Leroy L. Young, et al. v. Ernest Eugene Harper (520 U.S. 143)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 18, 1997 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 520 U.S. 143 · 117 S. Ct. 1148
- Decided
- March 18, 1997
- Term
- October Term 1996
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Thomas
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents the narrow question whether a program employed by the State of Oklahoma to reduce the overcrowding of its prisons was sufficiently like parole that a person in the program was entitled to the procedural protections set forth in Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U. S. 471 (1972), before he could be removed from it. We hold that the program, as it appears to have been structured at the time respondent was placed on it, differed from parole in name alone, and affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. I As pertinent to this case, Oklahoma operated two programs under which inmates were conditionally released from prison before the expiration of their sentences. One was parole, the other was the Preparóle Conditional Supervision Program (preparóle or Program). The Program was in effect whenever the population of the prison system exceeded 95% of its capacity. Okla. Stat., Tit. 57, § 365(A) (Supp. 1990). An inmate could be placed on preparóle after serving 15% of his sentence, § 365(A)(2), and he was eligible for parole when one-third of his sentence had elapsed, § 332.7(A). The Pardon and Parole Board (Board) had a role in the placement of both parolees and preparolees. ■ The Board itself determined who could participate in the Program, while the Governor, based on the Board’s recommendation,…
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