Jail Inmate Disciplinary Procedures

By administrative regulation, North Carolina’s jails are required to have written policies and procedures on inmate rules and discipline. 10A NCAC 14J .0203(a)(5). The only thing the jail regulations tell us about the substance of those policies and procedures is that they may not use food as a reward or punishment. 10A NCAC 14J .0902. Beyond that, the framework for how a jail should handle inmate disciplinary procedures is a question of constitutional due process. A recent case from the Fourth Circuit reminds us what process is due when a jail responds to alleged misbehavior by an inmate. The case is Dilworth v. Adams, 841 F.3d 246 (4th Cir. 2016). Michael Dilworth was a pretrial inmate in a large North Carolina jail. He spent a total of about three months in administrative segregation as punishment for two disciplinary infractions. The first infraction involved a fight with another inmate. The fight happened at 4:20 p.m. By 5:05 p.m., an officer had filed a disciplinary report and ordered a sanction of 45 days in disciplinary segregation. By 5:30, the watch commander had reviewed and approved that sanction. Ten days later, Dilworth filed a written appeal to challenge the sanction. An administrative review officer dismissed the appeal, saying the videotape of the incident did not clearly show who started the fight. The second infraction involved an altercation with detention officers. It’s not clear how the incident started, but it ended with Dilworth on the floor, and another disciplinary report ordering 45 days of disciplinary [...]