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Zinermon v. Burch, 494 U.S. 113
(1990) (availability of postdeprivation remedy is inadequate when deprivation is
foreseeable, predeprivation process was possible, and official conduct was not ‘‘unauthorized’’).
and to bring actions in federal courts to recover for damages
wrongfully done them by prison administrators. 1134 And they have
a right, circumscribed by legitimate prison administration considerations,
to fair and regular treatment during their incarceration.
In Turner v. Safley, 1135 the Court announced a general standard
for measuring prisoners’ claims of deprivation of constitutional
rights. ‘‘[W]hen a regulation impinges on inmates’ constitutional
rights, the regulation is valid if it is reasonably related to legitimate
penological interests.’’ 1136 Several considerations, the Court
indicated, are appropriate in determining reasonableness of a prison
regulation. First, there must be a rational relation to a legitimate,
content-neutral objective, such as prison security, broadly defined.
Availability of other avenues for exercise of the inmate right
suggests reasonableness. A further indicium of reasonableness is
present if accommodation would have a negative effect on liberty
or safety of guards or other inmates. On the other hand, an alternative
to regulation ‘‘that fully accommodated the prisoner’s rights
at de minimis cost to valid penological interests’’ suggests
unreasonableness. 1137
Fourth Amendment protection is incompatible with ‘‘the concept
of incarceration and the needs and objectives of penal institutions,’’
hence a prisoner has no reasonable expectation of privacy in
his prison cell protecting him from ‘‘shakedown’’ searches designed
to root out weapons, drugs, and other contraband. 1138 Avenues of
redress ‘‘for calculated harassment unrelated to prison needs’’ are
not totally blocked, the Court indicated; inmates may still seek protection
in the Eighth Amendment or in state tort law. 1139 Existence
of ‘‘a meaningful postdeprivation remedy’’ for unauthorized, intentional
deprivation of an inmate’s property by prison personnel protects
the inmate’s due process rights. 1140 Due process is not impli-
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1876 AMENDMENT 14—RIGHTS GUARANTEED
1141 Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327 (1986); Davidson v. Cannon, 474 U.S. 344
(1986).
1142 418 U.S. 539 (1974).
1143 418 U.S. at 557. This analysis, of course tracks the interest analysis discussed
under ‘‘The Interests Protected: Entitlements and Positivist Recognition,’’
supra.
1144 However, the Court later ruled, reasons for denying an inmate’s request to
call witnesses need not be disclosed until the issue is raised in court. Ponte v. Real,
471 U.S. 491 (1985).
1145 418 U.S. at 561–72. The Court continues to adhere to its refusal to require
appointment of counsel. Vitek v. Jones, 445 U.S. 480, 496–97 (1980), and id. at 497–
500 (Justice Powell concurring); Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308 (1976).
cated at all by negligent deprivation of life, liberty, or property by
prison officials. 1141
In Wolff v. McDonnell, 1142 the Court promulgated due process
standards to govern the imposition of discipline upon prisoners.
Due process applies, but since prison disciplinary proceedings are
not part of a criminal prosecution the full panoply of rights of a defendant
is not available. Rather, the analysis must proceed on a
basis of identifying the interest in ‘‘liberty’’ which the clause protects.
Thus, where the state provides for good-time credit or other
privileges and further provides for forfeiture of these privileges
only for serious misconduct, the interest of the prisoner in this degree
of ‘‘liberty’’ entitles him to those minimum procedures appropriate
under the circumstances. 1143 What the minimum procedures
consist of is to be determined by balancing the prisoner’s interest
against the valid interest of the prison in maintaining security and
order in the institution, in protecting guards and prisoners against
retaliation by other prisoners, and in reducing prison tensions. The
Court held in Wolff that the prison must afford the subject of a disciplinary
proceeding advance written notice of the claimed violation
and a written statement of the fact findings as to the evidence relied
upon and the reasons for the action taken; also, the inmate
should be allowed to call witnesses and present documentary evidence
in defense when permitting him to do so will not hazard the
institution’s interests. 1144 Confrontation and cross-examination of
adverse witnesses is not required inasmuch as these would no
doubt hazard valid institutional interests. Ordinarily, an inmate
has no right to representation by retained or appointed counsel. Finally,
only a partial right to an impartial tribunal was recognized,
the Court ruling that limitations imposed on the discretion of a
committee of prison officials sufficed for this purpose. 1145 Revocation
of good time credits, the Court later ruled, must be supported
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AMENDMENT 14—RIGHTS GUARANTEED 1877
1146 Superintendent v. Hill, 472 U.S. 445, 454, 457 (1985).
1147 Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215 (1976); Montanye v. Haymes, 427 U.S. 236
(1976).
1148 Olim v. Wakinekona, 461 U.S. 238 (1983).
1149 Vitek v. Jones, 445 U.S. 480 (1980).
1150 494 U.S. 210 (1990).
by ‘‘some evidence in the record,’’ but an amount that ‘‘might be
characterized as meager’’ is constitutionally sufficient. 1146
Determination whether due process requires a hearing before
a prisoner is transferred from one institution to another requires
a close analysis of the applicable statutes and regulations as well
as a consideration of the particular harm suffered by the transferee.
On the one hand, the Court found that no hearing need be
held prior to the transfer from one prison to another prison in
which the conditions were substantially less favorable. Since the
State had not conferred any right to remain in the facility to which
the prisoner was first assigned, defeasible upon the commission of
acts for which transfer is a punishment, prison officials had unfettered
discretion to transfer any prisoner for any reason or for no
reason at all; consequently, there was nothing to hold a hearing
about. 1147 The same principles govern interstate prison transfers.
1148 On the other hand, transfer of a prisoner to a mental hospital
pursuant to a statute authorizing transfer if the inmate suffers
from a ‘‘mental disease or defect’’ must be preceded by a hearing
for two alternative reasons. First, the statute gave the inmate
a liberty interest since it presumed he would not be moved absent
a finding he was suffering from a mental disease or defect. Second,
unlike transfers from one prison to another, transfer to a mental
institution was not within the range of confinement covered by the
prisoner’s sentence, and, moreover, imposed a stigma constituting
a deprivation of a liberty interest. 1149
What kind of a hearing is required before a state may force a
mentally ill prisoner to take antipsychotic drugs against his will
was at issue in Washington v. Harper. 1150 There the Court held
that a judicial hearing was not required. Instead, the inmate’s substantive
liberty interest (derived from the Due Process Clause as
well as from state law) was adequately protected by an administrative
hearing before independent medical professionals, at which
hearing the inmate has the right to a lay advisor but not an attorney.
Probation and Parole.—Sometimes convicted defendants are
not sentenced to jail, but instead are placed on probation subject
to incarceration upon violation of the conditions which are imposed;
others who are jailed may subsequently qualify for release on pa-
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1878 AMENDMENT 14—RIGHTS GUARANTEED
1151 Ughbanks v. Armstrong, 208 U.S. 481 (1908), held that parole is not a constitutional
right but instead is a ‘‘present’’ from government to the prisoner. In
Escoe v. Zerbst, 295 U.S. 490 (1935), the Court’s premise was that as a matter of
grace the parolee was being granted a privilege and that he should neither expect
nor seek due process. Then-Judge Burger in Hyser v. Reed, 318 F. 2d 225 (D.C.
Cir.), cert. denied, 375 U.S. 957 (1963), reasoned that due process was inapplicable
because the parole board’s function was to assist the prisoner’s rehabilitation and
restoration to society and that there was no adversary relationship between the
board and the parolee.
1152 389 U.S. 128 (1967).
1153 408 U.S. 471 (1972).
1154 408 U.S. at 480, 482.
1155 408 U.S. at 483-84.
role before completing their sentence, and are subject to reincarceration
upon violation of imposed conditions. Because both of these
dispositions are statutory privileges granted by the governmental
authority, 1151 it was long assumed that the administrators of the
systems did not have to accord procedural due process either in the
granting stage or in the revocation stage. Now, both granting and
revocation are subject to due process analysis, although the results
tend to be disparate. Thus, in Mempa v. Rhay, 1152 the trial judge
had deferred sentencing and placed the convicted defendant on probation;
when facts subsequently developed which indicated a violation
of the conditions of probation, he was summoned and summarily
sentenced to prison. The Court held that he was entitled to
counsel at the deferred sentencing hearing.
In Morrissey v. Brewer 1153 a unanimous Court held that parole
revocations must be accompanied by the usual due process hearing
and notice requirements. ‘‘[T]he revocation of parole is not part of
a criminal prosecution and thus the full panoply of rights due a defendant
in such a proceeding does not apply to parole revocation .
. . [But] the liberty of a parolee, although indeterminate, includes
many of the core values of unqualified liberty and its termination
inflicts a ‘grievous loss’ on the parolee and often on others. It is
hardly useful any longer to try to deal with this problem in terms
of whether the parolee’s liberty is a ‘right’ or a ‘privilege.’ By whatever
name, the liberty is valuable and must be seen as within the
protection of the Fourteenth Amendment. Its termination calls for
some orderly process, however informal.’’ 1154 What process is due,
then, turned upon the State’s interests. Its principal interest was
that having once convicted a defendant, imprisoned him, and released
him for rehabilitation purposes at some risk, it should ‘‘be
able to return the individual to imprisonment without the burden
of a new adversary criminal trial if in fact he has failed to abide
by the conditions of his parole.’’ But the State has no interest in
revoking parole without some informal procedural guarantees, inasmuch
as this will not interfere with its reasonable interest. 1155
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AMENDMENT 14—RIGHTS GUARANTEED 1879
1156 408 U.S. at 484-87.
1157 408 U.S. at 487-89.
1158 Black v. Romano, 471 U.S. 606 (1985).
Minimal due process, the Court held, requires that at both
stages of the revocation process—the arrest of the parolee and the
formal revocation—the parolee is entitled to certain rights. Promptly
following arrest of the parolee, there should be an informal hearing
to determine whether reasonable grounds exist for revocation
of parole; this preliminary hearing should be conducted at or reasonably
near the place of the alleged parole violation or arrest and
as promptly as convenient after arrest while information is fresh
and sources are available, and should be conducted by someone not
directly involved in the case, though he need not be a judicial officer.
The parolee should be given adequate notice that the hearing
will take place and what violations are alleged, he should be able
to appear and speak in his own behalf and produce other evidence,
and he should be allowed to examine those who have given adverse
evidence against him unless it is determined that the identity of
such informant should not be revealed. Also, the hearing officer
should prepare a digest of the hearing and base his decision upon
the evidence adduced at the hearing. 1156
Prior to the final decision on revocation, there should be a
more formal revocation hearing at which there would be a final
evaluation of any contested relevant facts and consideration whether
the facts as determined warrant revocation. The hearing must
take place within a reasonable time after the parolee is taken into
custody and he must be enabled to controvert the allegations or
offer evidence in mitigation. The procedural details of such hearings
are for the States to develop but the Court specified minimum
requirements of due process. ‘‘They include (a) written notice of the
claimed violations of parole; (b) disclosure to the parolee of evidence
against him; (c) opportunity to be heard in person and to
present witnesses and documentary evidence; (d) the right to confront
and cross-examine adverse witnesses (unless the hearing officer
specifically finds good cause for not allowing confrontation); (e)
a ‘neutral and detached’ hearing body such as a traditional parole
board, members of which need not be judicial officers or lawyers;
and (f) a written statement by the factfinders as to the evidence relied
on and the reasons for revoking parole.’’ 1157 Ordinarily the
written statement need not indicate that the sentencing court or
review board considered alternatives to incarceration, 1158 but a
sentencing court must consider such alternatives if the probation
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1880 AMENDMENT 14—RIGHTS GUARANTEED
1159 Bearden v. Georgia, 461 U.S. 660, 672 (1983).
1160 Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778 (1973).
1161 442 U.S. 1 (1979). Justice Powell thought that creation of a parole system
did create a legitimate expectancy of fair procedure protected by due process, but,
save in one respect, he agreed with the Court that the procedure followed was adequate.
Id. at 18. Justices Marshall, Brennan, and Stevens argued in dissent that
the Court’s analysis of the liberty interest was faulty and that due process required
more than the board provided. Id. at 22.
1162 Following Greenholtz, the Court held in Board of Pardons v. Allen, 482 U.S.
369 (1987), that a liberty interest was created by a Montana statute providing that
a prisoner ‘‘shall’’ be released upon certain findings by a parole board.
1163 The Court in Greenholtz held that procedures designed to elicit specific facts
were inappropriate under the circumstances, and minimizing the risk of error
should be the prime consideration. This goal may be achieved by the board’s largely
informal methods; eschewing formal hearings, notice, and specification of particular
evidence in the record. The inmate in this case was afforded an opportunity to be
heard and when parole was denied he was informed in what respects he fell short
of qualifying. That afforded the process that was due.
violation consists of the failure of an indigent probationer, through
no fault of his own, to pay a fine or restitution. 1159
The Court has applied a flexible due process standard to the
provision of counsel. Counsel is not invariably required in parole or
probation revocation proceedings. The State should, however, provide
the assistance of counsel where an indigent person may have
difficulty in presenting his version of disputed facts without crossexamination
of witnesses or presentation of complicated documentary
evidence. Presumptively, counsel should be provided where the
person requests counsel, based on a timely and colorable claim that
he has not committed the alleged violation, or if that issue be
uncontested, there are reasons in justification or mitigation that
might make revocation inappropriate. 1160
With respect to the granting of parole, the Court’s analysis of
the due process clause’s meaning in Greenholtz v. Nebraska Penal
Inmates 1161 is much more problematical. The theory was rejected
that the mere establishment of the possibility of parole was sufficient
to create a liberty interest entitling any prisoner meeting the
general standards of eligibility to a due process protected expectation
of being dealt with in any particular way. On the other hand,
the Court did recognize that a parole statute could create an expectancy
of release entitled to some measure of constitutional protection,
although a determination would need to be made on a
case-by-case basis, 1162 and the full panoply of due process guarantees
is not required. 1163 Where, however, government by its statutes
and regulations creates no obligation of the pardoning authority
and thus creates no legitimate expectancy of release, the prisoner
may not by showing the favorable exercise of the authority in
the great number of cases demonstrate such a legitimate expect-
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AMENDMENT 14—RIGHTS GUARANTEED 1881
1164 Ohio Adult Parole Auth. v. Woodard, 523 U.S. 272 (1998). The mere existence
of purely discretionary authority and the frequent exercise of it creates no entitlement.
Connecticut Bd. of Pardons v. Dumschat, 452 U.S. 458 (1981); Jago v. Van
Curen, 454 U.S. 14 (1981). The former case involved not parole but commutation
of a life sentence, commutation being necessary to become eligible for parole. The
statute gave the Board total discretion to commute, but in at least 75% of the cases
prisoner received a favorable action and virtually all of the prisoners who had their
sentences commuted were promptly paroled. In Van Curen, the Court made express
what had been implicit in Dumschat; the ‘‘mutually explicit understandings’’ concept
under which some property interests are found protected does not apply to liberty
interests. Van Curen is also interesting because there the parole board had granted
the petition for parole but within days revoked it before the prisoner was released,
upon being told that he had lied at the hearing before the board.
1165 For analysis of the state laws as well as application of constitutional principles
to juveniles, see SAMUEL M. DAVIS, RIGHTS OF JUVENILES: THE JUVENILE JUSTICE
SYSTEM (2d ed. 1989).
1166 In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 12–29 (1967).
1167 387 U.S. 1 (1967).
ancy. The power of the executive to pardon, or grant clemency,
being a matter of grace, is rarely subject to judicial review. 1164
The Problem of the Juvenile Offender.—All of the States of
the Union and the District of Columbia make provision for dealing
with juvenile offenders outside of the criminal system for adult offenders.
1165 These juvenile justice systems apply both to offenses
that would be criminal if committed by an adult and to delinquent
behavior not recognizable under laws dealing with adults, such as
habitual truancy, deportment endangering the morals or health of
the juvenile or others, or disobedience making the juvenile uncontrollable
by his parents. The reforms of the early part of this century
provided not only for segregating juveniles from adult offenders
in the adjudication, detention, and correctional facilities, but
they also dispensed with the substantive and procedural rules surrounding
criminal trials which were mandated by due process. Justification
for this abandonment of constitutional guarantees was offered
by describing juvenile courts as civil not criminal and as not
dispensing criminal punishment, and offering the theory that the
state was acting as parens patriae for the juvenile offender and was
in no sense his adversary. 1166
Disillusionment with the results of juvenile reforms coupled
with judicial emphasis on constitutional protection of the accused
led in the 1960s to a substantial restriction of these elements of juvenile
jurisprudence. After tracing in much detail this history of juvenile
courts, the Court held in In re Gault 1167 that the application
of due process to juvenile proceedings would not endanger the good
intentions vested in the system nor diminish the features of the
system which were deemed desirable—emphasis upon rehabilitation
rather than punishment, a measure of informality, avoidance
of the stigma of criminal conviction, the low visibility of the proc-
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1882 AMENDMENT 14—RIGHTS GUARANTEED
1168 ‘‘Ultimately, however, we confront the reality of that portion of the juvenile
court process with which we deal in this case. A boy is charged with misconduct.
The boy is committed to an institution where he may be restrained of liberty for
years. It is of no constitutional consequence—and of limited practical meaning—that
the institution to which he is committed is called an Industrial School. The fact of
the matter is that, however euphemistic the title, a ‘receiving home’ or an ‘industrial
school’ for juveniles is an institution of confinement in which the child is incarcerated
for a greater or lesser time. His world becomes ‘a building with whitewashed
walls, regimented routine and institutional hours. . . .’ Instead of mother and father
and sisters and brothers and friends and classmates, his world is peopled by guards,
custodians, state employees, and ‘delinquents’ confined with him for anything from
waywardness to rape and homicide. In view of this, it would be extraordinary if our
Constitution did not require the procedural regularity and the exercise of care implied
in the phrase ‘due process.’ Under our Constitution, the condition of being a
boy does not justify a kangaroo court.’’ 387 U.S. at 27-28.
1169 387 U.S. at 31-35. Justice Harlan concurred in part and dissented in part,
id. at 65, agreeing on the applicability of due process but disagreeing with the
standards of the Court. Justice Stewart dissented wholly, arguing that the application
of procedures developed for adversary criminal proceedings to juvenile proceedings
would endanger their objectives and contending that the decision was a
backward step toward undoing the reforms instituted in the past. Id. at 78.
1170 Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541 (1966), noted on this point in In re
Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 30–31 (1967).
1171 In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358 (1970). Chief Justice Burger and Justice Stewart
dissented, following essentially the Stewart reasoning in Gault. ‘‘The Court’s
opinion today rests entirely on the assumption that all juvenile proceedings are
‘criminal prosecutions,’ hence subject to constitutional limitation. . . . What the juvenile
court systems need is not more but less of the trappings of legal procedure and
judicial formalism; the juvenile system requires breathing room and flexibility in
order to survive, if it can survive the repeated assaults from this Court.’’ Id. at 375,
376. Justice Black dissented because he did not think the reasonable doubt standard
a constitutional requirement at all. Id. at 377.
1172 McKeiver v. Pennsylvania, 403 U.S. 528 (1971). No opinion was concurred
in by a majority of the Justices. Justice Blackmun’s opinion of the Court, which was
ess—but that the consequences of the absence of due process standards
made their application necessary. 1168
Thus, the Court in Gault required that notice of charges be
given in time for the juvenile to prepare a defense, required a hearing
in which the juvenile could be represented by retained or appointed
counsel, required observance of the rights of confrontation
and cross-examination, and required that the juvenile be protected
against self-incrimination. 1169 It did not pass upon the right of appeal
or the failure to make transcripts of hearings. Earlier, the
Court had held that before a juvenile could be ‘‘waived’’ to an adult
court for trial, there had to be a hearing and findings of reasons,
a result based on statutory interpretation but apparently
constitutionalized in Gault. 1170 Subsequently, it was held that the
‘‘essentials of due process and fair treatment’’ required that a juvenile
could be adjudged delinquent only on evidence beyond a reasonable
doubt when the offense charged would be a crime if committed
by an adult, 1171 but still later the Court held that jury trials
were not constitutionally required in juvenile trials. 1172
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AMENDMENT 14—RIGHTS GUARANTEED 1883
joined by Chief Justice Burger and Justices Stewart and White, reasoned that a juvenile
proceeding was not ‘‘a criminal prosecution’’ within the terms of the Sixth
Amendment, so that jury trials were not automatically required; instead, the prior
cases had proceeded on a ‘‘fundamental fairness’’ approach and in that regard a jury
was not a necessary component of fair factfinding and its use would have serious
repercussions on the rehabilitative and protection functions of the juvenile court.
Justice White also submitted a brief concurrence emphasizing the differences between
adult criminal trials and juvenile adjudications. Id. at 551. Justice Brennan
concurred in one case and dissented in another because in his view open proceedings
would operate to protect juveniles from oppression in much the same way as a jury
would. Id. at 553. Justice Harlan concurred because he did not believe jury trials
were constitutionally mandated in state courts. Id. at 557. Justices Douglas, Black,
and Marshall dissented. Id. at 557.
1173 Fare v. Michael C., 442 U.S. 707, 725 (1979).
1174 New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325 (1985) (upholding the search of a student’s
purse to determine whether the student possessed cigarettes in violation of
schoool rule; evidence of drug activity held admissible in a prosecution und
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