Filed: Dec. 13, 2000
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT No. 00-30779 Conference Calendar KENNETH PAUL JONES, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus MICKEY HUBERT; PAMELA HORNE; LATERSHISH WALDRUP, Defendants-Appellees. - Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana USDC No. 00-CV-562 - December 13, 2000 Before DAVIS, STEWART, and PARKER, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:* Kenneth Paul Jones (Louisiana prisoner #112910) appeals the district court’s dismissal of his civil
Summary: IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT No. 00-30779 Conference Calendar KENNETH PAUL JONES, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus MICKEY HUBERT; PAMELA HORNE; LATERSHISH WALDRUP, Defendants-Appellees. - Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana USDC No. 00-CV-562 - December 13, 2000 Before DAVIS, STEWART, and PARKER, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:* Kenneth Paul Jones (Louisiana prisoner #112910) appeals the district court’s dismissal of his civil r..
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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
No. 00-30779
Conference Calendar
KENNETH PAUL JONES,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
MICKEY HUBERT; PAMELA HORNE;
LATERSHISH WALDRUP,
Defendants-Appellees.
--------------------
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Louisiana
USDC No. 00-CV-562
--------------------
December 13, 2000
Before DAVIS, STEWART, and PARKER, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:*
Kenneth Paul Jones (Louisiana prisoner #112910) appeals the
district court’s dismissal of his civil rights action under
28 U.S.C. § 1915(e) for failure to state a claim on which relief
could be granted. In dismissing the action, the district court
concluded that the basis of Jones’ complaint–-that is, his
placement in lockdown for eight days while an investigation into
alleged misconduct was pending–-did not implicate a protected
liberty interest. We review the district court’s dismissal
*
Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the court has determined
that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent
except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR.
R. 47.5.4.
No. 00-30779
-2-
de novo. See Bass v. Parkwood Hosp.,
180 F.3d 234, 240 (5th Cir.
1999).
Jones acknowledges on appeal that the Constitution itself
does not give rise to a protected liberty interest in remaining
free from administrative segregation. He states, however, that
the State of Louisiana has created such a liberty interest
through a prison regulation requiring a shift supervisor to
investigate the reasonableness of allegations leading to an
inmate’s placement in administrative segregation.
Jones essentially asks this court to engage in the exact
approach denounced by the Supreme Court in Sandin v. Conner,
515
U.S. 472 (1995). In Sandin, the Court concluded that the focus
of a liberty-interest inquiry should be on the nature of the
deprivation and not on the language used in a particular prison
regulation.
Id. at 480-84. The Court held, that although states
could create liberty interests which are protected by the Due
Process Clause, those interests are “generally limited to freedom
from restraint which . . . imposes atypical and significant
hardship on the inmate in relation to the ordinary incidents of
prison life.”
Id. at 483-84.
The nature of the deprivation in Jones’ case is his
placement in lockdown for eight days while an investigation into
alleged misconduct was pending. Such action did not “impose[]
atypical and significant hardship on [Jones] in relation to the
ordinary incidents of prison life.” See
id. at 484; see also
Hewitt v. Helms,
459 U.S. 460, 462-65, 468 (1983)(concluding that
inmate’s placement in administrative segregation while his role
No. 00-30779
-3-
in prison riot was being investigated was “well within the terms
of confinement ordinarily contemplated by a prison sentence”).
The allegations in Jones’ complaint failed to implicate a
protected liberty interest. See
Sandin, 515 U.S. at 486-87
(holding that state prisoner’s placement in disciplinary
segregation for 30 days did not present the type of atypical,
significant deprivation implicating a protected liberty
interest); Luken v. Scott,
71 F.3d 192, 193 (5th Cir. 1995)
(concluding that prisoner’s placement in administrative
segregation, due to allegedly false information in his file
indicating that he was member of prison gang, did not constitute
a deprivation of a constitutionally cognizable liberty interest).
Accordingly, the district court did not err in dismissing Jones’
complaint under § 1915(e) for failure to state a claim. See
Bass, 180 F.3d at 240.
Jones’ appeal is frivolous and is therefore DISMISSED. See
Howard v. King,
707 F.2d 215, 220 (5th Cir. 1983); 5th Cir.
R. 42.2. The dismissal of Jones’ complaint for failure to state
a claim and the dismissal of this appeal as frivolous each count
as a strike for the purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). See
Adepegba v. Hammons,
103 F.3d 383, 385-87 (5th Cir. 1996). We
caution Jones that once he accumulates three strikes, he may not
proceed in forma pauperis in any civil action or appeal filed
while he is incarcerated or detained in any facility unless he is
under imminent danger of serious physical injury. See § 1915(g).
APPEAL DISMISSED; § 1915(g) WARNING ISSUED.