Opinion ID: 787387
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Misbehavior Charges

Text: 3 On January 19, 2000, Rubin Sira, then incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility, was served with a written misbehavior report drafted by Lieutenant G. Schneider charging him with violations of prison disciplinary rules 102.10 and 104.12. Rule 102.10 states: Inmates shall not, under any circumstances make any threat, spoken, in writing, or by gesture; rule 104.12 provides: Inmates shall not lead, organize, participate, or urge other inmates to participate, in work-stoppages, sit-ins, lock-ins, or other actions which may be detrimental to the order of facility. 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 270.2(B). 4 The report described the incident giving rise to these charges as follows: 5 During the course of an investigation into a planned inmate demonstration at this facility in which inmates would conduct a work/program stoppage on or about January 1, 2000, Inmate Sira has been identified through confidential sources as having urged other inmates to participate, organized inmates to participate and threatened inmates to participate. 6 Sira Misbehavior Report at 1. In response to specific inquiries on the report form, Lt. Schneider indicated that (1) the date of the charged incident was January 19, 2000; (2) the incident time was 10:15 a.m.; (3) the incident location was Green Haven Correctional Facility; and (4) no persons other than Sira were involved in the incident. 7 The work stoppage described in Sira's misbehavior report was commonly referred to at Green Haven as the Y2K strike, a reference to its scheduled New Year's 2000 date. To avert the strike, prison officials had ordered an inmate lockdown beginning on December 24, 1999, and lasting through January 6, 2000. In fact, once the lockdown ended, a prison strike did occur, with many inmates refusing to follow the schedules established by correction authorities.