Court Opinion

ID: 9535759
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:52:38.514127+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:19.497568
License: Public Domain

LUMPKIN, Judge,
concurring in part/dissenting in part.
¶ 1 I can concur only in the Court’s decision to hear this appeal and affirm the prison discipline proceedings as to the loss of earned credits. However, I must dissent to the Court’s aberrant reasoning that the prison discipline of a $50.00 fíne violates the double jeopardy clause.
¶ 2 In its attempt to find a way to apply Hudson v. U.S., 522 U.S. 93, 118 S.Ct. 488, 139 L.Ed.2d 450 (1997), to a situation to which it does not apply, the Court has once again attempted to fit the proverbial square peg into a round hole. I adopt and apply the analysis set out in my separate vote to Worthen v. State, 1998 OK CR 37, 964 P.2d 904. (Lumpkin, J.: Concur in Part/Dissent in Part) The sanctions rendered against the Appellant in this case were rendered in an administrative disciplinary procedure. The sanctions were not imparted by a prosecution in a court of law, thereby meaning a criminal punishment imposed “by a judicial trial”. The sanctions imposed have to do with the withdrawal of earned credits and a monetary assessment. The awarding of earned credits to prisoners are set out in the provisions of 57 O.S.1991, § 138. There is no doubt that these earned credits can be rescinded as a part of inmate discipline after the inmate has been afforded due process for any infraction which is the basis for removing earned credits. Several statutory provisions also provide for inmate trust accounts and employment of inmates. See 57 O.S.1991, §§ 545, 549.
¶ 3 Both the issue of earned credits and earned funds are directed by the statutes to be made in accordance with the rules and regulations established by the Board of Corrections. The Board of Corrections also establishes procedures for disciplinary proceedings. Merely because the disciplinary order provides for the loss of earned credits and “a $50.00 fine” does not mean the forfeiture of moneys earned should be treated any differently than the forfeiture of credits earned. It is merely a different way of forfeiture for disciplinary purposes of something granted by the State through its policies and procedures within the Department of Corrections. It in no way increases the punishment for the crime for which the sentence is being served. Therefore, the Court’s attempt to in some way make the analysis in Hudson apply to this non-germane issue is even more unsubstantiated.
¶ 4 I would urge the Court to reconsider its attempt to reformat this non-germane decision regarding “civil” sanctions and continue to adhere to the stare decisis enunciated by the federal courts regarding the application of the double jeopardy clause to prison disciplinary proceedings.