Harness v. Day

428 F. Supp. 18, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13536
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Oklahoma
DecidedAugust 23, 1976
DocketNo. CIV-76-0447-D
StatusPublished

This text of 428 F. Supp. 18 (Harness v. Day) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harness v. Day, 428 F. Supp. 18, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13536 (W.D. Okla. 1976).

Opinion

ORDER

DAUGHERTY, Chief Judge.

The above-named petitioner a federal convict confined in the Federal Reformatory at El Reno, Oklahoma, has filed this proceeding for writ of habeas corpus in which he attacks the validity of a Detainer lodged by the State of .Illinois with the respondent and claims that the allegedly invalid Detainer is depriving him of the opportunity to participate in various programs at the institution. He contends that the Detainer from the State of Illinois is invalid because he has been denied the parole revocation hearings mandated in Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972). The respondent through the United States Attorney has filed a Response denying that the petitioner is entitled to an immediate parole revocation hearing by the State of Illinois.

There is no apparent disagreement concerning the facts. On August 3, 1973, the petitioner, Wayne Darrell Harness, was convicted of Burglary by an Illinois State Court. On February 19, 1974 he was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of one to three years. He was then paroled by the State of Illinois on November 18, 1974. While on parole the petitioner on July 15, 1975, was convicted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois of the crime of Distribution of Heroin in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 844 and sentenced to a term of five years imprisonment. He is presently serving this sentence in the custody of the Attorney General at the Federal Reformatory at El Reno, Oklahoma. As a result of his federal conviction the State of Illinois issued a Parole Violators Warrant which has been lodged with the respondent. The petitioner has requested that a revocation hearing be held but the State of Illinois has indicated no revocation hearing will be conducted until the completion of the intervening sentence now being served by petitioner.

The petitioner urges this- court to adopt the rule of Cooper v. Lockhart, 489 F.2d 308 (CA8 1973). See also Cleveland v. Ciccone, 517 F.2d 1082 (CA8 1975). This is not the law in this circuit. In a similar context, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that a state prisoner had not been denied due process of law because the Board of Parole did not grant a parole revocation hearing promptly after a federal revocation warrant had been issued and a detainer lodged with his state custodian. Small v. Britton, 500 F.2d 299 (CA10 1974). In considering the implications of Morrissey v. Brewer, supra, in this situation the Court found that the operative fact which entitled the petitioner to a revocation hearing was the execution of the warrant. The Court reasoned:

“A federal parolee is not taken into custody until after the parole revocation warrant has been executed. Accord, Cook v. United States Attorney General, 488 F.2d 667 (5th Cir. 1974). 18 U.S.C.A. § 4207. provides that a parolee is entitled to a hearing only after he is ‘retaken upon a warrant.’ (Emphasis added.) If the wording of a provision of a statute is plain, clear and unambiguous, its evident meaning must be accepted. 2A Sutherland, Statutory Construction § 45.02 (4th Ed. 1973.)
“We recognize that there are decisions from other federal courts which support Small’s contention that a parolee is entitled to a revocation hearing (and the attendant opportunity to present ‘mitigating’ circumstances), within a reasonable time after an alleged parole violation even where the parole revocation warrant is based upon the commission of a crime for which the parolee has been convicted. Fitzgerald v. Sigler, 372 F.Supp. 889 (D.D.C.1974); Jones v. Johnston, 368 [20]*20F.Supp. 571 (D.D.C.1974); Sutherland v. District of Columbia Board of Parole, 366 F.Supp. 270 (D.D.C.1973); Cf., Cooper v. Lockhart, 489 F.2d 308 (8th Cir. 1973). Contrary to our interpretation and holding, these decisions stand for the proposition that it is the ‘issuance’ rather than the ‘execution’ of the revocation warrant which triggers the due process time limits for the revocation hearing set forth in Morrissey. We disagree. We find no such mandate in the Supreme Court’s decision.” 500 F.2d at 301, 302.

Likewise, petitioner’s complaint about the effect of the Detainer upon the present conditions of his confinement is without merit. It is the basic rule that the control and management of federal penal institutions lies within the sound discretion of the responsible administrative agency, and judicial review will be granted only upon a showing that prison officials exercised their discretionary powers in such a manner as to constitute clear abuse or caprice. Daughtery v. Harris, 476 F.2d 292 (CA10 1973), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 872, 94 S.Ct. 112, 38 L.Ed.2d 91. In a comparable situation involving the “special offender” status applied to the petitioner in Marchesani v. McCune, 531 F.2d 459 (CA10 1976), in refusing to interfere with the actions of prison officials the court pointed out:

“The duty to classify inmates rests with federal prison officials.
18 U.S.C. § 4081 provides:
The federal penal and correctional institutions shall be so planned and limited in size as to facilitate the development of an integrated system which will assure the proper classification and segregation of Federal prisoners according to the nature of the offenses committed, the character and mental condition of the prisoners, and such other factors as should be considered in providing an individualized system of discipline, care, and treatment of the persons committed to such institutions.
When a plaintiff seeks to enjoin or prohibit the activity of a government agency, his case must contend with the well-established rule that the government has traditionally been granted the widest latitude in the dispatch of its own internal affairs. Cafeteria Workers v. McElroy, 367 U.S. 886, 81 S.Ct. 1743, 6 L.Ed.2d 1230 (1961). Accordingly, when due process contentions are raised relative to the operation, maintenance and administration of the penal system, the courts should be acutely aware that caution must be exercised in achieving a careful balance of the interest of that system as against the interests of the prisoners. Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974).”
531 F.2d at 461.

The holding by the court in Holt v. Moore,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Morrissey v. Brewer
408 U.S. 471 (Supreme Court, 1972)
Wolff v. McDonnell
418 U.S. 539 (Supreme Court, 1974)
Don B. Cook v. United States Attorney General
488 F.2d 667 (Fifth Circuit, 1974)
Fitzgerald v. Sigler
372 F. Supp. 889 (District of Columbia, 1974)
Sutherland v. District of Columbia Board of Parole
366 F. Supp. 270 (District of Columbia, 1973)
Jones v. Johnston
368 F. Supp. 571 (District of Columbia, 1974)
Lawrence v. Blackwell
298 F. Supp. 708 (N.D. Georgia, 1969)
Holt v. Moore
357 F. Supp. 1102 (W.D. North Carolina, 1973)
Daughtery v. Harris
476 F.2d 292 (Tenth Circuit, 1973)
Cooper v. Lockhart
489 F.2d 308 (Eighth Circuit, 1973)
Cleveland v. Ciccone
517 F.2d 1082 (Eighth Circuit, 1975)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
428 F. Supp. 18, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13536, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harness-v-day-okwd-1976.