Rebideau v. Stoneman

• Decision Date: 19 June 1975
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 75-3,75-115.
• Citation: 398 F. Supp. 805
• Parties: Raymond REBIDEAU v. R. Kent STONEMAN, Commissioner of Corrections, State of Vermont. Robert REUSCHEL v. R. Kent STONEMAN, Individually and in his official capacity as Commissioner of Corrections for the State of Vermont.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Vermont

398 F. Supp. 805

Raymond REBIDEAU v. R. Kent STONEMAN, Commissioner of Corrections, State of Vermont.

Robert REUSCHEL v. R. Kent STONEMAN, Individually and in his official capacity as Commissioner of Corrections for the State of Vermont.

Civ. A. Nos. 75-3, 75-115.

United States District Court, D. Vermont.

June 19, 1975.

James R. Flett, Montpelier, Vt., for Rebideau and Reuschel.

Alan Cook and Robert L. Orleck, Asst. Attys. Gen., Dept. of Corrections, Montpelier, Vt., for defendants.

Before OAKES, Circuit Judge, and HOLDEN and COFFRIN, District Judges.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

HOLDEN, District Judge.

The plaintiffs in these combined actions are Vermont state prisoners presently confined at the Windsor Correctional Facility.¹ They seek, inter alia, to enjoin defendant Stoneman, Vermont's Commissioner of Corrections, from transferring them to the federal prison system under authority conferred by state and federal statutes designed to accomplish such changes in penal custody. 28 V.S.A. § 706 (1975); 18 U.S.C. § 5003.

The single question presented to this three-judge court is whether injunctive relief should be granted to halt the transfers on the plaintiffs' claim that the challenged statute, 28 V.S.A. § 706(b) (1975), by its very terms, denied the plaintiffs equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Section 706(b) provides that:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an inmate transferred to a federal correctional facility shall, unless otherwise agreed in a contract or contracts, be subject to the same law, rules, regulations, and procedures applicable to inmates committed for violations of laws of the United States, not inconsistent with the sentence imposed. Such law, rules, regulations, and procedures applicable to Vermont prisoners confined outside Vermont may include but are not limited to matters of discipline, classification, segregation, visiting, mail, clothing or dress, use of telephones, personal property, employment, work release, furlough and transfer.

Added 1975, No. 21 (Adj.Sess.) § 1, eff. March 31, 1975.

For the reasons which follow, we conclude that the statute on its face does not offend the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; accordingly, the plaintiff's request for injunctive relief on this ground is denied.²

Since the plaintiffs seek to enjoin a state official from executing a statute of statewide application,³ and their complaints present constitutional claims that are not insubstantial, Goosby v. Osser, 409 U.S. 512, 518, 93 S.Ct. 854, 35 L.Ed.2d 36 (1972), the jurisdiction of this court is properly invoked. 28 U.S. C. §§ 2281, 2284; see Gonzalez v. Employees Credit Union, 419 U.S. 90, 94, 95 S.Ct. 289, 42 L.Ed.2d 249 (1974). The plaintiffs' complaints, brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, additionally raise pendent state claims⁴ and constitutional challenges to 28 V.S.A. § 706, as applied to Windsor prisoners who will be transferred to the federal prison system. These claims do not require adjudication by a three-judge court;⁵ they will be reached by a single district judge upon dissolution of the present court with the filing of this order.⁶

The archaic Windsor prison is in its terminal stages. Defendant Stoneman announced on December 30, 1974, that he would close the Windsor Correctional Facility by June 30, 1975. He found the 187 year old prison to be "inadequate" in numerous respects. See 28 V.S.A. § 102(c) (11).⁷ With the closing of the Windsor facility, their will be no long maximum security facility within the State of Vermont. To provide for those prisoners who require maximum security confinement, the defendant contracted with officials of the United States Bureau of Prisons to provide for the care and custody of approximately forty Vermont prisoners in this category.⁸ At the hearing before this court on June 4, 1975, defendant Stoneman testified that, barring judicial intervention, the Windsor Facility would close as planned on June 30, 1975. By that date, the defendant plans to transfer approximately twenty-five maximum security prisoners to the federal prison system under the contract. The plaintiffs are two of the more than twenty prisoners held at Windsor who have filed complaints in this district, seeking to enjoin their transfer to the federal prison system.

The plaintiffs contend that Vermont law secures to its state prisoners certain rights which are not afforded to federal prisoners and that their transfer to the federal prison system under the provisions of 28 V.S.A. § 706(b) would unconstitutionally deny them those state created rights. They maintain that in the following twelve areas they will be unconstitutionally disadvantaged in comparison with Vermont prisoners incarcerated in-state: (1) work release, (2) furlough, (3) personal property, (4) grooming, (5) clothing, (6) disciplinary hearings, (7) segregation, (8) good-time credits, (9) visiting, (10) correspondence, (11) telephone and (12) access to counsel. In the last four named, the plaintiffs contend that the additional burden of incarceration outside of Vermont, away from family and local ties, would unconstitutionally discriminate against them.

We are called upon to make a factual determination of the actual differences which prevail in treatment afforded Vermont prisoners incarcerated in-state as compared with those confined in federal facilities. We find that there is substantially no difference between Vermont's work release, 28 V.S.A. § 753 (1972), and furlough, 28 V.S.A. § 808 (1972), programs and the equivalent fedderal programs. See Bureau of Prisons Policy Statement (hereinafter BPPS) 7500.20B (11-16-71) (work release); BPPS 7300.12c (7-23-74) (furlough).

We find from the uncontroverted testimony of Commissioner Stoneman that the state programs were modeled in large part on the federal programs. Furthermore, the state prisoners who would be transferred to the federal system would not be eligible for Vermont work release or furlough status were they to remain in Vermont.

Windsor prisoners heretofore have been afforded the privilege of possessing personal television sets and record players only to fend off idleness at the inadequately equipped Windsor Facility. The use of television sets and record players is not a right secured to Vermont prisoners by rule or practice. The extent of personal property that can be kept by inmates varies from federal institution to institution as it does from state facility to state facility.

In matters of personal clothing, federal prisoners are generally required to wear uniforms, while state prisoners generally can retain and wear personal clothing. The only difference between the grooming requirements of the two systems is that federal prisoners cannot wear beards for security reasons, because federal officials claim that a beard can make a prisoner difficult to identify. See BPPS 7300.64A (4-15-75).

Vermont's disciplinary hearing procedure is set out in 28 V.S.A. § 852 and is supplemented by Disciplinary Regulations revised January 20, 1975. The purpose of the federal regulations on point, BPPS 7400.5C (10-4-74), is expressly "the incorporation of due process standards for inmate disciplinary hearings as prescribed by the Supreme Court in Wolff v. McDonell." The differences between the two hearings procedures are that in Vermont the commissioner may designate a hearing officer to hear evidence and make findings of fact and recommendations to the disciplinary committee; the federal regulations do not expressly vest that discretion in an executive officer of the Bureau of Prisons. The federal regulations do provide for an appeal from a decision of the disciplinary committee. BPPS 7400.5C(10). Additionally, in Vermont an inmate has the right to be heard, 28 V.S.A. § 852 (b)(3), while under federal procedure he has the right to be present with the assistance of a fulltime staff member, except during deliberation and where institutional security is jeopardized. BPPS 7400.5C 9(c) (2), (3) and (5) (10-4-74). In Vermont, prisoners have the statutory right to confront their accusers, 28 V.S.A. § 852(b) (2), and personally to question witnesses summoned by the committee or hearing officer, 28 V.S. A. § 852(b) (3). The federal regulations permit an inmate to have witnesses called in and to present documents in his behalf, provided institutional security is not endangered.

The differences in pre-segregation disciplinary hearing procedures are outlined above. Vermont imposes a fifteen consecutive day maximum duration of segregation, 28 V.S.A. § 853 (a) (1); the federal regulations provide for indefinite segregation with mandatory periodic reviews, BPPS 7400.5C 11(b). The loss of good time credits, in both the federal and state systems, is restricted to one month for a single disciplinary infraction. 28 V.S.A. § 812; BPPS 7400.5C 9(d) (4). The evidence establishes that Vermont and the federal Bureau of Prisons, in common, grant ten days a month of good time credit for good behavior. Vermont additionally vests in the facility directors the discretion to award an additional five days of credit a month. Commissioner Stoneman assured the court that Vermont's five day discretionary practice would carry forward and be applicable to Vermont prisoners in federal custody; that he personally would make the final decision as to the granting or restoration of good time credits for Vermont prisoners wherever they are confined. See 28 V.S.A. § 813.

Both the state and federal systems provide for the inspection of general correspondence, 28 V.S.A. § 802(a); BPPS 7300.1A 6(b) (8-13-74), and afford protection and privilege to communications with courts and attorneys. 28 V.S.A. § 802(b); BPPS 7300.1A 6(b), BPPS 2001.2B 10 (8-29-72). It appears that Windsor prisoners have enjoyed broad correspondence privileges for the same reasons that they have been allowed to possess personal television sets: to compensate for the lack of...