Families of Prisoners Support Group
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My husband was started out at a level 3, and applied immediately for a level reduction because his crime is listed as a level 2. Yesterday he was told that the system pulls up a police report form 2004 for a worse crime, and even though those charges were dropped completely and he was not convicted whatsoever, they are considering them as a reason to keep his level at 3. This is totally ridiculous...it's like being accused of murder & acquitted, then having to serve the time anyways...The prison he is at never approves halfway houses or transitional programs for level 3 inmates according to everyone there, so he would have to do his full two years if we aren't successful in fixing this system error. So we have to pay our lawyer to file a civil rights lawsuit against the Dept of Classifications, my husband is confident that he will be able to fix this so he can be home come summertime but I have lost so much confidence in everything at this point. When it rains it definitely pours. Anyone know anything about levels & the prisons taking into account police reports and arrest records instead of actual convictions?
The DOCs determines the security level by a point system; the higher the points, the higher the security level facility he will be assigned. This point system usually uses his controlling charge---his crime---the amount of time he has left to serve, whether the crime is violent or non-violent, whether he has a history of escape, his age, and a few other factors. They take all this and put the data into a computer and the computer returns a number for his point system. Apparently one of the factors is any arrest he has ever had.
The point system scheme is not enabled by state statute, but is a scheme that is set up by the DOC and the legislature has no oversight about its workings. In other words, the point scheme is not written into law.
Since the point scheme is determined by the DOC, they can make modifications to the scheme BUT his case manager or the classification system can do an override and still keep him halfway house eligible. They do that all the time.
I agree it is not fair that they add points or hold it against your husband a crime for which he was arrested but never convicted, but they are within their rights to do that if they want. Since they are not guided by a state statute but only by DOC procedure, it is legal that they do that.
Legal, but unfair.
This is not a civil rights issue; it is an issue with DOC policy, so I doubt an attorney could help you.
Has he written a "request to staff" asking to be on level 2? That is the first step as you have to go up the ladder, the chain of command.
These points usually drop off as the inmate serves more and more time, so he will get a reduction as his time to serve decreases.
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BTW, what state are you in? If I knew the state, I could tell you more.
We are located in CT. According to the CT DOC Manual for Classification, it is against their own rules in his specific case to use the police record for assigning his security level. Our lawyer is confident that he can have the issue resolved, probably without filing any type of suit. My husband did apply for a level reduction with his counselor and that is when he found out about the whole situation. So hopefully his counselor is able to override this, or he will have to go higher up. Or with a little coercion from our lawyer, hopefully his level can be reduced so he can get work release, and be eligible for doing 50% of his time (non violent crime). With the good time program we have here (5 days taken off per month of your sentence) he would be home by the summertime...or at least in a halfway house, which would be a million times better than 2 years from now.