Court Opinion

ID: 9468620
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:19:15.590901+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:57.445460
License: Public Domain

GOODWIN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The issue is not whether Hawaii’s prison authorities should transfer state prisoners without certain formalities,1 but whether the federal constitution compels the state officers to follow to the letter those local regulations that provide inmates with an “impartial program committee” hearing if a change in prison classification results “in a grievous loss.” Because I can find no federal constitutionally-protected interest in having the state follow its own rules in this case, I would affirm the district court’s dismissal of this prisoner’s § 1983 challenge.
*713Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 224, 96 S.Ct. 2532, 2538, 49 L.Ed.2d 451 (1976), reasoned that it is the nature, rather than the weight, of the individual interest at stake that involves due process. Thus Meachum held that the federal constitution does not apply to transfers of inmates “absent some right or justifiable expectation rooted in state law that [the inmate] will not be transferred except for misbehavior or upon the occurrence of other specified events.” Montanye v. Haymes, 427 U.S. 236, 242, 96 S.Ct. 2543, 2547, 49 L.Ed.2d 446 (1976) (quoting Meachum)2. For appellant to succeed here, therefore, he ought to demonstrate the existence of a right rooted in state law that limits the prison administrator’s discretion to transfer him to a California penitentiary.
No Hawaii statute or prison regulation imposes substantive limitations on the power of Hawaii’s prison authorities to transfer a state prisoner to another prison. Wakinekona had argued that the prison regulations setting out specific procedures to precede interstate transfers provide the state law basis for a protected liberty interest. The district court held otherwise and I agree.
According to prison rules, a pre-transfer hearing must be held before an “impartial program committee” if a change in the prisoner’s classification will cause the prisoner a “grievous loss.” Art. IY, Supplementary Rules and Regulations of the Corrections Division, Department of Social Services & Housing. Because the hearing scheme requires several elements frequently found in “due process” hearings, appellant argues that the existence of the procedural scheme itself is enough to create a liberty interest in having each step of the procedure followed, even though the same correctional regulations give the administrator the power to disregard the judgment of the program committee, and Haw.Rev. Stat. 353-183 specifically empowers without limitation the Director of Social Services to transfer a state prisoner to a federal prison. Appellant cites no decision in support of his argument.4
The state’s position, on the other hand, has ample support, beginning with Meachum itself. The prison regulations in effect when Fano was transferred “entitled” inmates to some kind of pre-transfer hearing. Fano v. Meachum, 520 F.2d 374, 379-80 (1st Cir. 1975), reversed, 427 U.S. 215, 96 S.Ct. 2543, 49 L.Ed.2d 446 (1976). Yet the Supreme Court refused to find on the record before it that state law created the claimed liberty interest. Recognition of the Meachum rationale led the first circuit subsequently to refuse to base a protected liberty interest on state mandated pre-transfer procedural safeguards. Lombardo v. Meachum, 548 F.2d 13, 15-16 (1st Cir. 1977). See also Four Certain Unnamed Inmates of *714Mass. etc. v. Hall, 550 F.2d 1291 (1st Cir. 1977); Daigle v. Hall, 564 F.2d 884 (1st Cir. 1977). Peterson v. Davis, 421 F.Supp. 1220 (E.D.Va.1976), aff’d without opinion, 562 F.2d 48 (4th Cir. 1977), likewise held that a state’s practice of affording pre-transfer hearings does not turn such hearings into a constitutional requirement.
Even where statutes require out-of-state transfers to be accompanied by “all procedural safe-guards ... to insure due process of law,” or where statutes authorize certain transfers only when “in . . . [the Commissioner’s] opinion, the inmate needs particular treatment or special facilities available at . . . [the transferee institution], or it is in the best interest of the state,” no federal liberty interest has been found. Cofone v. Mason, 594 F.2d 934, 937-38 (2d Cir. 1979). The second circuit there concluded that the grant of transfer authority was too broad to support a justifiable expectation that an inmate would not be transferred without some specified event or findings.
“Although a Due Process Clause liberty interest may be grounded in state law that places substantive limits on the authority of state officials, no comparable entitlement can derive from a statute that merely establishes procedural requirements. . . . Since § 18-78a(b) at most directs Connecticut officials to follow certain procedures in deciding whether to transfer Cofone, and does not substantively restrict their authority to order the transfer, it cannot be the source of any right or justifiable expectation on Cofone’s part that he would not be transferred absent misbehavior.” 594 F.2d at 938-39.
Because I agree with the reasoning of the first and second circuits,5 I must respectfully dissent from the majority’s unnecessary creation of a conflict among the circuits on this point.

. Redress for the alleged violation of prison rules may be available in state court, a possibility recognized by both the state and federal trial courts.

. Meachum and Montanye each involved intrastate prison transfers. But the first circuit’s reasoning that their principles apply equally to interstate transfers is persuasive. See Sisbarro v. Warden, Mass. State Penitentiary, 592 F.2d 1 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 849, 100 S.Ct. 99, 62 L.Ed.2d 64 (1979). Although the burden to inmates will often be greater in interstate transfers, causing them more of a grievous loss, burden is no longer the determining factor for the purposes of ascertaining the procedural due process rights of transferred inmates. Id. at 2-3. Therefore, the distinction between interstate and intrastate transfers is irrelevant. Id.; see also, Cofone v. Manson, 594 F.2d 934 (2d Cir. 1979) (applying Meachum to a prison transfer across state lines).

. § 353-18 Transfer of prisoner to federal institution.
“The director of social services shall, with the approval of the governor, effect the transfer of a state prisoner to any federal correctional institution for imprisonment, subsistence, care, and proper employment of such prisoner.”

. Moreover, the Hawaii Supreme Court found in Tai v. Chang, 58 Haw. 386, 570 P.2d 563 (1977), that the Hawaii Administrative Procedure Act did not entitle an inmate to a hearing prior to an interstate transfer of the prisoner to a federal penitentiary conducted under Haw. Rev. Stat. 353-18. The transfer at issue in that case occurred before the adoption of Regulation IV. But the state supreme court decided Tai after the promulgation of Regulation IV, and in doing so did not indicate that the regulation’s existence changed matters. It would seem presumptuous for federal judges to tell the Hawaii court to hold hereafter that Regulation IV limits the director’s discretion under § 353-18.

. The cases cited by the majority are not controlling. They stand for the general proposition that federal and state agencies must abide by their own regulations. See Accardi v. Shaughnessy, 347 U.S. 260, 267, 74 S.Ct. 499, 503, 98 L.Ed. 681 (1954); Vitarelli v. Seaton, 359 U.S. 535, 539-40, 79 S.Ct. 968, 972-73, 3 L.Ed.2d 1012 (1959). Even if this is a due process requirement, as the majority suggests, the question before this court is not whether the failure to follow the regulations violated due process, but whether the regulations created a liberty interest that could not be taken away without a hearing. Wakinekona raised only the latter point in his § 1983 complaint.
Cofone v. Manson, 594 F.2d 934, 937 n.3 (2d Cir. 1979), held that the state regulations providing for a hearing did not give rise to a liberty interest so as to require a hearing as a matter of federal due process. The court noted that Cofone had dropped the argument that his transfer deprived him of due process because it violated Connecticut’s own regulations. Lombardo v. Meachum, 548 F.2d 13, 16 (1st Cir. 1977), also found that the regulations regarding hearings did not give rise to a liberty interest. The first circuit did not discuss Accardi-dxie process; presumably because it found that the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the prison board fully complied with its regulations. I think the majority has confused these two due process points and has incorrectly concluded that the regulations created a liberty interest, thus requiring a particular type of hearing.