18-c-4 Work Release Programs

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18-C-4. Work Release Programs

In Young v. Harper, the Supreme Court held that the prisoner had a liberty interest in his pre-parole release program because the release program was very similar to parole. ⁷⁴ The standard is similar for work release programs.⁷⁵ Courts consider whether your program gives you "substantial freedom" and whether you have been "released from incarceration." ⁷⁶ You enjoy "substantial freedom" if your work release program is more similar to release from incarceration. If your situation is still similar to institutional life, the court will not find that you have a liberty interest.⁷⁷

The deciding factor for whether you have been "release[d] from institutional life altogether" is where you live.⁷⁸ In Edwards v. Lockhart, the court found that a work release program participant had a protected liberty interest because she no longer lived in an institution.⁷⁹ In Roucchio v. Coughlin, however, the court found no inherent liberty interest in continued placement in a work release program. In that case, the participant was on "5" and "2" status (spent five nights a week at home and two at the institution).⁸⁰ The court found that "although the [prisoner] 'did enjoy some conditional liberty while participating in the work release program, he had not been released from institutional life altogether.'" ⁸¹ By contrast, in Young, the participant in the pre-parole program lived in his home at all times. ⁸² Courts also consider any other restrictions that the program puts on your life.⁸³

To be clear, you do not have a state-created right to be placed in a work release program.⁸⁴ However, you might have a state-created interest once you are placed in a work release program. ⁸⁵ In some states, removal from a work release program is considered an "atypical and significant hardship" under the Sandin analysis.⁸⁶ New York is one state that creates this liberty interest.⁸⁷ In New York, the following process must be followed before you can be removed from temporary work release: ⁸⁸

(1) Written notice must be given to you of your removal and the alleged violation of the program's rules or conditions,

(2) A statement of the actual reason for consideration of your removal from work release,

(3) A report or summary of the evidence against you,

(4) An opportunity to be heard and to present evidence,

(5) Advance notice of a temporary release committee hearing,

(6) The right to confront and cross-examine witnesses testifying against you,

(7) A TRC (temporary release committee) composed of neutral decision makers, and

(8) A post-hearing written account of the actual reason for removal and a summary of the evidence supporting that reason. ⁸⁹

(9) Additionally, removal from a temporary work release program does not meet due process requirements "unless the findings of the [temporary release committee] are supported by some evidence in the record." ⁹⁰

If you have been removed from temporary work release and any of these steps were not followed, you may have a valid claim that you were deprived of your liberty interest in remaining in the program without due process.⁹¹

74. See Young v. Harper, 520 U.S. 143, 152-53, 137 L. Ed. 2d 270, 117 S. Ct. 1148 (1997) (finding that the Oklahoma "pre-parole conditional supervision program" was sufficiently like...