Opinion ID: 2998269
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: All Prisoners’ Due Process Claim

Text: Both groups of prisoners, the litigation plaintiffs and the gang plaintiffs, submit that the district court improperly dismissed their due process claims. These claims alleged that the transfer to Tamms constituted punishment and therefore required that the prisoners receive notice and a hearing. The district court read our decision in Wagner v. Hanks, 128 F.3d 1173 (7th Cir. 1997), to imply that the prisoners would have a liberty interest only if the conditions at Tamms were significantly more restrictive than administrative detention at the most secure prison in the state. In this case, that prison is the one where the prisoners are incarcerated, Tamms. Under the district court’s reading of Wagner, no prisoner in administrative detention at Tamms could make out a due process claim. Additionally, held the court, because the prisoners offered no evidence showing that disciplinary segregation at Tamms was significantly more restrictive than administrative detention at the facility (indeed, the evidence seems to suggest that the conditions are equally harsh), prisoners in disciplinary segregation status likewise failed to demonstrate a liberty interest. Our colleague in the district court had to deal with these contentions without the benefit of the Supreme Court’s decision in Wilkinson v. Austin, 125 S. Ct. 2384 (2005). 21 (...continued) of a court ordered cut-off cannot plead prejudice from his own inaction.”). Moreover, any prejudice that IDOC did suffer easily could have been cured by granting IDOC additional time in which to respond to the new allegations. Therefore, even if the prisoners had violated Rule 26 by failing to amend their interrogatory responses, the district court abused its discretion in excluding evidence supporting their falsification theory. 30 No. 03-3318 Wilkinson gives substantial guidance on the appropriate resolution of the issues in the present case. Consequently, after its rendition by the Supreme Court, the parties to this case submitted their views on how the Court’s rationale ought to affect our decision in this case. Wilkinson upheld, against a due process challenge, Ohio’s procedure for transferring prisoners to the Ohio State Penitentiary (“OSP”), that state’s “supermax” prison, a facility designed to hold the most dangerous prisoners who posed a special threat if incarcerated in the general prison population. At OSP, almost every aspect of the inmate’s life was controlled and monitored. Extreme isolation was imposed; opportunities for visitation were sharply curtailed and always conducted through glass walls. The inmates were deprived of almost every form of environmental or sensory stimuli. There was very little human contact. A prisoner could be placed in the supermax for an indefinite period of time; only the length of the prisoner’s sentence marked the outer limits of his stay. If an inmate was otherwise eligible for parole, he lost that eligibility while assigned to the facility. Under the policy finally adopted by Ohio to govern the selection of prisoners for placement in the supermax facility, a prison official conducted, prior to placement, a classification review. This review focused on the offense of conviction in the case of prisoners just committed to the prison system and on certain types of conduct in the case of those already incarcerated. The prisoner was notified of the factual basis for a recommendation for placement in the supermax and given a fair opportunity for rebuttal at a hearing. He could not, however, call witnesses. Additionally, prior to the final level of review, the prisoner was given an opportunity to submit objections to the recommendation. There were three levels of review. At each level, a decision No. 03-3318 31 against placement in the supermax facility terminated the process and the prisoner was not assigned to the supermax. After placement in the supermax prison, a prisoner received a review after thirty days and an annual review thereafter. The Supreme Court held that prisoners had a constitutionally protected liberty interest in avoiding assignment to OSP. Reiterating the conclusion it reached in Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 225 (1976), the Court noted “that the Constitution itself does not give rise to a liberty interest in avoiding transfer to more adverse conditions of confinement.” Wilkinson, 125 S. Ct. at 2393. However, continued the Court, “a liberty interest in avoiding particular conditions of confinement may arise from state policies or regulations, subject to the important limitations set forth in Sandin v. Connor, 515 U.S. 472 (1995).” Id. The Court went on to emphasize that Sandin pointedly had rejected the methodology of parsing the language of particular regulations. Rather, “the touchstone of the inquiry into the existence of a protected, state-created liberty interest . . . is not the language of regulations regarding those conditions but the nature of those conditions themselves ‘in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life.’ ” Id. at 2394 (quoting Sandin, 515 U.S. at 484). The Supreme Court then went on to apply the methodology of Sandin to the situation before it. It noted the inconsistent results that courts of appeals have reached in applying the Sandin formula because it is difficult to determine a baseline from which to ascertain whether the conditions of confinement are an atypical and significant hardship. Noting the absence of briefing on the subject in the case before it, the Court nevertheless concluded that it was unnecessary to explore the issue because the conditions at OSP posed an “atypical and significant hardship under any 32 No. 03-3318 plausible baseline.” Id. It described those conditions in these terms: For an inmate placed in OSP, almost all human contact is prohibited, even to the point that conversation is not permitted from cell to cell; the light, though it may be dimmed, is on for 24 hours; exercise is for 1 hour per day, but only in a small indoor room. Save perhaps for the especially severe limitations on all human contact, these conditions likely would apply to most solitary confinement facilities, but here there are two added components. First is the duration. Unlike the 30-day placement in Sandin, placement at OSP is indefinite and, after an initial 30-day review, is reviewed just annually. Second is that placement disqualifies an otherwise eligible inmate for parole consideration. While any of these conditions standing alone might not be sufficient to create a liberty interest, taken together they impose an atypical and significant hardship within the correctional context. It follows that respondents have a liberty interest in avoiding assignment to OSP. Wilkinson, 125 S. Ct. at 2394-95 (citations omitted). Having determined that the conditions at the Ohio supermax facility imposed an atypical and significant hardship within the correctional context and thus constituted the deprivation of a liberty interest, the Supreme Court turned to the question of what process was required before such conditions were imposed on a prisoner. Reminding the reader that the Court previously has avoided the use of rigid rules, see Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 481 (1972), in favor of flexibility tailored to the particular situation, the Court articulated the familiar framework of Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319 (1976), that requires a court to consider the following three factors: No. 03-3318 33 First, the private interest that will be affected by the official action; second, the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest through the procedures used, and the probable value, if any, of additional or substitute procedural safeguards; and finally, the Government’s interest, including the function involved and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the additional or substitute procedural requirement would entail. Id. at 335. With respect to the first factor, the Court noted that the private interest of the prisoner to be free from confinement, while “more than minimal,” had to be evaluated in the context of the prison system where, pursuant to a lawful sentence, confinement already has curtailed liberty to a great degree. Wilkinson, 125 S. Ct. at 2395. The private liberty interest, then, is clearly not as plenary as that of an individual not under the sentence of a court. With respect to the second factor, the Court focused on Ohio’s provision for notice and opportunity to rebut the reasons offered by the State for placement in OSP. Id. at 2396. The Court noted that, in addition to notice and hearing, the prisoner was given an opportunity to submit a rebuttal to an affirmative recommendation at the last of three levels of review. Moreover, a recommendation against placement at any level ended the process and the prisoner was not placed at the supermax. If a reviewer did recommend placement in the supermax, the prisoner received a statement of reasons for use before the next decision-maker or in a subsequent classification review. The statement also served, noted the Court, as a guide for the prisoner with respect to his future behavior. Finally, noted the Court, the Ohio regulations provided for a review after the prisoner had been at the supermax facility for thirty days. In the Court’s view, this regulatory scheme adequately ensured against an erroneous decision in the 34 No. 03-3318 placement process. The Court minced no words in applying the third Mathews factor, the interest of the public officials charged with the responsibility of running prisons. See id. at 2396-97. The State’s first responsibility, the Court wrote, is to ensure the safety of guards, prison personnel, the public and the prisoners themselves. The Court also noted the pressing need of the State to manage prudently its assets in a context of scarce resources. Therefore, concluded the Justices, courts must approach estimations such as the one required by the third prong of the Mathews test with substantial deference to prison management decisions. Id. at 2397. After balancing the Mathews factors, the Court concluded that Ohio’s policies adequately safeguarded against an erroneous decision. The Court pointed out that the inquiry here is not an inquiry into a specific incident, but an assessment of a prisoner’s entire record and a prognostication about future behavior. Such a decision does not turn simply on whether the prisoner committed a specific act. Rather, it turns on an assessment that requires the experience of prison administrators—an assessment that is more susceptible to resolution in an informal procedure. We turn now to an examination of how the Supreme Court’s recent guidance in Wilkinson governs the case before us. As we noted earlier, we have the assistance of counsel for both parties through the thoughtful supplemental briefs they have filed recently. The State of Illinois, representing its defendant officials, takes the position that, under Wilkinson, the prisoners cannot claim a cognizable liberty interest. First, it notes that there are some differences between Tamms and OSP with respect to the conditions of confinement. The cells in Tamms, it points out, have windows; the doors are mesh No. 03-3318 35 rather than solid steel; the exercise yard is partially outdoors. It also points out that, although the prisoners allege that visitation at Tamms is cumbersome and expensive, especially for individuals from the Chicago area, they do not allege, as the Ohio prisoners did, that the opportunities for visitation are rare. More important, continues the State, assignment to Tamms does not affect the length of confinement because nothing in the regulations says that placement at Tamms directly affects parole eligibility, mandatory supervised release, good conduct credits or good time restoration. In the State’s view, this latter point is crucial because it reads both Wilkinson and Sandin as grounding a recognition of liberty interest on the effect of the stateimposed restraint on the length of the prisoner’s sentence. In the alternative, the State claims that, even if there is a liberty interest implicated in a placement at Tamms, the preand post-transfer procedures for such assignments satisfy the needs of due process. It begins its argument by emphasizing that Wilkinson requires only an informal, nonadversarial process. It also points out that the Supreme Court did not say that the detailed procedures employed by Ohio were to be considered a constitutional floor. The prisoners take a different view of the applicability of Wilkinson. They emphasize the procedural posture of this aspect of the present case. Because the district court dismissed the due process claim of the complaint on the pleadings, we are obliged to read all the allegations of that complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs. They further submit that the complaint contains statements that clearly allege that the conditions at Tamms fit the profile for “atypical and significant hardship” as that phrase is employed in Sandin and in Wilkinson. They specifically note the following: Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint alleged: 36 No. 03-3318 9. Tamms is designed to be extremely harsh. IDOC officials have stated that they want conditions at Tamms to be so bad that inmates throughout the system are motivated to follow all departmental rules based upon the mere threat of being trans- ferred to Tamms. 10. The conditions of confinement at Tamms present inmates with atypical and significant hardships in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life, including the hardships imposed at the most restrictive segregation units in Illinois’ maximum security prisons. At Tamms, control and punishment are imposed through extreme social isolation, severely restricted movement, and an environment that virtually eliminates all external stimuli. Plaintiffs’ amended complaint describes the extraordinarily restrictive conditions imposed on prisoners at Tamms in great detail (¶’s 11-24). The restrictions include (among others) virtually complete absence of human contact (¶’s 11, 15, and 18), virtual elimination of all out of cell movements (¶’s 12, 14, 18), severe restrictions on showers and out of cell exercise (¶’s 16 and 19), severe restrictions on family visits (¶ 20), elimination of all jobs and other programming (¶ 14), severe restrictions on religious services (¶ 21) and on a prisoner’s communication with attorneys (¶ 22). Property is similarly restricted (¶ 14). In sum, being confined to Tamms is to be subjected to virtual sensory deprivation, with prisoners forced to spend most days doing literally nothing but staring at the four blank walls of their cells. In Count Three of their amended complaint, plaintiffs allege (¶ 120): 120. Transfer to Tamms subjects plaintiffs to atypical and significant hardships in relation to the No. 03-3318 37 ordinary incidents of prison life and to hardships which are not experienced at the most restrictive segregation unit at any of the maximum security prisons in Illinois. Appellants’ Supplemental Br. at 3-4. With respect to the other factors mentioned in Wikinson, the prisoners note that, although prisoners at Tamms are eligible for parole, there are strict limits on the good time that they can earn because of the lack of rehabilitative programs at the facility. With respect to the length of time that a prisoner can be incarcerated at Tamms, the prisoners simply point out that the only time limit is the length of the underlying sentence. With respect to the available procedures for contesting a placement in Tamms, the prisoners point out the absence of any hearing for those in disciplinary status and the lack of notice as to the reasons for the placement in the case of those in administrative detention. They also note the lack of any pre-placement hearing for those in administrative detention. We believe that the allegations of the complaint, which we must accept as true at this stage of the litigation, preclude dismissal under the now-governing standards of Wilkinson. There are some differences between the features of the Ohio supermax at issue in Wilkinson and those of the Illinois facility at issue here. It is not at all clear, however, that those differences are so qualitatively different as to require a different characterization of the facility for purposes of due process analysis under Wilkinson. Illinois’ contention that the liberty interest identified in Wilkinson turned exclusively on the absence of parole constitutes, our view, far too crabbed a reading of the decision. The very text of the decision belies such a claim in noting that, “[w]hile any of 38 No. 03-3318 these conditions standing alone might not be sufficient to create a liberty interest, taken together they impose an atypical and significant hardship within the correctional context.” Wilkinson, 125 S. Ct. at 2395. We also note that, if, after considering all the evidence submitted by the parties, the district court is not of the view that the Illinois situation is, like the Ohio facility, “an atypical and significant hardship under any plausible baseline,” id. at 2394, the district court must confront the issue of what does constitute the appropriate baseline for the Illinois system. See id. Assuming that a liberty interest is determined to exist, the district court will then have to confront whether the procedures that we have discussed at some length with respect to the exhaustion of administrative remedies provide sufficient process to protect the prisoners’ liberty interest in this case. The fact that the procedures available in Illinois are different from those employed in Ohio is, of course, in no way outcome determinative. The Supreme Court has made clear that application of the Mathews test requires flexibility with respect to the precise procedural devices employed. The Court has made clear that the informal, nonadversarial procedures set forth in Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460 (1983) and Greenholtz v. Inmates of Nebraska Penal & Correctional Complex, 442 U.S. 1 (1979), are the appropriate models. See Wilkinson, 125 S. Ct. at 2397. On the basis of what we can ascertain on this record, it appears that the district court will have to evaluate with particular care whether the prisoner is given sufficient notice of the reasons for his transfer to afford meaningful opportunity to challenge his placement. With respect to prisoners in disciplinary status, there is the added question of whether the disciplinary hearing on the underlying disciplinary violation is a sufficient vehicle by which to challenge the Tamms placement. For those in administrative No. 03-3318 39 status, the lack of any pre-transfer hearing may require close examination. See Hewitt, 459 U.S. at 477. The district court also must, of course, consider the matter of continued monitoring of the situation after the initial transfer decision. See id. at 477 n.9. Finally, with respect to the viability of the grievance procedure to contest a placement at Tamms, the district court must explore fully the allegation that IDOC’s conflicting pronouncements on the use of this procedure to challenge placement renders it useless.