Opinion ID: 488523
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the magistrate's report--recommendation

Text: 8 Magistrate Conan recommended granting summary judgment for Curran, concluding that the requirements of Directive 4422(III)(G)(2) had been fulfilled because authorization had been placed in appellant's file and renewed every 60 days. The magistrate did not discuss the alleged confidential information basis for the original surveillance order and accepted without comment defendant's contention that the 60-day renewals were justified because periodically some of Hall's mail implicated security and order at Clinton. The magistrate also accepted Curran's opinion that the confiscated materials were unprivileged mail from an unapproved correspondent, ignoring Hall's claim that he had authored the documents. 9 In his objections to the magistrate's report, Hall continued to assert his claim that the confiscated papers were not third party mail, averring that he was the founder of CCC, which he described as an inmate organization at Green Haven that became defunct upon his transfer to Clinton. He submitted an article from a correctional news publication which referred to him as the president of CCC. (Plaintiff's Objections to Magistrate's Report--Recommendation, Exhibit C.) Hall further claimed that Curran had violated Directive 4422(III)(G)(3) by failing to notify Berg of the confiscation. 2 He also argued that there had never been any justification for the monitoring of his mail and renewed his request to the court to order an in camera inspection of the alleged confidential information on which Curran claimed he originally relied. He contended that such information did not exist. (Plaintiff's Objections to Magistrate's Report--Recommendation, par. 2). 10 On October 8, 1986, the district court approved the Magistrate's Report-Recommendation and granted the defendant's cross-motion for summary judgment.