this argument primarily by holding that the statute gives DOC, not the inmate, the choice of method of paying for telephone calls. In addition, the trial court adopted the State's assertion that the statute by its terms applied only to inmates incarcerated in Vermont and not to inmates transferred out of state. Relying upon our decision in Daye, the court held that instead of applying § 802a(c) we should resolve this issue by relying upon the policies underlying the Interstate Corrections Compact, and that these policies require only that plaintiffs be treated similarly to the other inmates housed at the Lee Adjustment Center.

¶ 6. The argument that § 802a(c) applies only to prisons located in Vermont fails because it relies upon an overly narrow reading of the statutory language. Section 802a(c) applies to “inmates,” a term defined in relevant part as “any person ... committed to the custody of the commissioner pursuant to the law of the state and subsequently committed to a correctional facility.” 28 V.S.A. § 3(5) (emphasis added). The term “correctional facility” is in turn defined as “any building ... of or supported by the department and used for the confinement of persons committed to the custody of the commissioner.” Id. § 3(3). In the State's view, § 802a(c) does not apply because the privately operated Kentucky prison is not a facility “of or supported by” DOC and is thus not a “correctional facility.” Following this argument to its logical conclusion, plaintiffs, therefore, are not “inmates” and thus fall outside the scope of § 802a(c). We are not persuaded by this argument.

¶ 7. When interpreting a statute, we first rely upon the plain language of the law as a means of determining legislative intent. Delta Psi Fraternity v. City of Burlington, 2008 VT 129, ¶ 7, 185 Vt. 129, 969 A.2d 54. “If that plain language resolves the conflict without doing violence to the legislative scheme, there is no need to go further ....” Lubinsky v. Fair Haven Zoning Bd., 148 Vt. 47, 49, 527 A.2d 227, 228 (1986). Here, the plain language of the definition of “correctional facility” demonstrates that it encompasses out-of-state private prisons that house offenders under DOC custody. Even if the Lee Adjustment Center is not a facility “of” DOC, it plainly is “supported by” DOC. According to an affidavit from plaintiff Kirk Wool, the prison currently houses over 500 inmates from Vermont.¹ Those inmates fill more than sixty percent of the 816 beds at the prison. See CCC Facilities: Lee Adjustment Center, http:// www. corrections corp. com/ facility/ lee- adjustment- center (listing the number of beds as 816). In return for housing these prisoners, the state compensates CCA at a daily rate that, according to a 2004 article, is $42.50 per prisoner. D. Yetter & M. Pitsch Prison Riot Followed Increase in Inmates, Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.), Sept. 17, 2004, at A1, available at 2004 WLNR 22883843. Thus, based on the 2004 cost per prisoner, and assuming a relatively stable prisoner population, this amounts to around $8,000,000 in revenue per year.² These figures plainly indicate that the Lee Adjustment Center derives considerable income from CCA's contract with the state. These figures show the extent of support, although they are not central to our decision. The important point is that DOC pays to house inmates at Lee Adjustment Center, and that is support as contemplated in § 3(3) such that Lee Adjustment Center is a “correctional facility” for purposes of the governing Vermont statutes.

¶ 8. Given our conclusion that § 802a(c) applies to inmates in the private, out-of-state facility in this case, it is not appropriate to apply the Interstate Corrections Compact to plaintiffs' claim, as the State urges us to do. We note as a preliminary matter, and the State concedes, that the Compact by its terms does not apply to contracts with privately operated prisons.³ The Compact, codified at 28 V.S.A. §§ 1601- 1621, governs contracts between states “for the confinement of inmates on behalf of a sending state in institutions situated within receiving states.” 28 V.S.A. § 1603(a); see also Daye, 171 Vt. at 479, 769 A.2d at 633-34 (concluding that state contract with county in New Jersey to transfer inmates was entered into pursuant to DOC Commissioner's broad authorization “to designate the place of confinement where the sentence shall be served” under 28 V.S.A. § 701(b) and not pursuant to Compact); Slater v. McKinna, 997 P.2d 1196, 1198-99 (Colo.2000) (holding that Compact does not apply to privately operated prisons).⁴ Therefore, claims raised by inmates transferred pursuant to the state's contract with CCA fall outside the scope of the Compact. Apparently the State's concession was not transmitted to the trial court, because that court rejected plaintiffs' argument that the Compact does not apply.

¶ 9. The State contends that although the Compact does not expressly apply to privately operated prisons, this Court should nonetheless apply the compact by analogy. In particular, the State directs this Court's attention to a Compact provision stating that inmates transferred out-of-state “shall be treated equally with such similar inmates of the receiving state as may be confined in the same institution.” 28 V.S.A. § 1604(e). We decline to adopt the State's position. Plaintiffs rely upon a specific statutory right contained in 28 V.S.A. § 802a(c). We cannot understand what theory would allow us to deny a statutory right based on an inapplicable interstate compact applied by analogy. The controlling law is the statute and not the Compact.

¶ 10. The State nevertheless argues that we should apply the policies set forth in the Compact because it would be unreasonable to run the correctional system in any other way. The short answer to these arguments is that “policy arguments, however persuasive, cannot prevail if there is conflict with the statutes.” In re Allied Power & Light Co., 132 Vt. 354, 361, 321 A.2d 7, 11 (1974). Even if this were not the answer, we are faced with conflicting policy arguments that are not for us to resolve. Plaintiffs argue that it is unreasonable to make them communicate with family members and others solely through collect calls because some will refuse collect calls and many have only cell phones that will not accept collect calls. The State contends in its brief that “the strong public policy encouraging interstate inmate transfer would best be served if inmates were subject to the policies of the receiving...