18-F. Administrative Segregation Proceedings
As with disciplinary confinement, for you to receive procedural protection in the context of administrative segregation, a court must find that the laws or regulations applicable to your prison create a protected liberty interest.302 In other words, unless your state has a law or regulation that gives you the right to avoid segregation from the general prison population, you do not have a right to a formal hearing before being confined in administrative or protective custody. Not all jurisdictions have found a protected liberty interest in the context of administrative segregation. But courts in the Second Circuit, which covers New York, have decided that some state and federal regulations regarding administrative segregation create such a protected liberty interest. 303 This Part will first discuss the minimum administrative segregation procedures that all officials must follow before and during your administrative detention. Then it will cover the procedures that officials in New York must follow, then it will describe those that federal prisons within the Second Circuit must follow.
There are some minimum administrative segregation procedures that all prisons must follow before and during your administrative detention. The due process protections for disciplinary action discussed in the Sections above do not apply to administrative segregation. This means that the requirements of Wolff v.
McDonnell304 do not apply to administrative segregation. The key case for understanding the basic requirements in the administrative segregation context is Hewitt v. Helms.305 The Hewitt case concerned a prisoner who was placed in administrative segregation after a riot in a state prison. The next day, he was given notice of a misconduct charge against him. After five days of confinement, a hearing committee reviewed the evidence against him, including a report of his version of the events at issue. The committee did not reach a decision about the prisoner's guilt, but decided that he posed a threat to the safety of other prisoners and prison officials and that his confinement in administrative segregation should be continued. The Supreme Court concluded that the prison officials' review process was adequate and did not violate the prisoner's due process rights. 306
The Supreme Court created a standard for hearings to determine whether a prisoner represents a security threat, or whether he should be confined to administrative segregation while awaiting the results of an investigation into misconduct charges.307 The Court stated that an informal, non-adversarial (not focused on the dispute or conflict) review of the evidence will satisfy the due process requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment.308 Therefore, for administrative segregation hearings, the procedural safeguards you are entitled to in any prison are:
(1) Some notice of the charges against you,
(2) An opportunity to present your views orally or in writing to the prison officer who will decide whether to transfer you to (or keep you in) administrative segregation,
(3) An informal proceeding held within a reasonable time after your transfer to administrative segregation, and
(4) Periodic review of the charges and available evidence by the decision-maker. 309
These are the minimum procedural requirements prison officials must follow. Other state or federal regulations that govern your prison may set out additional, specific guidelines.
New York State prisons may place you in administrative segregation only if prison officials find that your presence in the general prison population poses a threat to the general safety and security of the facility.310 You are entitled to submit a written statement responding to the charges against you. Prison officials may, in their discretion, let you make your case in person. Although you are not entitled to be present at each review hearing, you may be entitled to a report of the results of the review hearings and a chance to respond to those findings. 311 You are also entitled to have a committee review your status of confinement in administrative segregation every sixty days. 312 A three-member committee consisting of a representative of the facility executive staff, a security supervisor, and a member of the guidance and counseling staff will examine your record and prepare and submit a report to the superintendent. 313 The report must state:
(1) Reasons why you were initially placed in administrative segregation,
(2) Information on your later behavior and attitude, and
(3) Any other factors that favor keeping you in or releasing you from administrative segregation. 314
The law that applies to prisoners in federal prison is slightly different. If you are placed in administrative detention in...
