Opinion ID: 1894755
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Entitlement of Expungement of Disciplinary Report and Restoration of Prereport Status.

Text: Applicant argues that the district court erred in not following the mandates of rule 804(e) as embraced in the Kane v. Brewer consent decree. We have previously considered the effect of the federal consent decree in Davis v. State, 345 N.W.2d 97, 101 (Iowa 1984), and Kelly v. Nix, 329 N.W.2d 287, 293 (Iowa 1983). With respect to the matter at issue, the consent decree provided: If an alleged rule violation is not adjudicated in accordance with the due process procedures set forth in this Section, no punishment may be imposed for such rule violation, and all records of the alleged violation, including the reporting officer's incident report, shall be expunged from the inmate's treatment and legal files and from any other records which may be subject to review by the Board of Parole. For reasons which have not been made clear, that rule has been redrafted and appears in a slightly different form in Rules, Regulations and Disciplinary Procedures for the government of the Iowa State Penitentiary Inmates. The amended rule now reads: If an alleged rule violation is not adjudicated in accordance with the procedures contained in this manual of disciplinary policies and procedures, no punishment may be imposed for such rule violations, and all records of the alleged violation including the reporting officer's incident report, shall be expunged from the inmate's treatment and legal files and from any other records which may be subject to review by the Board of Parole PROVIDED HOWEVER: (1) That insubstantial and nonprejudicial deviations from these procedures shall not preclude punishment or require expungement.... Regardless of whether applicant's contentions are considered under the language of the original consent decree or the amended prison rule, we conclude that the district court's grant of relief was sufficient. As we observed in Davis, 345 N.W. 2d at 101, the remedy of expungement is designed to preclude unwarranted collateral consequences from determinations arrived at with less than the requisite procedural fairness. As such, we do not believe it fits the situation where one of two charges is overturned because the finding of guilt rests upon an insufficient quantum of supporting proof. The order of the district court overturning the committee's finding of escape has all of the salutory features that an expungement of that finding would have and results in the record accurately reflecting the extent of applicant's involvement in the planned escape. It is not appropriate to return the applicant to his prereport status because the charges of the report were partially sustained.