Opinion ID: 184384
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Did Brown Receive the Process He Was Due?

Text: 24 By contrast to the liberty-interest question, whether Brown received the process he was due turns on a few simple questions of fact. The decision to place an inmate who has a liberty interest in administrative segregation is subject to limited procedural safeguards. An inmate must merely receive some notice of the charges against him and an opportunity to present his views to the prison official charged with deciding whether to transfer him to administrative segregation.... So long as this occurs, and the decisionmaker reviews the charges and the then-available evidence against the prisoner, the Due Process Clause is satisfied. Hewitt, 459 U.S. at 476, 103 S.Ct. at 874. This process may be conducted a reasonable time after the transfer, and may be done either orally or in writing; periodic reviews are required after the initial transfer. See id. at 476-77 & n. 9, 103 S.Ct. at 873-74 & n. 9. 25 Brown contends that, because his placement in administrative confinement was based on an express finding that he had assaulted a correctional officer, it was essentially disciplinary in nature, so that he is entitled to the more extensive procedural protections applied to disciplinary hearings in Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 563-71, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974). Although Wolff itself involved both discipline and the loss of good time, we have applied Wolff in cases in which only discipline was at issue. See Crosby-Bey v. District of Columbia, 786 F.2d 1182, 1185 (D.C.Cir.1986) (per curiam). But Brown has not established that his treatment was disciplinary in nature. Prison officials may appropriately place an inmate in administrative segregation if she represents a threat to the institution's security. Hewitt, 459 U.S. at 474, 103 S.Ct. at 872-73. The fact that prison officials have made a finding that the inmate has committed an assault, [327 U.S.App.D.C. 321] rather than operating on the charge or suspicion that she has done so or will do so, does not trigger Wolff. 8 26 We therefore conclude that only the procedures required in Hewitt--some notice, and an opportunity for the inmate to present his views, 459 U.S. at 476, 103 S.Ct. at 873-74--apply to this case. 9 Hewitt 's requirements are not elaborate, but they are real, and must be strictly complied with. The present record raises two questions as to whether Brown had fair notice of the purpose and implications of the Housing Board hearing. 27 Brown was initially told that he would receive a disciplinary hearing on October 16 on charges of Threatening Conduct and Possession of Major Contraband. Then, on October 15, he was brought before the Housing Board. It is not clear whether Brown was told that this hearing would be his only opportunity to respond to the charges against him. With certain exceptions, D.C. regulations prohibit inmates from being held in administrative segregation for more than three days without a hearing before the Housing Board. D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 28, §§ 521.7, 531.10 (1987). Brown might thus have assumed that the Housing Board hearing was only intended to consider his temporary placement in administrative segregation pending the Adjustment Board's decision, and that he would have an opportunity to defend himself on any charges at the Adjustment Board hearing on the following day. On remand, the district court should determine whether Brown made this mistaken assumption, and if so whether it was reasonable for him to do so in light of what he was told about the purpose of the Housing Board hearing. 28 It is also not clear whether Brown knew that the Housing Board hearing was intended to address charges that he had assaulted a correctional officer. Brown had only been notified of an Adjustment Board hearing on charges of Threatening Conduct and Possession of Major Contraband. He had previously received a disciplinary report charging him with Bodily Injury; the fact that this charge was apparently not to be addressed at the Adjustment Board hearing could have reasonably led him to conclude that it had been dropped. 10 Nor does the Housing Board Action Sheet that appears in the record provide any evidence as to whether Brown was told at the hearing that the Board would consider whether he had committed an assault. It records Brown only as saying that he does not fear for his safety and that he wants to have access to a law library, words that might suggest Brown thought that the hearing was about whether he himself was threatened and wished to be placed in voluntary protective custody. 11 29 [327 U.S.App.D.C. 322] If Brown was not provided an accurate picture of what was at stake in the hearing, then he was not given his due process. See Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 314-15, 70 S.Ct. 652, 657-58, 94 L.Ed. 865 (1950); Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division v. Craft, 436 U.S. 1, 14-15, 98 S.Ct. 1554, 1562-63, 56 L.Ed.2d 30 (1978). On the other hand, if he was advised of the charges that would be considered against him and given an opportunity to present his views, then he was given all the process he was due. Hewitt, 459 U.S. at 476, 103 S.Ct. at 874. Because there is no record as to what occurred at the Housing Board hearing, we find it necessary to remand to the district court for further development of the facts surrounding this hearing.