Jennings v. Federal Bureau of Prisons

Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Jennings v. Federal Bureau of Prisons. Read the opinion of the Court — 657 F. Supp. 2d 65
District Court, District of Columbia·Decided September 25, 2009·No. Civil Action No. 2008-1475·Published

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

_______________________________________ ) TROY JENNINGS, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Civil Action No. 08-1475 (PLF) ) FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS, et al., ) ) Defendants. ) _______________________________________)

OPINION

This matter is before the Court on defendants’ motion to dismiss and plaintiff’s

motion for summary judgment. For the reasons discussed herein, the Court will grant the former

and deny the latter.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff submits his pleading on a preprinted form and attaches to it a typewritten

statement and hundreds of pages of unnumbered exhibits which appear to have been assembled

in no particular order. The Court has waded through this pleading and its attachments (which

together it will refer to as the complaint) and discerns claims for injunctive relief and monetary

damages under the Privacy Act, see 5 U.S.C. § 552a, against the Federal Bureau of Prisons

(“BOP”) arising from its alleged willful and intentional failure to maintain accurate, timely and

complete records pertaining to plaintiff.1 Specifically, plaintiff challenges his security and

1 The Court previously dismissed the United States Probation Office in Brooklyn, New York, and the Clerk’s Office of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of (continued...) custody classification point scores and the accuracy of the information on which they are based.

See generally Compl. The BOP’s reliance on such inaccurate information, plaintiff alleges, has

made him ineligible for higher paying work assignments while in prison, see id. at 9, 13 (page

numbers designated by the Court), has prevented him from accruing the maximum amount of

good time credit allowed, see id. at 10, and has resulted in his designation to a penitentiary rather

than to a lower security level facility, see id. at 10, 11, 13. For these alleged violations of his

rights under the Privacy Act, plaintiff seeks an award of $250 million in damages. See id. at 18

(Relief).2

A. Inmate Central File

An Inmate Central File contains, among other things, an inmate’s presentence

investigation report (“PSI”), his custody classification form, and his security designation form.

1 (...continued) New York as party defendants. See Jennings v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons, No. 08-1475 (PLF) (D.D.C. Aug. 26, 2008). This action proceeds under the Privacy Act against the United States Department of Justice and its component, the Federal Bureau of Prisons. See id. 2 Plaintiff previously tried to obtain an award of monetary damages for the BOP’s alleged error in determining his security classification. While incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana, plaintiff filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana alleging that various BOP personnel and others erred in calculating his security custody classification. See Jennings v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons, No. 08- 1190, 2009 WL 195875, at *1 (W.D. La. Jan. 8, 2009) (Report and Recommendation). The Magistrate Judge recommended dismissal of the complaint with prejudice for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because an inmate has no protectable liberty interest in his prison classification. See id. at *3 (citations omitted). “[A]bsent an abuse of discretion, . . . a federal court may not interfere with administrative determinations regarding custodial classifications of inmates.” Id. The Report and Recommendation was adopted and the case was dismissed with prejudice, and plaintiff’s appeal is pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. See Jennings v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons, No. 08-1190 (W.D. La. Jan. 23, 2009) (Judgment), appeal docketed, No. 09-30189 (5th Cir. Mar. 18, 2009).

2 See Program Statement 5800.11, Inmate Central File, Privacy Folder, and Parole Mini-Files

(12/31/1997) (“P.S. 5800.11”) ¶¶ 8-9. “Custody classification is “[t]he review process to assign

a custody level based on an inmate’s criminal history, instant offense, and institutional

adjustment.” Program Statement 5100.08, Inmate Security Designation and Custody

Classification (9/12/2006) (“P.S. 5100.08”) , ch. 2, p. 2; see id., ch. 6, p. 1.

“A custody level (i.e., COMMUNITY, OUT, IN, and MAXIMUM) dictates the

degree of staff supervision required for an individual inmate.” P.S. 5100.08, ch. 2, p. 2. The

term “security level” describes:

the structural variables and inmate-to-staff ratio provided at the various types of [BOP] institutions . . . [and] identifies the institution type required to house inmates based on their histories, institutional adjustment, and Public Safety Factors as well as the physical security of the institution to include mobile patrols, gun towers, perimeter barriers, housing, detection devices, inmate-to-staff ratio, and internal security.

Id., ch. 2, p. 5. “[BOP] institutions are classified into one of five security levels: MINIMUM,

LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, and ADMINISTRATIVE based on the level of security and staff

supervision the institution is able to provide.” Id., ch. 1, p. 1 (bold type in original). Both

security designation and custody classification take into account the severity of an inmate’s

current offense, history of violence, history of escape, and education level, among other factors.

See generally P.S. 5100.08, ch. 4, 6.

B. Severity of Current Offense

“On March 20, 2003, . . . Troy Jennings [and a co-defendant] were convicted,

after a jury trial, of various robbery, conspiracy, and weapons charges that arose out of their

3 participation in a string of robberies at several post offices and a laundromat.” United States v.

Angelo, 87 Fed. Appx. 205 (2d Cir. 2004). Plaintiff was sentenced to a term of 110 months’

incarceration, see Compl., Ex. (excerpt from Judgment in a Criminal Case, Case No. 02-CR-

743), and initially was designated to the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania in

September 2003. See Defs.’ Opp’n to Pl.’s Defective Mot. for Summ. J. (“Defs.’ Opp’n”), Ex. A

(Public Information Inmate Data as of 11-14-2008) at 1. He currently is incarcerated at the

United States Penitentiary in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. He is considered a high security inmate.

See Pl.’s Reply to Mot. to be Dismissed for Failure to State a Claim Upon Which Relief Can Be

Granted (“Pl.’s Opp’n”), Ex. (Male Custody Classification Form dated 11-08-2008); Defs.’

Opp’n, Ex. B (“Zerr Decl.”) ¶ 16.

For purposes of classification, “the current offense is the most severe documented

instant offense behavior regardless of the conviction offense.” P.S. 5100.08, ch. 2, p. 2

(emphasis added). If an inmate has been convicted of multiple offenses, “the highest score will

be used in scoring the current offense.” Id., ch. 4, p. 7; see id., ch. 6, p. 3. Assault (serious

bodily injury intended), kidnaping (abduction or lawful restraint) and weapons (brandishing or

threatening use of a weapon) fall into the “greatest severity” category and are scored seven

points. Id., App. A (Offense Severity Scale), p. 1.

Plaintiff alleges that he “was never convicted or arrested or indicted for taking

hostages,” and the BOP’s assessment of points for such behavior “raised [his] custody security

classification point level, Compl. at 10, resulting in his designation to a penitentiary. Plaintiff’s

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