Court Opinion

ID: 9475206
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:19:57.945516+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:34.019509
License: Public Domain

FAGG, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The pivotal issue presented in this case is whether South Dakota has established a protectable liberty interest in either a statute or an administrative regulation governing the parole of prisoners. I completely agree with the court that no protectable liberty interest in parole can be found in the statute. See supra at 576-577. I cannot, however, join in its determination that an administrative regulation, A.R.S.D. 17:60:02:01, provides Dace with such a liberty interest. Supra at 578.
The regulation before us requires that the Board provide a hearing for each inmate who applies for parole. Upon granting a parole hearing, the Board shall consider the inmate’s presentation and shall review available relevant information concerning the inmate’s application as well as consider treatment possibilities or other plans for the inmate. The court suggests that in providing a number of mandatory procedures governing parole hearings, South Dakota has created a protectable liberty interest in parole. I disagree.
A state creates a protectable liberty interest by placing substantive limitations on official discretion. In order to establish a liberty interest in parole, Dace must demonstrate that particularized standards or criteria guide the exercise of discretion by prison officials in making parole determinations. Olim v. Wakinekona, 461 U.S. 238, 249, 103 S.Ct. 1741, 1747, 75 L.Ed.2d 813 (1983); Clark v. Brewer, 776 F.2d 226, 230 (8th Cir.1985). “If the decisionmaker is not ‘required to base its decisions on objective and defined criteria,’ but instead ‘can deny the requested relief for any constitutionally permissible reason or for no reason at all,’ the State has not created a constitutionally protected liberty interest.” Olim, 461 U.S. at 249, 103 S.Ct. at 1747 (quoting Connecticut Board of Pardons v. Dumschat, 452 U.S. 458, 467, 101 S.Ct. 2460, 2465, 69 L.Ed.2d 158 (1981) (Brennan, J., concurring)).
As the court observes, there is no mandatory language in the South Dakota regulation that requires the Board to grant parole if any of the criteria set out in the regulation are fulfilled. Supra at 577. Contrary to the court’s analysis, however, I believe that absent any pronouncement that a prisoner will be released upon the fulfillment of certain conditions, a prisoner has no protectable liberty interest in parole. See, e.g., Patten v. North Dakota Parole Board, 783 F.2d 140, 142-43 (8th Cir. 1986) (per curiam) (No liberty interest exists in Inmate Handbook where it “does not contain any conditions precedent to parole, but only lists the factors con*580sidered.”); Nash v. Black, 781 F.2d 665, 668 (8th Cir. 1986) (Prisoner failed to establish liberty interest in furlough or transfer where he presented no statute, regulation, or policy pronouncement that required prison officials to grant requests for furlough or transfer upon the prisoner’s fulfillment of specified criteria.).
Hence, “[i]f the procedures required impose no significant limitation on the discretion of the decisionmaker, the expectation of a specified decision is not enhanced enough to establish a constitutionally protected interest in the procedures.” Hogue v. Clinton, 791 F.2d 1318, 1324 (8th Cir. 1986) (quoting Goodisman v. Lytle, 724 F.2d 818, 820 (9th Cir. 1984)). The procedures governing parole hearings in the South Dakota regulation before us, although mandatory, do not in any way limit prison officials’ discretion in their ultimate parole determinations.
The court appears to base its finding of a liberty interest on the premise that the Board must provide a hearing to parole applicants and must consider certain factors before making its parole decisions. In my view, these requirements governing parole hearings are nothing more than simple procedural guidelines.
The creation of procedural guidelines to channel the decisionmaking of prison officials is, in the view of many experts in the field, a salutary development. It would be ironic to hold that when a State embarks on such desirable experimentation it thereby opens the door to scrutiny by the federal courts, while States that choose not to adopt such procedural provisions entirely avoid the strictures of the Due Process Clause.
Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 471, 103 S.Ct. 864, 871, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983). South Dakota’s adoption of procedural guidelines alone does not create a liberty interest. Id. See also Parker v. Corrothers, 750 F.2d 653, 657 (8th Cir. 1984).
Accordingly, I would affirm the district court’s dismissal of Dace’s complaint.