Chapter 8
Procedural Due Process
Chapter Overview
The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments’ Due Process Clauses require appropriate process to safeguard against deprivation of life, liberty, or property. This chapter focuses on prisoners’ rights to procedural due process related to parole revocation, discipline, administrative segregation, and transfers. In addition to case law, materials include examples from parole, jail disciplinary, and prison transfer proceedings.
Featured Opinions
- Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 328 (1986)
- Davidson v. Cannon, 474 U.S. 344, 348 (1986)
- Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778 (1973)
- Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460 (1983)
- Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215 (1976)
- Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471 (1972)
- Olim v. Wakinekona, 461 U.S. 238 (1983)
- Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527 (1981)
- Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472 (1995)
- Superintendent, Mass. Correctional Institution at Walpole v. Hill, 472 U.S. 445 (1985)
- Vitek v. Jones, 445 U.S. 480 (1980)
- Wilkinson v. Austin, 545 U.S. 209 (2005)
- Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539 (1974)
Featured, Cited, and Supplemental Litigation Documents
- Morales v. Findley, 13-cv-7572 (N.D. Ill.)
- Litigation summary and documents
- Final Settlement Agreement (referenced casebook p. 470) (Jan. 13, 2017)
Excerpted Sources & Supplemental Documents
- Illinois parole revocation documents
- Charging parole violation by purchasing Xanax pills (referenced casebook p. 512)
- Standard notice of parole violation hearing (referenced casebook p. 514)
- Notice of Rights from Morales v. Findley, 13-cv-7572 (N.D. Ill.) (class action settled by Illinois agreement to increase parolee procedural protections) (referenced casebook p. 514)
- Notice of Impending Psychiatric Transfer and related documents (referenced casebook p. 544)
- St. Clair County adjustment committee report referenced casebook p. 531 (“If you want to retire in one piece, you’ll leave me alone” vs. “go retire in peace”)
- Illinois Department of Corrections 2019 disciplinary report (referenced casebook p. 532) re. transgender prison who reported sexual abused by an officer
- Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice, Inmate Discipline Program
- Delaware Department of Corrections, Application and Forfeiture of Good Time Policy
Lived Experiences
Additional Reading
- Alabama’s Women Prisoners Moved to Louisiana to Ease Overcrowding, Prison Legal News (Sept. 15, 2003)
- John Boston & Daniel E. Manville, Prisoners’ Self-Help Litigation Manual (4th ed. 2010)
- Council of State Government, Justice Center
- Confined and Costly (2019)
- Confined and Costly (2025)
- Justice Lab, Columbia University, Racial Inequities in New York Parole Supervision (Mar. 2020)
- Emma Kaufman, The Prisoner Trade, 133 Harv. L. Rev. 1815 (2020)
- Beth Schwartzapfel, Want to Shrink the Prison Population? Look at Parole., The Marshall Project (Feb. 2019)