34. Programs-prisoner.

U.S. Appeals Court SEX OFFENDER RIGHT TO TREATMENT

Leamer v. Fauver, 288 F.3d 532 (3rd Cir. 2002). A state prisoner filed a [section] 1983 action challenging his placement on a prison's restricted activities program (RAP). The district court dismissed the case and the prisoner appealed. The appeals court reversed and remanded, finding that the state's unique former statutory scheme for sex offenders, which predicated the term of sentence on a prisoner's response to treatment, created a liberty interest in treatment and a right to treatment for the purposes of both procedural and substantive due process analyses. (Adult Diagnostic Treatment Center, New Jersey)

U.S. Appeals Court INCENTIVES

Love v. McKune, 33 Fed.Appx. 369 (10th Cir. 2002). Four prison inmates brought a civil rights action challenging their forced participation in a prison incentive level system that tied inmate privileges to participation in programs and good behavior. The district court dismissed the action and the appeals court affirmed. The appeals court held that forced participation did not violate the inmates' Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. The Internal Management Policy and Procedure (IMPP) system assigned inmates to one of four levels. Each level had a corresponding level of privileges, such as television ownership, handicrafts, participation in organizations, use of outside funds, canteen expenditures, incentive pay, and visitation. The system had been previously upheld by the state supreme court, which found that none of the restrictions denied to inmates on lower levels infringed on inmates' property or liberty interests and therefore did not implicate due process protection. The appeals court noted that denying an inmate the use of certain electronic equipment does not...