Source: https://casetext.com/case/montanye-v-haymes
Timestamp: 2019-11-22 06:18:31
Document Index: 298578107

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1983', '§ 1343', 'art 260', '§ 71', '§ 103', '§ 23', '§ 253']

Montanye v. Haymes, 427 U.S. 236 | Casetext
427 U.S. 236 (1976)
Montanyev.Haymes
1. An interstate prison transfer does not deprive an inmate of any liberty interest protected by the Due…
Wakinekona v. Olim
II. In Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 96 S.Ct. 2532, 49 L.Ed.2d 451 (1976), and Montanye v. Haymes, 427 U.S.…
holding that prisoner had no due process claim for transfer from one state prison to another
Summary of this case from Lewis v. Thigpen
holding that New York state prisoners have no right to incarceration at a particular prison facility
Summary of this case from Bradshaw v. Locke
holding that a statute which grants the prison administration discretion does not confer a right on an inmate
Summary of this case from Mathis v. Kauffman
Argued April 21, 1976 Decided June 25, 1976
Solicitor General Bork, Assistant Attorney General Thornburgh, Deputy Solicitor General Jones, and Peter M. Shannon, Jr., filed a brief for the United States as amicus curiae urging reversal.
Evelle J. Younger, Attorney General, Jack R. Winkler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Edward P. O'Brien, Assistant Attorney General, and John T. Murphy, Karl S. Mayer, and Jean M. Bordon, Deputy Attorneys General, filed a brief for the State of California as amicus curiae.
On June 7, 1972, respondent Haymes was removed from his assignment as inmate clerk in the law library at the Attica Correctional Facility in the State of New York. That afternoon Haymes was observed circulating among other inmates a document prepared by him and at the time signed by 82 other prisoners. Among other things, each signatory complained that he had been deprived of legal assistance as the result of the removal of Haymes and another inmate from the prison law library. The document, which was addressed to a federal judge but sought no relief, was seized and held by prison authorities. On June 8, Haymes was advised that he would be transferred to Clinton Correctional Facility, which, like Attica, was a maximum-security institution. The transfer was effected the next day. No loss of good time, segregated confinement, loss of privileges, or any other disciplinary measures accompanied the transfer. On August 3, Haymes filed a petition with the United States District Court which was construed by the judge to be an application under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 28 U.S.C. § 1343 seeking relief against petitioner Montanye, the then Superintendent at Attica. The petition complained that the seizure and retention of the document, despite requests for its return, not only violated Administrative Bulletin No. 20, which allegedly made any communication to a court privileged and confidential, but also infringed Haymes' federally guaranteed right to petition the court for redress of grievances. It further asserted that Haymes' removal to Clinton was to prevent him from pursuing his remedies and also was in reprisal for his having rendered legal assistance to various prisoners as well as having, along with others, sought to petition the court for redress.
In response to a show-cause order issued by the court, petitioner Brady, the correctional officer at Attica in charge of the law library, stated in an affidavit that Haymes had been relieved from his assignment as an inmate clerk in the law library "because of his continual disregard for the rules governing inmates and the use of the law library" and that only one of the inmates who had signed the petition being circulated by Haymes had ever made an official request for legal assistance. The affidavit of Harold Smith, Deputy Superintendent of Attica, furnished the court with Paragraph 21 of the Inmate's Rule Book, which prohibited an inmate from furnishing legal assistance to another inmate without official permission and with a copy of a bulletin board notice directing inmates with legal problems to present them to Officer Brady — inmates were in no circumstances to set themselves up as legal counselors and receive pay for their services. The affidavit asserted that the petition taken from Haymes was being circulated "in direct disregard of the above rule forbidding legal assistance except with the approval of the Superintendent" and that Haymes had been cautioned on several occasions about assisting other inmates without the required approval.
The court's legal theory was that Haymes should no more be punished by a transfer having harsh consequences than he should suffer other deprivations which under prison rules could not be imposed without following specified procedures. Disciplinary transfers, the Court of Appeals thought, were in a different category from "administrative" transfers. "When harsh treatment is meted out to reprimand, deter, or reform an individual, elementary fairness demands that the one punished be given a satisfactory opportunity to establish that he is not deserving of such handling. . . . [T]he specific facts upon which a decision to punish are predicated can most suitably be ascertained at an impartial hearing to review the evidence of the alleged misbehavior, and to assess the effect which transfer will have on the inmate's future incarceration." 505 F.2d, at 980. The Court of Appeals found it difficult "to look upon the circumstances of the transfer as a mere coincidence," id., at 979; it was also convinced that Haymes might be able to demonstrate sufficiently burdensome consequences attending the transfer to trigger the protections of the Due Process Clause, even though Attica and Clinton were both maximum-security prisons. The case was therefore remanded for further proceedings to the District Court. We granted certiorari, 422 U.S. 1055 (1975), and heard the case with Meachum v. Fano, ante, p. 215. We reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
The Court of Appeals found "that the hardship involved in the mere fact of dislocation may be sufficient to render Haymes's summary transfer — if a trial establishes that it was punitive — a denial of due process." 505 F.2d, at 981. The court said:
"The facts of this case may provide a good illustration of the real hardship in being shuttled from one institution to another. After being sent to Clinton, Haymes found himself several hundred miles away from his home and family in Buffalo, New York. Not only was he effectively separated by the transfer from his only contact with the world outside the prison, but he also was removed from the friends he had made among the inmates at Attica and forced to adjust to a new environment where he may well have been regarded as a troublemaker. Contacts with counsel would necessarily have been more difficult. A transferee suffers other consequences as well: the inmate is frequently put in administrative segregation upon arrival at the new facility, 7 N.Y. C. R. R. Part 260; personal belongings are often lost; he may be deprived of facilities and medications for psychiatric and medical treatment, see Hoitt v. Vitek, 361 F. Supp. 1238, 1249 (D. N. H. 1973); and educational and rehabilitative programs can be interrupted. Moreover, the fact of transfer, and perhaps the reasons alleged therefor, will be put on the record reviewed by the parole board, and the prisoner may have difficulty rebutting, long after the fact, the adverse inference to be drawn therefrom." Id., at 981-982.
We also agree with the State of New York that under the law of that State Haymes had no right to remain at any particular prison facility and no justifiable expectation that he would not be transferred unless found guilty of misconduct. Under New York law, adult persons sentenced to imprisonment are not sentenced to particular institutions, but are committed to the custody of the Commissioner of Corrections. He receives adult, male felons at a maximum-security reception center for initial evaluation and then transfers them to specified institutions. N.Y. Correc. Law § 71(1) (McKinney Supp. 1975-1976); 7 N.Y. C. R. R. § 103.10. Thereafter, the Commissioner is empowered by statute to "transfer inmates from one correctional facility to another." N.Y. Correc. Law § 23(1) (McKinney Supp. 1975-1976). The Court of Appeals reasoned that because under the applicable state statutes and regulations, various specified punishments were reserved as sanctions for breach of prison rules and could not therefore be imposed without appropriate hearings, neither could the harsh consequences of a transfer be imposed as punishment for misconduct absent appropriate due process procedures. But under the New York law, the transfer of inmates is not conditional upon or limited to the occurrence of misconduct. The statute imposes no conditions on the discretionary power to transfer, and we are advised by the State that no such requirements have been promulgated. Transfers are not among the punishments which may be imposed only after a prison disciplinary hearing. 7 N.Y. C. R. R. § 253.5. Whatever part an inmate's behavior may play in a decision to transfer, there is no more basis in New York law for invoking the protections of the Due Process Clause than we found to be the case under the Massachusetts law in the Meachum case.
Respondent alleged in his complaint that his transfer violated his First Amendment rights because it had the purpose of suppressing his attempt to petition the courts, and that any rule which forbade Page 245 him to do that was unconstitutional. It was also disputed whether respondent had actually broken any rule against giving legal advice to other prisoners. It was improper for the District Court either to dismiss the complaint or to grant summary judgment for the defendants without a trial of the facts. Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519; Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41.