By Carson Gerber
Kokomo Tribune, Ind.
BUNKER HILL, Ind. — The Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled against four Miami Correctional Facility inmates who say the prison committed double jeopardy by placing them in solitary confinement and reducing their credit time.
Prison officials say Matthew Wagoner, Ryan Jones, Jacques Allen and Kennic Brown all battered a public safety officer inside the facility on separate occasions in 2019.
In response, the prison placed all of them in restrictive housing for 360 days, which meant they stayed in the cell 23 hours a day, and were allowed to exercise for an hour five days a week. They also had 180 days of credit time on their sentence removed.
All the inmates were also criminally charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and prosecuted. The inmates all separately filed motions to dismiss the charge, arguing they had already been punished by the prison, and the criminal charge constituted double jeopardy.
The inmates all said living in restrictive housing made them depressed, anxious and, in some cases, suicidal. Jones said he “wouldn’t subject his worst enemy” to solitary confinement. Allen said “we’re not treated like we’re human beings” while living in confinement.
“It’s clearly a discipline,” Jones said in his argument. “It’s clearly a punishment.”
They also argued depriving them of good credit time was double jeopardy, since they would have to stay in prison longer, and a criminal conviction would extend their sentence even more.
Miami Superior Court Judge David Grund denied all the inmates’ motion to dismiss the criminal charge.
Last week, the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld that ruling, saying the prison’s actions were administrative punishments and did not reach the level of criminal punishments that would constitute double jeopardy.
The court said Indiana law governing prisons’ disciplinary actions “indicates a preference that the sanctions be considered civil.”
Regarding the removal of credit time, the court pointed to an earlier ruling that said an inmate does not have a constitutional right to credit time. Rather, credit time is a “bonus created by statute and the deprivation of credit time does nothing more than take that bonus away.”
The court said solitary confinement also wasn’t a criminal punishment, pointing to an Indiana Supreme Court ruling they said showed “administrative punishment does not preclude subsequent prosecution to discipline by placement in segregated housing.”
“Neither the deprivation of credit time that cannot be restored nor the placement in restrictive housing is so punitive that it constitutes a criminal punishment,” the appeals court said in all its rulings against the inmates.
(c)2021 the Kokomo Tribune (Kokomo, Ind.)