Reddin v. Gray, 75-C-616.
| Decision Date | 28 September 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 75-C-616.,75-C-616. |
| Citation | 418 F. Supp. 1144 |
| Parties | Phillip REDDIN, Plaintiff, v. Ramon L. GRAY, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Wisconsin |
Charles Bennett Vetzner, Post-Conviction Defense Project, Madison, Wis., for plaintiff.
James H. Petersen, Asst. Atty. Gen., Madison, Wis., for defendant.
The plaintiff, Phillip Reddin, is an inmate at the Wisconsin State Prison, Waupun, Wisconsin. The defendant, Ramon L. Gray, is the warden of the aforesaid institution, named in his official capacity as the person responsible for implementing the policies of the Division of Correction of the Wisconsin Department of Health & Social Services. Plaintiff brings this action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, and his complaint stating a cause of action with respect to conditions of confinement is within the jurisdiction of this Court. Cooper v. Lockhart, 489 F.2d 308, 310 (8th Cir. 1973).
The facts of this case, as they appear from the record, bear brief statement. On July 8, 1972, the plaintiff was paroled from a sentence he was then serving in the Kentucky State Penitentiary, said parole to be served under Wisconsin State supervision. In December of 1974, the plaintiff was convicted of manslaughter in a Wisconsin State Court, and sentenced to an indeterminate term not to exceed nine years.
On January 30, 1975, by which time the plaintiff was in the custody of the defendant, the defendant received a parole violation warrant from the Kentucky Parole Board. In February of 1975, the defendant notified the Kentucky Parole Board that the warrant had been received and filed as a detainer, and entered upon the plaintiff's record. Copies of this notice were placed in the Social Services, Security & Records office files at the prison. Thereafter, in March and in July, law student interns from the Legal Assistance to Inmates Project of the University of Wisconsin Law School contacted the Kentucky Parole Board on plaintiff's behalf, at first seeking to have plaintiff's remaining Kentucky sentence run concurrently with his Wisconsin sentence. After the Kentucky Parole Board refused this request, they requested that the plaintiff be given a prompt parole revocation hearing, or in the alternative, that his parole be reinstated and the warrant recalled. After the Kentucky Parole Board responded by a letter stating that the detainer could not be withdrawn, plaintiff filed suit in this Court.
In his complaint, plaintiff alleges that the presence of the Kentucky detainer in his files at the Wisconsin prison has had and will have adverse effects upon the conditions of his confinement at the prison. Plaintiff asserts that by using the detainer to determine the conditions of his confinement, the defendant adversely affects the plaintiff without due process of law. Plaintiff seeks to enjoin the defendant from giving credit to the detainer and from determining plaintiff's institutional status, rights and privileges on the basis of said detainer. Plaintiff also seeks a declaration that the actions complained of are violative of his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. After defendant answered the complaint, the plaintiff moved for a preliminary injunction or in the alternative, for summary judgment. For the reasons hereinafter stated, the court has concluded that plaintiff's motion for summary judgment must be granted.
The issue presented by this case is whether the punitive effects of a detainer, placed on the plaintiff by a Wisconsin official because of pending parole revocation in another state, may be continued when the latter state refuses to determine the question of revocation, apparently with the intent of deferring such determination until such time as the plaintiff is released from his present confinement. This court holds that the defendant denies the plaintiff due process by giving effect to a parole revocation detainer placed on him at the request of a sister state which refuses to promptly conduct a parole revocation hearing. Accordingly, the defendant shall promptly notify the appropriate Kentucky authorities of this decision. In the event that the Kentucky authorities do not request within 60 days of this decision's date that the plaintiff be made available for a timely parole revocation hearing, the defendant must discontinue the special conditions of confinement stemming from the parole revocation detainer.
In reaching this conclusion the Court is guided by the decision of Cooper v. Lockhart, 489 F.2d 308 (8th Cir. 1973). In that case, the Court of Appeals reached a similar conclusion on essentially identical facts. The rationale of that decision is that Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972) requires the timely hearing and disposition by the parole state even though the parolee is in the custody of another state. The fact that the timeliness of the hearing is solely within the control of the State seeking the arrest and not the custodial State is irrelevant in a suit seeking to bar the custodial State from using the parole revocation detainer as a basis for determining conditions of confinement:
* * *" Cooper v. Lockhart, supra, at 313.
The actions of the Kentucky Parole Board, per se, are not before this Court; moreover, this Court lacks jurisdiction over its person. But the Court does have jurisdiction over the defendant Wisconsin official, and it has the authority to determine whether his actions are consistent with due process.
In his answer, the defendant asserts that Sec. 57.13(3), Wis.Stats., requires that he give full faith and consideration to the parole violation warrant issued under the authority of the Commonwealth of Kentucky....
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Foster v. United States Parole Commission, C-3-80-111.
...(emphasis added), and petitioner contends such difference was subsequently held to support a due process violation in Reddin v. Gray, 418 F.Supp. 1144 (E.D.Wis.1976), motion for relief from judgment denied, 427 F.Supp. 386, (D.C.), rev'd on other grounds sub nom., Reddin v. Israel, 561 F.2d......
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State ex rel. Reddin v. Meekma, 80-316
...corpus affirmed. * Petition to Review Pending.1 For prior published decisions regarding appellant's Kentucky parole, see Reddin v. Gray, 418 F.Supp. 1144 (E.D.Wis.1976), and Reddin v. Gray, 427 F.Supp. 386 (E.D.Wis.1977), rev'd Reddin v. Israel, 561 F.2d 715 (7th Cir.1977), on remand Reddin......
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Reddin v. Israel
...due process because the defendant had given effect to the detainer without Kentucky's granting a prompt parole revocation hearing. 418 F.Supp. 1144. The district court relied primarily on Cooper v. Lockhart, 489 F.2d 308 (8th Cir. 1973), 1 which held that the added punitive restrictions whi......