Case Name: In re RAY CUMMINGS on Habeas Corpus
Court: Supreme Court of California
Jurisdiction: California
Decision Date: 1982-02-18
Citations: 30 Cal. 3d 870
Docket Number: Crim. No. 21978
Parties: In re RAY CUMMINGS on Habeas Corpus.
Judges: 
Reporter: California Reports
Volume: 30
Pages: 870–879

Head Matter:
[Crim. No. 21978.
Feb. 18, 1982.]
In re RAY CUMMINGS on Habeas Corpus.
Counsel
Michael Satris and Donald Specter, under appointments by the Supreme Court, Kelley Burg and Charles Bishop for Petitioner.
Quin Denvir, State Public Defender, and Harvey R. Zall, Deputy State Public Defender, as Amici Curiae on behalf of Petitioner.
George Deukmejian, Attorney General, Robert H. Philibosian, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Edward P. O’Brien and William D. Stein, Assistant Attorneys General, Gloria F. DeHart, John T. Murphy, Thomas A. Brady and Karl S. Mayer, Deputy Attorneys General, for Respondent.

Opinion:
Opinion
RICHARDSON, J.
The Department of Corrections (Department) has adopted regulations which allow certain prisoners overnight visitation with their "immediate family." Such visitation usually occurs in a guarded mobilehome, extends for two or three days, and includes the exercise of conjugal rights. Petitioner challenges as arbitrary and unreasonable the Department's eligibility restrictions but we uphold its action.
The regulations at issue direct prison wardens and superintendents to adopt a family visitation plan available "to as many inmates as is possible commensurate with institution security . Each institution will provide all necessary accommodations . to permit extended and overnight visitation between eligible inmates and members of the inmate's immediate family ." (Cal. Admin. Code, tit. 15, § 3174.) "Immedi ate family members" are defined as including "legal spouse," and "natural" or "adoptive" children, as well as parents, grandparents, grandchildren, brothers and sisters, and other specified classes of persons related to the inmate by blood, marriage or adoption. (Ibid.) Finally, the regulations provide that "Persons with only a common-law relationship to the inmate will not be recognized as immediate family members for the purpose of family visiting." (Ibid.)
Petitioner, a San Quentin inmate serving a sentence of life imprisonment for first degree murder, was denied family visitation with Susan C. and her daughter, S. According to petitioner, he had lived in a "family relationship" with Susan and S. from 1971 until his arrest in 197.8. He admits that he is not legally married to Susan, that S. is not his natural or adopted child, and that he is married to another woman and Susan is married to another man. Nevertheless, he insists that he should have been permitted family visitation with Susan and S. because of "a bona fide long-standing family relationship with [them] . . based on the long-standing and mutual emotional, psychological and financial commitment they have to each other." According to petitioner, his relationship with them has continued since his incarceration, through the exchange of letters and daytime prison visits.
When prison officials denied petitioner family visitation, petitioner brought the present habeas action seeking to invalidate the Department's regulations and to compel prison officials to extend to him these privileges.
Penal Code section 2600, enacted in 1975, provides that a prisoner "may . be deprived of such rights, and only such rights, as is necessary in order to provide for the reasonable security of the institution in which he is confined and for the reasonable protection of the public." Among the "rights" to which prisoners are ordinarily entitled is the right "To have personal visits; provided that the department may provide such restrictions as are necessary for the reasonable security of the institution." (Pen. Code, § 2601, subd. (d).)
We have previously acknowledged, however, that the foregoing provisions cannot '"be construed as a strait] acket limiting the ability of the prison authorities to deal with institutional realities.' [Citation.] Valid and compelling institutional considerations may necessitate certain limited inroads upon the exercise of the prisoner's civil rights." (In re van Geldern (1971) 5 Cal.3d 832, 837 [97 Cal.Rptr. 698, 489 P.2d 578].) As we recently observed, restrictions upon an inmate's associational rights are an inevitable product of his confinement: "Manifestly, one of the basic rights enjoyed by all free citizens, and necessarily denied to prisoners, is the right of association. By the very nature of imprisonment prisoners are separated from their families, their friends, and their business or social associates.... No legislative intent indicates, and no case law holds, that such restrictions on the right of association are invalid." (In re Price (1979) 25 Cal.3d 448, 452-453 [158 Cal.Rptr. 873, 600 P.2d 1330], italics added [no right to hold union meetings in prison].)
In this regard, the right-of-privacy cases relied on by petitioner (e.g., Committee to Defend Reproductive Rights v. Myers (1981) 29 Cal.3d 252 [172 Cal.Rptr. 866, 625 P.2d 779], and City of Santa Barbara v. Adamson (1980) 27 Cal.3d 123 [164 Cal.Rptr. 539, 610 P.2d 436]) are inapposite, for they concern the personal or privacy rights of nonprisoners. Rights of privacy, like associational rights, are necessarily and substantially abridged in a prison setting.
As In re Price, supra, 25 Cal.3d 448, further holds, we must attempt to determine whether the challenged regulation before us is "reasonable" and consistent with legitimate state interests. (P. 453.) We conclude that it is. Here, the department's regulation excludes family visitation by persons having only a "common-law relationship" with the inmate, that is, persons unrelated to him by marriage, blood or adoption. The program's social purpose of preserving family unity would not be served by encouraging inmates' overnight visits with those who are not in his family. Contrary to petitioner's contention, the regulation is not "arbitrary" but reasonable. The prolonged personal and intimate contact afforded prisoners is limited to those persons with whom the prisoner has a readily provable, legally cognizable, traditional family relationship. If, as is clear, prison officials may ban overnight visits with inmates altogether, then certainly they may limit those visits to persons with whom the inmate has a bona fide relationship established through blood, marriage or adoption. To recognize other "alternative" relationships as justifying "family" visitation is an invitation into semantic quicksand. Moreover, it would encourage subterfuge.
The opportunities for abuse of the family visitation privilege are obvious, and repeated abuses might well lead authorities to terminate the entire family visitation program, which is within their power. Such a consequence would represent a sad loss both to inmates and family members, bonded by legally recognized ties, who benefit from a generally laudable and humane attempt to preserve those ties during incarceration.
In the present case, for example, petitioner seeks overnight visitation with persons with whom he assertedly has had "a bona fide long-standing family relationship." Yet without the benefit of marriage, birth or adoption certificates, how are prison authorities to verify the truth of petitioner's assertion? Certainly, a prolonged administrative hearing should not be required in each of these cases, and yet it is equally evident that prison authorities need not accept as true petitioner's characterization of the relationship.
As we see it, there are two families here: Petitioner is in one. Susan and her daughter are in another. That may change, but it hasn't yet. Until it does, the relationship between petitioner and Susan is not that of a "family." It is something else.
Beyond the foregoing practical considerations, we discern no valid public policy requiring California's taxpayers to provide overnight housing accommodations and security supervision for a prison inmate with his or her paramour. In our view, such a program would represent both social folly and fiscal extravagance at a time when penal funds are much needed for more critical purposes; certainly, such a plan is not legally compelled.
Finally, we note from the record that petitioner is serving a life sentence for first degree murder. Susan herself has a criminal record. The potential volatility of such a situation is obvious.
Thus, we conclude that in the absence of a valid, provable family relationship based upon blood, marriage or adoption, prison officials are fully justified in denying extended overnight visitation.
The order to show cause previously issued herein is discharged and the petition for habeas corpus is denied.
Mosk, J., and Kaus, J., concurred.