Court Opinion

ID: 9461982
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:29:12.395356+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:20.940961
License: Public Domain

LEVIN H. CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
As the issue of intra-jurisdictional prison transfers is under submission before the Supreme Court in Newkirk v. Butler, 499 F.2d 1214 (2d Cir. 1974), cert. granted sub nom. Preiser v. Newkirk, 419 U.S. 894, 95 S.Ct. 172, 42 L.Ed.2d 138 (1975), it seems likely that what we do or say here will have only passing significance. Still I shall venture the view that a prisoner’s interest in remaining in one institution rather than another within the same state is not a species of “property” or “liberty” as those words are used in the due process clause of the Constitution.
In Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 557, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974), the Court held that good-time credits, having been created by the state and denied as a penalty for major misconduct, were embraced within fourteenth amendment “liberty”. See Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973). See also Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972) (disciplinary confinement affects a protected interest). But transfers1 seem to me to belong in a quite different category. Transfers unquestionably have a major impact on the personal life of a prisoner (although intrastate transfers do not uproot the inmate and separate him from a unitary system of correction and parole as in the case of interstate transfers). But in deciding whether or not to label the prisoner’s interest therein a “liberty” or (less *381plausibly) a “property” interest within the fourteenth amendment, it should be recognized that Massachusetts has not conferred a statutory right upon inmates to be at one institution rather than another. While Walpole is a more secure facility than Norfolk, a prisoner has no vested right to serve his term in one place rather than the other. One might draw an analogy, admittedly only suggestive, to the status of school teachers: good-time rights, like a tenured teacher’s expectation of continued employment, are matters of entitlement absent cause for severance; but a prisoner’s preference that he be lodged at Norfolk rather than Walpole is not a matter of entitlement and seems more analogous to a probationary teacher’s unsecured hope to retain a job. Cf. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972).
The tenured teacher’s interest is, of course, a “property” rather than a “liberty” interest. Still, even in defining a prisoner’s “liberty” interest, one must ask not only whether a particular event may cause loss to the prisoner but whether one in his position has any claim to what was taken away.2 Prisoners are, by definition, prisoners. Changes in the conditions of confinement, whether involving a different cell assignment, a new meal schedule, or transfer to a new facility, seem to me to fall within the state’s general right to confine, safeguard, and rehabilitate. To treat them as “liberties” belonging to the inmate invites greater interference with the management of prisons than seems either wise or constitutionally mandated.
Where within the state penal system a prisoner is to be lodged seems to me a judgment which the state has the exclusive right to make — summarily if need be. Such decisions are part and parcel of its power to keep the prisoner safely, to protect other prisoners, and to operate its prisons. State penal systems normally consist of more than one institution. Indeed, large states may have dozens of such institutions. Administrators must decide where best to place inmates. They must consider available space and facilities and which programs are best suited to which inmates. As prisoners are involuntary inhabitants and some are dangerous and unpredictable, administrators must decide whether a given inmate is more likely to escape from one place than another, and whether the mere presence of an inmate in a given setting is likely to be volatile and more dangerous. Such judgments may often be little more than educated guesses based on suspicions. They may involve predictions of future dangerousness which in turn echo assumptions as to the inmate’s role in past disturbances. While I can understand the argument that no adverse assumptions should ever be made without minimal due process — hearing, confrontation of witnesses, and the like — I do not think the realities of the state-prisoner relationship admit to classifying such decisions, when relating to a transfer, as a liberty interest of the prisoner. Penal authorities will perhaps think it best to afford safeguards, but I do not think the Constitution can reasonably be said to require them.
I concede that transfers of the present sort — based on charges of past misconduct rather than on more general grounds — bear many resemblances to disciplinary actions. Here the inmate’s record will reflect the grounds for transfer and this may affect his parole rights. In Gomes I, dealing with interstate transfers, we thought that a distinction could be made between punitive and non-punitive transfers. But on reflec*382tion we recognized, correctly I believe, that giving effect to labels of that sort raised more problems than it solved. It would invite litigation and confusion over the “real” as opposed to the ostensible reason for transfer. Moreover, transfers based on past misconduct are not so much punitive as they are intended to ward off future disruption at the transferor institution. The decision is thus also truly “administrative”. In Gomes II we eliminated any attempted distinction, and decided that all out-of-state transfers should be treated alike for due process purposes. I think this is the right approach, and I would not wish to decide the present case on the basis of fine-spun distinctions between labels. Rather I feel obliged to conclude that an inmate is no more entitled to due process protection in connection with transfers for purported misconduct than he would be for any other reason. The reason for transfer is simply irrelevant. The state’s interest is paramount.3
Nonetheless, while the greater good of the institution and its other inmates may require that administrators retain broad transfer power, there is no need to permit an inmate’s parole chances to be diminished by derogatory information he is never allowed to meet. This is a separate and different question. If parole is a “liberty” right entitling an inmate to fair procedures, I would forbid the use of the fact of transfer by the parole board unless the charges upon which the transfer was based were established in a manner comporting with due process.
I would reverse the decision of the district court, except I might enjoin the adverse use of the fact of transfer in any future parole proceedings.

. This circuit held in Gomes v. Travisono, 490 F.2d 1209 (1973), vacated and remanded, 418 U.S. 908, 94 S.Ct. 3200, 41 L.Ed.2d 1155 (1974), affd in part, 510 F.2d 537 (1974), that transfers of state prisoners to out-of-state correctional institutions pursuant to interstate compact triggered due process standards. I expressly reserved judgment on transfers within a single jurisdiction.

. A civil servant sent to Alaska, a soldier sent to Vietnam, or a prisoner sent to another institution may, in a private sense, suffer “grievous loss”, but the nature of the organization and of their role precludes acknowledging any “liberty” or “property” right to remain in one location. Notwithstanding language in Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 481-84, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972), cautioning against distinctions based on “privileges” as opposed to “rights”, it is necessary to consider not only whether what happens causes subjective loss to the individual, but whether he has a right to any protection against that loss.

. Administrative realities may sometimes necessitate the flexibility to transfer even on the basis of demonstrably inadequate information. If, for example, the warden has narrowed the likely cause of disruption down to several inmates, he may deem it prudent to transfer all without having objective proof that all are involved. A 40% risk that an inmate will disrupt or set a fire may, in some circumstances, be too great to take. The safety of other inmates and prison personnel may have to be weighed against fairness to certain individuals.