Opinion ID: 160150
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Substantial and Potent Penalties

Text: 29 The next critical question is whether the consequences imposed constitute penalties that are sufficiently potent and substantial to implicate the Fifth Amendment. See Cunningham, 431 U.S. at 805. Defendants argue that the prison's privileges and incentives program does not employ sanctions or penalties within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment. We are not so persuaded. 30 As noted above, Plaintiff's refusal to admit responsibility and disclose his sexual history would result in a transfer from medium security prison to maximum security. This transfer goes hand in hand with a reduction in the inmate's classification, from Level III to Level I, which would result in the loss and restrictions of many privileges. These include the loss of participation in prison organizations and activities, including the IMPP; the loss of personal TV; substantially restricted access to the yard area and gym; substantially restricted visitation rights; significantly restricted purchasing rights at the canteen in terms of the amount of dollars the inmate is permitted to spend per payroll period; reduction in incentive pay and corresponding job opportunities; and restricted ability to retain personal property. See App. at 29; Supp. App. at 100-01; see also Supp. App. at 66-68 (describing how much more dangerous maximum security is). In addition, the Warden of the Lansing Correctional Facility and the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Corrections confirmed by their deposition testimony that these and other restrictions would occur with the transfer of an inmate from Level III to Level I. See Supp. App. at 72 (admitting reduction in open yard schedule); Supp. App. at 80 (explaining movement from two-person cell in medium security to four-person cell or dorm in maximum security); Supp. App. at 81 (describing restrictions); Supp. App. at 103 (describing the greater potential for violence in maximum security); Supp. App. at 285 (explaining consequences for refusal to participate in program agreement). 31 We conclude that these deprivations and changes in environment are penalties sufficient to implicate the Fifth Amendment because they have substantial or potent effects on the inmate. Cf. Brooker v. Warden, No. 98-466, 1999 WL 813893,  (D.N.H. June 22, 1999) (recognizing coercive effect of a requirement that an inmate satisfactorily participate in a sex offender treatment program as a prerequisite to parole, but finding no compulsion because inmate voluntarily participated in program and because he could choose not to participate without increasing the hardship of his incarceration since he was not subject to any additional punishment for refusing to participate). 32 The Supreme Court's decision in Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308 (1976), also illustrates how the consequences in this case constitute penalties within the Fifth Amendment. Mr. Palmigiano was an inmate of the Rhode Island Correctional Institution serving a life sentence for murder. He was charged with a disciplinary infraction, and, during his disciplinary hearing, he was told that he had a right to remain silent but that if he remained silent his silence would be held against him. Id. at 312. The Court held that an adverse inference may be drawn from a defendant's decision to remain silent at a prison disciplinary hearing without violating the prisoner's Fifth Amendment rights. Id. at 320. The Court reasoned that a prison inmate in Rhode Island electing to remain silent during his disciplinary hearing . . . is not . . . automatically found guilty of the infraction with which he has been charged because of his silence. Id. at 317. Thus, because an inmate's silence in and of itself is insufficient to support an adverse decision by the Disciplinary Board, the court determined that the case was very different from the circumstances before the court in the Garrity-Lefkowitz decisions, where refusal to submit to the interrogation and to waive the Fifth Amendment privilege, standing alone and without regard to other evidence, resulted in loss of employment. Id. at 318. 33 The consequences at issue in this case are more like those in the Garrity-Lefkowitz decisions than in Baxter. Here, unlike in Baxter, Plaintiff's refusal to submit to the interrogation to disclose the required information about his sexual history standing alone, would certainly result in the transfer to Level I and the corresponding loss and restriction of many privileges. As a result, we think the substantial penalties imposed in this case rise above the threshold limit of consequences set forth in Baxter which are acceptable and do not violate the Fifth Amendment. 34