Daniel v. Smoot
Daniel v. Smoot
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiffs in this matter are D.C. Code offenders who remain incarcerated for serious felonies committed before March 3, 1985. Plaintiffs brought this action challenging the United States Parole Commission's practice of applying to Plaintiffs' parole eligibility determinations the Commission's regulations that were adopted in 2000, instead of the 1972 guidelines of the now-defunct District of Columbia Parole Board, which were in effect when Plaintiffs committed their offenses. After over five years of litigation, which included a successful appeal by Plaintiffs to the D.C. Circuit, the parties reached a Settlement Agreement on December 18, 2015. Under *76the settlement's terms, the Commission agreed that it would hold remedial parole hearings for Plaintiffs and, "in good faith," apply to those proceedings a newly adopted Commission regulation that incorporated key elements of the 1972 guidelines. Additionally, the parties stipulated that this District Court would maintain jurisdiction over the matter to enforce the terms of the agreement.
Plaintiffs now have returned to court because they assert that the Commission is in breach of the Settlement Agreement. They contend that, contrary to the Settlement Agreement, the Commission is not in good faith applying the criteria for parole determinations contained in the 1972 guidelines. Additionally, they contend that the Commission is acting contrary to the 1972 guidelines by routinely scheduling rehearings more than one year into the future for Plaintiffs who were denied parole. Plaintiffs have moved to compel the Commission to comply with the Settlement Agreement and to adhere to the 1972 guidelines.
After considering the parties' legal memoranda and the record, the court finds that: (1) the record does not support Plaintiffs' assertion that the Board is not faithfully applying the 1972 guidelines when making parole determinations, but (2) that the Commission, by regularly setting parole rehearing dates more than one year after denying a Plaintiff parole, is acting inconsistently with the 1972 guidelines. Accordingly, for the reasons that follow, the court grants in part and denies in part Plaintiffs' Motion to Enforce Settlement Agreement, ECF No. 81.
I. BACKGROUND
A. Case History
1. Genesis of this Action
This case dates back to 2010, when Plaintiffs
At the time of Plaintiffs' offenses, the District of Columbia Board of Parole ("D.C. Board") administered parole for persons convicted of violations of the D.C. Code and did so using parole guidelines that it issued in 1972. Id. ¶¶ 4-6, 20; see 9 D.C.R.R. §§ 105.1, 103 (1972).
In the Complaint, Plaintiffs objected to the Commission's use of the 2000 guidelines out of concern that those rules would inappropriately prolong their incarceration because they were more punitive than the 1972 guidelines. See Am. Compl. ¶¶ 52-54, 56, 62, 69. Plaintiffs alleged that the 2000 guidelines made it "impossible for an offender convicted of a violent crime resulting in death to be found suitable for parole at the initial hearing," and that such offenders were "presumed non-suitable for parole" until they served substantial periods of time beyond their minimum sentences. Id. ¶¶ 87-88. By contrast, they maintained that under the 1972 guidelines, an offender could be paroled after serving the minimum sentence. Id. ¶ 88. Plaintiffs also alleged that decisions using the 2000 guidelines placed greater weight on disciplinary infractions committed during their incarceration, as compared to the emphasis placed on that factor under the 1972 guidelines. Id. ¶¶ 54, 95, 97.
The trial court dismissed the Complaint, but the D.C. Circuit reversed. See Daniel v. Fulwood ,
2. Proceedings Following Remand
Following remand, and after a period of notice and comment, the Commission promulgated a new regulation,
(4) Factors considered: Among others, the U.S. Parole Commission takes into account some of the following factors in making its determination as to parole:
(i) The offense, noting the nature of the violation, mitigating or aggravating circumstances and the activities and adjustment of the offender following arrest if on bond or in the community under any pre-sentence type arrangement.
(ii) Prior history of criminality, noting the nature and pattern of any prior offenses as they may relate to the current circumstances.
(iii) Personal and social history of the offender, including such factors as his family situation, educational development, socialization, marital history, employment history, use of leisure time and prior military service, if any.
(iv) Physical and emotional health and/or problems which may have played a role in the individual's socialization process, and efforts made to overcome any such problems.
(v) Institutional experience, including information as to the offender's overall general adjustment, his ability to handle interpersonal relationships, his behavior responses, his planning for himself, setting meaningful goals in areas *78of academic schooling, vocational education or training, involvements in self-improvement activity and therapy and his utilization of available resources to overcome recognized problems. Achievements in accomplishing goals and efforts put forth in any involvements in established programs to overcome problems are carefully evaluated.
(vi) Community resources available to assist the offender with regard to his needs and problems, which will supplement treatment and training programs begun in the institution, and be available to assist the offender to further serve in his efforts to reintegrate himself back into the community and within his family unit as a productive useful individual.
The New Regulation also adopts the D.C. Board's rule with respect to setting a subsequent parole hearing, or "rehearing," after the denial of parole. If the Commission denies an applicant parole, the Commission must schedule a "rehearing" to consider anew the person's suitability for parole. The time between the hearing at which parole is denied and the subsequent hearing is known as a "set-off." With respect to the setting of rehearings, the New Regulation tracks nearly verbatim the 1972 Guidelines:
(5) A prisoner who committed the offense of conviction on or before March 3, 1985 who is not incarcerated as a parole violator and is serving a maximum sentence of five years or more who was denied parole at their original hearing ordinarily will receive a rehearing one year after a hearing conducted by the U.S. Parole Commission. In all cases of rehearings, the U.S. Parole Commission may establish a rehearing date at any time it feels such would be proper, regardless of the length of sentence involved. No hearing may be set for more than five years from the date of the previous hearing.
3. Settlement and Aftermath
On December 18, 2015, about two months after the New Regulation went into effect, the parties entered into a Settlement Agreement that ended this litigation. See Stip. of Settlement and Dismissal, ECF No. 77 [hereinafter Settlement Agreement]. The Agreement calls for the Commission to apply the New Regulation, which, as explained above, replicates in key respects the 1972 guidelines.
After the Settlement, the Commission made parole decisions as to 56 individuals. Generally speaking, the parole-determination process involves three steps. At the first step, a single hearing examiner conducts an in-person parole hearing on behalf *79of the Commission, at which she takes testimony, accepts evidence, and asks questions. See
In this case, the hearing examiners recommended parole for 23 of the 56 applicants. Joint Suppl. Filing, ECF No. 96, at 2. However, of the 23 recommended for parole, the Commission rejected the recommendation and denied parole for 13; it accepted the recommendation of parole for the remaining 10.
4. The Motion to Enforce
On April 27, 2017, Plaintiffs filed the present Motion to Enforce in which they allege that the Commission is violating the Settlement Agreement by "fail[ing] to apply the 1972 guidelines in good faith." See Pls.' Mem. at 5; Mot. to Enforce Settlement Agreement, ECF No. 81. They claim that the Commission is breaching the Agreement in two ways. First, Plaintiffs maintain that the Commission is not applying the 1972 regulations' suitability factors to its parole determinations. See Pls.' Mem. at 5-10. And, second, they argue that the Commission is acting in bad faith by routinely imposing set-offs of two years or more, rather than the one-year set-off that the 1972 guidelines say are to be "ordinarily" granted. See id. at 9-10.
As a remedy for these breaches, Plaintiffs ask the court to require the Commission to: (1) "explicitly explain" its decisions under each of the factors in the 1972 guidelines when denying parole; (2) spell out its disagreements with hearing examiners' recommendations in such cases; (3) state what a prisoner "can or should do to qualify for parole in the future"; and (4) schedule one-year set-offs for all Plaintiffs denied parole, unless the prisoner has a recent disciplinary violation. Id. at 11-12.
III. DISCUSSION
The Settlement Agreement requires the Commission to apply "in good faith" the provisions of the 1972 guidelines incorporated into the New Regulation, but it does not define the term "good faith." See Settlement Agreement at 2. So, to give meaning to that term, the court looks to the law of the District of Columbia, which the parties agreed would govern disputes arising out of the Settlement. Id. at 6;
*80Makins v. District of Columbia ,
With these principles in mind, the court considers the two ways in which Plaintiffs contend the Commission has not applied the New Regulation "in good faith."
A. Failure to Apply the 1972 Guidelines' Parole Suitability Factors
Plaintiffs first contend that the Commission breached the Settlement Agreement by applying the Commission's parole suitability criteria under its 2000 regulation, see
Having reviewed the entire record, the court finds that none of this evidence, whether considered individually or collectively, establishes the Commission's lack of good faith in applying the 1972 guidelines' parole suitability factors.
1. The Commission's Rejection of Parole Recommendations
To begin, Plaintiffs point out that in a majority of instances where hearing examiners recommended parole-13 of 23 instances, to be precise-the Commission rejected those recommendations and denied release. Pls.' Mem. at 5; Pls.' Reply to Def.'s Opp'n, ECF No. 89 [hereinafter Pls.' Reply], at 4; Joint Suppl. Filing at 2. Plaintiffs assert that these adverse decisions "suggest that most Hearing Examiners conscientiously attempted to apply the 1972 guidelines ... [but] this unfortunately was not the case when the defendant Commissioners themselves ... decided the parole requests of Plaintiffs." Pls.' Mem. at 4.
The proffered empirical evidence, however, falls short of establishing that the Commission is not acting in good faith. The present rate at which the Commission has rejected parole recommendations tells the court little about the Commission's good faith in adhering to the New Regulation because the court has no historical, statistical data against which to compare the Commission's actions. Critically, the court does not have before it any evidence about the rate at which the D.C. Board granted parole to D.C. Code offenders who, like Plaintiffs, were convicted of the most serious felony offenses, when it was operating under the 1972 guidelines. The D.C. Board may have granted parole at a greater or lesser rate to such persons. The court simply does not know. The court therefore cannot find, based solely on the Commission's present rate of rejecting *81hearing examiner recommendations, that the Commission has not in good faith applied the 1972 guidelines.
2. Giving Undue Weight to the Offense of Conviction and Disciplinary History
Next, as evidence of breach, Plaintiffs assert that the Commission's parole decisions have assigned too much weight to the nature of their offenses and to dated disciplinary infractions, relative to other factors from the 1972 guidelines. Pls.' Mem. at 10; Reply at 4. To illustrate, Plaintiffs point to Plaintiff Smith's and Plaintiff Grayson's unsuccessful parole applications. In Smith's case, the hearing examiner recommended parole in part based on the absence of any disciplinary issues since 2004 and Smith's completion of several programs while incarcerated. Pls.' Mem. at 6. Yet, in denying Smith's petition for parole, the Commission remarked on Smith's older disciplinary incidents and noted that his offense was "highly aggravated."
The court is not persuaded by Plaintiffs' argument for two reasons. First, the 1972 guidelines granted the D.C. Board broad discretion in deciding whether to grant parole, and the Commission inherited that discretion through the near-verbatim adoption of those guidelines. See Austin v. Reilly ,
*82Board, and that remains true today as the Commission applies the Board's criteria under the New Regulation.
Second, Plaintiffs have provided no evidence of the D.C. Parole Board's practice in applying the parole eligibility factors to a similar class of offenders. See Garner v. Jones ,
3. The Commission's Explanations for Denial
Finally, the court considers Plaintiffs' assertion that the Commission's lack of good faith in applying the 1972 guidelines can be inferred from the Commission's terse notices of action rejecting parole recommendations. Plaintiffs complain that, in more than half of the cases in which the Commission rejected hearing examiners' parole recommendations, the Commission did so "without explaining specifically how the Hearing Examiners had misapplied the 1972 guidelines or what factor under those guidelines led the [Commission] to disagree with the Hearing Examiners' analyses and recommendation." Pls.' Mem. at 10. This lack of transparency, Plaintiffs assert, demonstrates the Commission's lack of good faith.
That argument is unpersuasive. The 1972 guidelines are silent as to how much detail the D.C. Board was required to provide when denying parole, and Plaintiffs have not presented any evidence to fill that void. Indeed, when asking the court to order the Commission to provide greater explanations of its future parole decisions, Plaintiffs acknowledge that "more detailed explanations are not ordinarily required under Defendant's procedures." Pls.' Reply at 8;
* * *
In summary, the court finds that there is insufficient evidence before it to conclude that the Commission has breached the Settlement Agreement by failing to apply in good faith the 1972 guidelines' parole suitability criteria.
B. Ordering Set-Offs of More than One Year
That leaves the second part of Plaintiffs' motion, in which Plaintiffs claim that the Commission has breached the Settlement Agreement by consistently imposing set-offs of two or more years for Plaintiffs who were denied parole. Plaintiffs support their contention by pointing to numerical evidence of the Commission's set-off decisions. Of the 37 offenders who were denied parole at their first hearing under the 1972 guidelines, the Commission gave one-year set-offs to only four. Pls.' Mem. at 5;
On this issue, the court agrees with Plaintiffs. Unlike the open-ended factors analysis for parole determinations, the 1972 guidelines provided clear direction on the scheduling of set-offs. The rule was that offenders, like Plaintiffs, serving maximum sentences of five years or more who were denied parole "ordinarily will receive a rehearing one year after the last action taken by the Board." 9 D.C.R.R. § 103. The Commission's New Regulation modifies that text slightly by demarcating the start time of the set-off as "after a hearing conducted by the U.S. Parole Commission," instead of "after the last action taken." But, importantly, the New Regulation maintains the presumptive one-year set-off, as it provides that those persons denied parole "ordinarily will receive a hearing one year after a hearing conducted by the U.S. Parole Commission."
The Commission's defense of its decision-making is unconvincing. First, the Commission argues that the 1972 guidelines granted the D.C. Board discretion in how long to fix a set-off. The Commission points to a portion of the 1972 guidelines, which provides that, "[i]n all cases of rehearings, the Board reserves to itself the right to establish a rehearing date at any time it feels such would be proper, regardless of the length of the sentence served involved or the time remaining to be served." 9 D.C.C.R. § 103. The New Regulation contains identical language. See
Defendant's second argument-that Plaintiffs present exceptional cases that justify deviating from typical one-year set-offs-also is unpersuasive. Defendants suggest that the multi-year set-offs given to the 33 Plaintiffs is warranted even under the New Regulation because those Plaintiffs are "an extraordinary group based upon their violent conduct, lengthy criminal records, or violent records while in prison." Def.'s Opp'n at 8. But that logic is circular: This group is subject to the 1972 guidelines precisely because they were convicted for violent conduct that resulted in lengthy prison sentences. After all, Plaintiffs would not still be incarcerated this many decades later if they had been convicted of lesser crimes. Plaintiffs cannot both be subject to the 1972 guidelines because of their offenses, yet be told by the Commission that those guidelines do not really apply to them.
* * *
What then does this all mean for Plaintiffs who received set-offs of greater than one year? The court reads the Settlement Agreement as having granted each Plaintiff, through the New Regulation, an "original" parole hearing under the 1972 guidelines. See
V. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs' Motion to Enforce is granted in part and denied in part. A separate Order accompanies this Memorandum Opinion.
For ease of reference, the court in this opinion uses the term "Plaintiffs" to refer to the group of D.C. Code offenders to whom the Settlement applies and who have not been paroled since the Settlement's effective date. The original plaintiffs' claims are now moot, but the court permitted Stanley Grayson and Kevin Smith to be substituted as the named plaintiffs and as putative class representatives. See Daniel v. Grayson ,
All citations to D.C. Rules and Regulations are to the 1972 version.
The four prisoners who received the one-year set-offs have since been released or granted parole. Def.'s Notice of Filing, ECF No. 93, at 1-2; Hr'g Tr. (draft), Nov. 20, 2017, at 4. As to them, this motion is moot.
Although 19 of the 56 prisoners who qualified for and received a parole hearing under the 1972 guidelines received parole following their initial parole hearing, the parties only explain the circumstances of 10 of the 19 successful parole applicants-the 10 who received parole recommendations from hearing examiners which were then accepted by the Commission. See Joint Suppl. Filing at 2; see generally Def.'s Opp'n; Pls.' Mem. Neither party explains the circumstances of the nine others who apparently were granted parole under the New Regulation.
The Commission acknowledges as much, conceding that, "[i]n some cases, the reasons that were provided to the prisoner may not have been as complete as would be desirable[.]" Def's Opp'n at 7. Moreover, in response to Plaintiffs' lawyers' inquiries regarding the Commission's fulfillment of the Settlement Agreement, the Commission initiated its own review of Plaintiffs' cases and, as a result, "decided to clarify the reasons that it provided for its decision" in seven cases. Id. at 4-5; see also Def.'s Opp'n, Exs., ECF No. 88-1, at 3-5. The Commission's re-issuance of notices of action with more fulsome explanations underscores the lack of reasoning contained in many notices of action.
Nor does the group's institutional disciplinary history explain the longer set-offs. The records show that the Commission imposed longer set-offs even to prisoners whose disciplinary violations are old or nonviolent, or who had no disciplinary problems. See Parole Hr'g Records at 29-30, 33 (giving prisoner a three-year set-off despite no disciplinary violations during his more than three decades in prison); id. at 64, 69 (giving prisoner a three-year set-off despite only one disciplinary violation, for possessing pornography, from two or three years earlier).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Roy A. DANIEL v. J. Patricia Wilson SMOOT
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published