Barrett v. Belleque

176 P.3d 1272, 344 Or. 91, 2008 Ore. LEXIS 10
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 7, 2008
DocketCC 05C11516; CA A127929; SC S054622
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 176 P.3d 1272 (Barrett v. Belleque) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barrett v. Belleque, 176 P.3d 1272, 344 Or. 91, 2008 Ore. LEXIS 10 (Or. 2008).

Opinion

*93 BALMER, J.

While serving a prison term in Oregon, petitioner filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus claiming that he was entitled to a hearing before prison officials removed him from the general prison population and placed him in the prison’s intensive management rmit (IMU). The trial court dismissed the petition for failure to state a claim. The Court of Appeals affirmed on different grounds, holding that, because petitioner could have challenged the state’s placement of him in IMU without a hearing under 42 USC section 1983, that alternative remedy foreclosed habeas relief. Barrett v. Belleque, 209 Or App 295, 150 P3d 1064 (2006). Petitioner filed a petition for review in this court, which we allowed. Before oral argument, the state notified the court that Oregon prison officials had sent petitioner to Oklahoma under the Interstate Corrections Compact, ORS 421.245, to serve his Oregon sentence there and moved to dismiss the proceeding as moot. We denied the motion. In briefing and oral argument before this court, the state renewed its motion to dismiss. We now affirm our earlier ruling that this matter is not moot. On the merits, we affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals, but we do so on different grounds.

I. FACTS

We take the facts from the pleadings. Officials suspected petitioner of involvement in gang violence in the prison. In February 2003, while he was at Two Rivers Correctional Institution (TRCI), prison officials accused petitioner of instigating a fight between two other prisoners, Cavan and Lewis. Following a hearing, officials put petitioner in administrative segregation for 180 days. Petitioner unsuccessfully appealed that disciplinary sanction. Petitioner was transferred to Snake River Correctional Institution (SRCI) and placed in IMU in March 2003. In March 2003, petitioner filed an administrative appeal of his IMU placement, which was upheld. See OAR 291-055-0019(4) (providing for administrative review of a prisoner’s “maximum custody classification/ assignment to IMU”).

Prison officials created IMU as both a program and a physical area to which they can assign prisoners who pose *94 security risks because of possible escape, chronic misconduct, or activity involving other prisoners (such as membership in prison gangs). See OAR, 291-055-0005 to 291-055-0050 (establishing IMU and procedures for IMU placement); OAR 291-104-0005 to 291-104-0135 (establishing general procedures for determining inmate custody levels). IMU facilities exist at SRCI and at the Oregon State Penitentiary. IMU prisoners are separated from the general prison population. IMU provides greater scrutiny of prisoner conduct and potential deprivation of certain prison privileges, such as telephone use, nonfamily visits, outdoor recreation, and classes. Prison officials attempt to use the potential restoration of those privileges — and release from IMU — as a means of inducing prisoners to improve their behavior in prison. From the state’s perspective, placement in IMU is not punishment, but rather a security matter related to the needs of safely administering the prison.

“Maximum custody inmates shall be assigned to an IMU or IMU status cell. * * * An inmate demonstrates the need for maximum custody housing by demonstrating behaviors that cannot be controlled in other housing as indicated by high severity and/or chronic misconduct sanctions, escape activity or security threat group activities causing serious management concerns.”

OAR 291-055-0019(1). As a prison official explained:

“IMU was developed as a system for dealing with inmates who would not conform their behavior to the requirements of a penal institution. Placement in IMU is for an indeterminate period of time, with the inmate having control over when they will be released from IMU. One of the fundamental considerations in creating IMU was that inmates be able to ‘program out’ based on their behavior and programming while in the IMU.”

Petitioner himself admits that IMU placement is based on an inmate’s behavior.

In July 2003, petitioner was transferred back to TRCI, which does not have an IMU. In September 2003, officials accused petitioner of fighting with a prisoner named Yancey. A prison guard also alleged that petitioner swung at *95 her with a closed fist. Prison officials held a hearing regarding those two incidents. Petitioner declined to attend the hearing, but alleged in his habeas petition that no evidence showed that he was responsible for the fight with Yancey. Following the hearing, prison officials placed petitioner in the TRCI Disciplinary Segregation Unit (DSU) for 180 days. Officials then sent petitioner back to the IMU at SRCI. Petitioner maintains that his “IMU placement was therefore an extension of [his] DSU punishment.” Petitioner asserts that his appeal from placement in IMU was denied, but the petition is unclear as to the date of that denial. 1

Petitioner asserts that, in September 2004, the conditions in which he was held deteriorated after his transfer to “A-pod” within IMU. He then states:

“After approximately a week of being subject to the IMU conditions in A-pod and not being told why I was dropped level 1, I became mentally distraught and made a ‘shank’ out of a stapler from the inmate legal library and flooded the tier with my toilet and had staff suit up. I intended to stab staff when they come through the door.”

(Footnote omitted.) Prison officials also suspected petitioner of involvement in a conspiracy to attack prison guards. Finally, petitioner asserts that he slit the throat of another prisoner for being an informant.

To summarize: Prison officials believed that petitioner was involved in gang violence in prison, and petitioner admits both gang involvement and fighting. In an effort to deter further misconduct, officials threatened to send petitioner to IMU if his behavior did not improve. Petitioner continued to fight and otherwise misbehave, and prison officials then placed him in IMU twice.

*96 II. PROCEEDINGS BELOW

Petitioner filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus alleging the facts described above. Petitioner identified six claims for relief in his petition, but the common element in all of them is his claim that prison officials took actions with respect to him in violation of his procedural due process rights. In particular, petitioner asserts that placement in IMU is punishment and that prison officials violated his due process rights by placing him in IMU without first holding a hearing.

The trial court dismissed the petition as meritless under ORS 34.370(6) and (7). 2

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Bluebook (online)
176 P.3d 1272, 344 Or. 91, 2008 Ore. LEXIS 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barrett-v-belleque-or-2008.