Parker v. Gorczyk

• Decision Date: 29 October 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97-347.,97-347.
• Parties: Gordon PARKER and Robert Bailey On Behalf of Themselves and Others Similarly Situated v. John GORCZYK, Commissioner, Vermont Department of Corrections.
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court

744 A.2d 410

Gordon PARKER and Robert Bailey On Behalf of Themselves and Others Similarly Situated v. John GORCZYK, Commissioner, Vermont Department of Corrections.

No. 97-347.

Supreme Court of Vermont.

October 29, 1999.

Motion for Reargument Denied December 23, 1999.

Jeffrey Dworkin, Montpelier, for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

William Sorrell, Attorney General, Montpelier, and Joseph L. Winn, Assistant Attorney General, Waterbury, for Defendant-Appellant.

Present: DOOLEY, MORSE, JOHNSON and SKOGLUND, JJ., and CASHMAN, District Judge, Specially Assigned.

SKOGLUND, J.

Plaintiffs, two inmates incarcerated at the Woodstock Regional Correctional Facility, brought this class action seeking to enjoin defendant, the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections, from implementing a policy that would make prisoners convicted of violent felonies ineligible for furlough until the expiration of their minimum sentences. Based on its conclusion that the policy violated plaintiffs' right to due process guaranteed by Chapter I, Article 10 of the Vermont Constitution, the Windsor Superior Court permanently enjoined defendant from implementing the policy or adopting any other policy that would prevent the Department from making individualized furlough assessments for each prisoner. Because we conclude that the challenged policy does not violate statutory law or contravene plaintiffs' right to due process or equal protection of the law under the Vermont Constitution, we reverse the superior court's decision.

The material facts are not in dispute. As of January 1995, the Department's Offender Classification Manual provided as follows:

Extended furlough should be granted as part of an offender's reintegration plan and should occur during the 90 days prior to the offender's minimum release date. Extended furlough to a residential treatment, educational, or vocational program may be granted up to 6 months prior to an offender's minimum release date.

On January 24, 1995, the Commissioner amended this provision by adding the following sentence:

Exception: offenders incarcerated for felony violence are not eligible for release on Furlough until they have reached their minimum release date.

(Emphasis in original.) The Commissioner explained that the change was aimed at serving and protecting the public, and at bringing the Department's policy in line with public expectations concerning truth in sentencing and protection from violent offenders.

In April 1995, inmates Gordon Parker and Robert Bailey filed suit on behalf of themselves and similarly situated prisoners, asking the superior court to declare the new regulation unconstitutional and to enjoin the Commissioner from enforcing it. Plaintiffs alleged that the regulation constituted an abuse of discretion, violated their rights to due process and equal protection of the law under the federal and Vermont constitutions, and was not promulgated in accordance with the Vermont Administrative Procedure Act (APA), in violation of 3 V.S.A. §§ 801-849.¹ At a hearing on plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction, the parties presented evidence on (1) the history and rationality of the new policy; (2) the impact of the policy on prisoners' chances of being granted parole upon the expiration of their minimum sentences; and (3) the specific impact of the policy on each plaintiff. Following the hearing, the superior court dismissed plaintiffs' due process claims, but granted preliminary injunctive relief based on its conclusion that plaintiffs had demonstrated a likelihood of success on their APA claim.

The parties then filed cross-motions for summary judgment after stipulating that they would not be presenting any additional evidence and that the evidence submitted at the preliminary hearing could be considered for a final ruling on the merits. In their motion, plaintiffs asked the court to reinstate their due process claim in light of the analysis contained in a recent United States Supreme Court case, Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995). The motion was initially denied, but following the rotation of a new judge into the superior court, plaintiffs filed a motion to reconsider. In August 1996, the successor judge reinstated plaintiffs' due process claim and declared that the Commissioner's change in furlough policy violated plaintiffs' right to due process guaranteed by the Vermont Constitution.

The court's decision was based on its conclusion that Vermont's furlough statute, 28 V.S.A. § 808, requires the Commissioner to exercise his discretion by making an individualized assessment of furlough eligibility for each inmate. In the court's view, by categorically barring furlough for a specified class of inmates before they served their minimum sentences, the new policy eliminated the Commissioner's statutorily mandated discretionary role in determining furlough eligibility, and thus constituted an abuse of discretion and a violation of due process. Accordingly, the court enjoined defendant from implementing the new regulation and from adopting any other policy that would allow him to deny furlough without making an individualized assessment of each prisoner under § 808(a).

On appeal, the Commissioner argues that plaintiffs have no due process right, either directly under Chapter I, Article 10 of the Vermont Constitution or indirectly through Vermont's furlough statute, to individualized assessments of their furlough eligibility before serving their minimum sentences. In response, plaintiffs ask this Court to uphold the superior court's determination that the challenged regulation violates both § 808 and their right to due process of law under the Vermont Constitution. Plaintiffs also argue in the alternative that the regulation violates their right to equal protection under the Vermont Constitution.

I

Because we generally address constitutional issues only when necessary, and because the superior court grounded its due process analysis on its determination that the challenged policy violates Vermont's furlough statute, we first consider the parties' statutory arguments. Section 808(a) provides as follows:

The commissioner may extend the limits of the place of confinement of an inmate at any correctional facility if in the judgment of the commissioner the inmate will honor his trust, by authorizing the inmate under prescribed conditions to visit a specifically designated place or places for a period not to exceed 15 days and return to the same facility. An extension of limits may be granted:

(1) To visit a critically ill relative; or

(2) To attend a funeral of a relative; or

(3) To obtain medical services; or

(4) To contact prospective employers; or

(5) To secure a suitable residence for use upon discharge; or

(6) For any other reason consistent with the rehabilitation of the inmate.

(Emphasis added.) The superior court held that this statute requires the Commissioner to exercise his judgment by making an individualized assessment for each inmate to determine whether "the inmate will honor his trust" and thus be placed on furlough.

In support of this ruling, plaintiffs argue that if the Commissioner automatically denies furlough for a specified category of inmates, then furlough will not have been granted or denied based on whether each of those inmates "will honor his trust." Further, plaintiffs argue that only by individually assessing each inmate can the Commissioner rationally determine whether any of the six specified statutory criteria warrant granting furlough for particular prisoners. Plaintiffs contend that their view is supported by other related statutory provisions denoting the purposes of the Department and the responsibilities of the Commissioner. See 28 V.S.A. § 1(b) (Department shall strive to develop and implement comprehensive program that will confine frequent dangerous offenders but will seek to prepare offenders for reintegration into community); 28 V.S.A. § 102(c)(3), (8) (among responsibilities of Commissioner is to establish "a program of treatment designed as far as practicable to prepare and assist each inmate ... to participate as a citizen of the state and community," and "to establish a program for each inmate upon his commitment to the facility and to review the program of each inmate at regular intervals and to effect necessary and desirable changes in the inmate's program of treatment"). Finally, according to plaintiffs, the fact that, functionally, each inmate's chances of obtaining parole depend upon his having achieved furlough status demonstrates that the Legislature intended § 808(a) to require individualized assessments with respect to that status.

We are not persuaded by these arguments. First, we find no language in § 808(a) entitling each inmate to an individualized furlough assessment before his minimum release date. The statute provides that the Commissioner "may" grant furlough "if in the judgment of the commissioner the inmate will honor his trust." Thus, the Commissioner is not required to grant furlough even if he determines that "the inmate will honor his trust." As this Court stated in Conway v. Cumming, 161 Vt. 113, 118, 636 A.2d 735, 738 (1993), § 808(a) contains "no limitations on the discretionary authority granted to the Commissioner."

More significantly, even assuming that § 808 required an individualized assessment of each inmate's furlough eligibility, it contains no limitations on the Commissioner's discretion in determining when to make such individualized assessments. The Legislature knows how to impose such limitations, but chose not to do so with respect to the furlough statute. Cf. 28 V.S.A. § 501(2) ("If the inmate's sentence has a minimum term, the inmate shall be eligible for parole consideration after the inmate has served the minimum term of the sentence less any reductions in term for good behavior.").

The challenged policy sets forth eligibility requirements that...