31-b-7 Legal Challenges to Classification Decisions

• Library: A Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual (2020 Edition)

31-B-7. Legal Challenges to Classification Decisions

Generally, legal claims made to improve the conditions of imprisonment are filed under 42 U.S.C. §1983. Because your security classification determines the conditions of your imprisonment, most prisoners who challenge their security classification file their claims under Section 1983. The U.S. Constitution and other federal statutes provide a broad range of individual rights. Section 1983 is a federal statute that protects you from violations of these rights by allowing you to sue the individuals responsible in federal court.⁴⁷ It is important to note that there is generally no federal law on the issue of classification, either substantively or as a matter of due process, because these matters are generally governed by state law. You should look to the law of your own state and individual prison regulations, and when it is possible you should always try to have the regulations enforced in state court. You can look to federal court if a state remedy does not exist, or if the federal remedy would override the state remedy.⁴⁸

For detailed instructions on how to file a claim under Section 1983, see Chapter 16 of the JLM, "Using 42 U.S.C. §1983 and 28 U.S.C. § 1331 to Obtain Relief from Violations of Federal Law." It is also crucial that you read Chapter 14 of the JLM, on the Prison Litigation Reform Act ("PLRA"). The PLRA requires you to exhaust administrative remedies before filing suit and imposes substantial penalties if you fail to do so.⁴⁹

One possible legal challenge to classification decisions is a due process challenge. The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects individuals, including prisoners, from the loss of "life, liberty, or property" at the hands of the government without due process of law.⁵⁰ But, the Constitution itself does not provide prisoners the right to be housed at any particular classification level. Therefore, a prisoner must rely on state law to create a liberty interest in order to have a valid claim for denial of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.⁵¹ In 1995, in Sandin v. Conner, the Supreme Court created a new standard for determining whether conditions of imprisonment constitute a due process violation.⁵² The new standard emphasizes the nature of the deprivation suffered by the prisoner. You should be careful researching this issue, however, as much of the case law on prisoner classification was decided under an old standard. You must make sure that the cases you research use the current Sandin standard.

In Sandin, the Court held that state-created liberty interests "will be generally limited to freedom from restraint which . . . imposes atypical and significant hardship on the inmate in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life,"⁵³ and that the hardship imposed upon the prisoner must be of "real substance."⁵⁴ Following Sandin, courts have been extremely reluctant to find that a particular security classification constitutes a deprivation of a constitutional liberty interest. Two key considerations are the conditions of segregation and the duration of segregation.⁵⁵ Prisoners have not been successful in convincing the court that the officials' decision to classify them in a particular way constituted an "atypical and significant" deprivation of liberty. Prisoners have had more success, however, challenging long-term placement in administrative segregation.⁵⁶

One reason it is so difficult to succeed on a Fourteenth Amendment claim is that even where the court finds a liberty interest, a prisoner will still lose his case if the prison's policies satisfy due process (remember that the Fourteenth Amendment does not protect you from any deprivation of liberty, but...