Opinion ID: 3049904
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Fourteenth Amendment Procedural Due Process

Text: Claims The Plaintiffs allege a number of procedural due process violations. They allege that Defendants force them to participate in the five-phase treatment program at Atascadero, and based on their progression through that treatment program, subject them to privilege reductions, access level reductions, and reclassifications, and force them to take medication in non-emergency situations. The Plaintiffs allege that these deprivations occur without adequate notice of, or opportunity to respond to, accusations of alleged sanctionable conduct. The Plaintiffs cite caselaw applicable to prisoners and argue that the procedural protections afforded to prisoners in this context should be afforded them as well. [22] The Plaintiffs have not adequately pled the loss of clearly established due process rights. The Supreme Court has explained that due process claims by prisoners depend in large part on whether the prisoners have some “justifiable expectation rooted in state law.” Montayne v. Haymes, 427 U.S. 236, 242 (1976); see also Washington v. Harper, 494 U.S. 210, 220 (1990). SVPs differ from prisoners in at least one important respect: an individual who has been designated an SVP has been found, under California law, to have “a diagnosed mental disorder that makes the person a danger to the 10944 HYDRICK v. HUNTER health and safety of others.” Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 6600(a)(1). Once a jury designates someone an SVP, California law requires that the SVP be provided “treatment for his or her diagnosed mental disorder.” Id. § 6606(a). Moreover, the SVP commitment statute gives the Department of Mental Health Services the authority to forcibly medicate an SVP for purposes of treatment. Id. § 6606(b).13 The five-phase treatment program at Atascadero must be “consistent with current institutional standards for the treatment of sex offenders, and . . . based on a structured treatment protocol developed by the State Department of Mental Health.” Id. § 6606(c). Its purpose, and the purpose of the attendant changes in privileges, access level, and classification under its protocols, is not punishment, but treatment in preparation for the SVP’s eventual release. [23] Accordingly, the Plaintiffs cannot have an expectation to be free of such treatment under state SVP law. The complained-of actions are, at least facially, part of the treatment plan Atascadero is legally required to provide to persons that the state has deemed mentally ill. Given this relevant difference between SVPs and prisoners, we cannot say that the procedural protections provided to prisoners as they relate to forced medication and forced treatment clearly apply to SVPs. Moreover, there are numerous procedural safeguards afforded to an individual facing an action for civil commitment. Proceedings to designate a person an SVP are initiated only after a finding by two practicing psychologists or psychiatrists that the individual has a “mental disorder” such that he is likely to re-offend unless he receives “appropriate treatment and custody.” See id. § 6601(d)-(f). Persons in SVP proceedings have the right to counsel, the right to consult experts, the right to have the state prove their SVP status beyond a reason13 The Plaintiffs do not challenge California’s SVP Act. HYDRICK v. HUNTER 10945 able doubt, and the right to a unanimous jury verdict. See id. §§ 6603-04. In addition, after initial designation, an SVP is given periodic opportunities to challenge his continued need for treatment. See id. §§ 6605, 6608. Thus, SVPs are not subjected to Atascadero’s treatment program without certain procedural protections, nor are they relegated to indefinite treatment without the ability to seek judicial intervention. [24] The Plaintiffs may have liberty interests akin to those possessed by prisoners in this context, and thus may have the right to further procedural protections within the walls of Atascadero. But such rights are not yet clearly established. Because the Plaintiffs have been designated as mentally ill and in need of treatment, a reasonable state official would have reason to believe that the law applicable to the treatment and medication of prisoners did not apply to SVPs. We therefore hold that Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity in regards to Plaintiffs’ procedural due process claims. Accordingly, we reverse the district court’s holding as to the Plaintiffs’ sixth cause of action.