Syllabus

HOWE v. SMITH, ATTORNEY GENERAL, ET AL.

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

No. 80-5392. Argued April 28, 1981-Decided June 17, 1981

Title 18 U. S. C. § 5003 (a) authorizes the Attorney General to contract with a state "for the custody, care, subsistence, education, treatment, and training of persons convicted of criminal offenses in the courts of such State," when the Director of the United States Bureau of Prisons certifies that proper and adequate federal "treatment facilities and personnel are available." Petitioner was convicted in a Vermont state court of first-degree murder arising out of the rape and strangulation of an elderly woman. Since Vermont had previously closed its only maximum-security prison, petitioner was assigned to a state prison having the capacity for short-term, but not long-term, incarceration of inmates with high security needs, and it was recommended because of the nature of his offense that he be transferred to a federal prison. A hearing was held before the Vermont Department of Corrections at which it was determined that petitioner was a high security risk, and, ultimately, under a contract between Vermont and the United States, petitioner was transferred to the federal prison system pursuant to § 5003 (a). Subsequently, petitioner filed an action in Federal District Court, challenging his transfer on the ground that the federal officials lacked statutory authority to accept custody. He claimed that § 5003 (a) requires federal authorities to make an individual determination that each state prisoner transferred to the federal system needs a particular specialized treatment program available in that system, and that no such determination had been made in his case. The District Court denied petitioner's request for relief, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.

Held: Section 5003 (a) authorizes a transfer of a state prisoner to the federal system such as occurred in this case. Pp. 479–487.

(a) Section 5003 (a)'s plain language authorizes contracts not simply for treatment, but also for custody, care, subsistence, education, and training of state prisoners in federal facilities. The requirement for certification by the Director of the Bureau of Prisons is simply a housekeeping measure designed to ensure that the federal system has the capacity to absorb the state prisoners. Nothing in § 5003 (a)'s language restricts or limits the use of federal prison facilities to those

Opinion of the Court

452 U.S. state prisoners who are in need of some particular treatment. Pp. 480482.

(b) Section 5003's legislative history reveals that it was enacted to deal with the simple and practical problem of permitting states to transfer their prisoners to federal custody in the same way that the Federal Government had, for some time, been placing prisoners in state custody pursuant to 18 U. S. C. § 4002. And nothing in the legislative history makes this case one of the "rare and exceptional cases" requiring a departure from the statute's plain language. Pp. 483-485.

(c) The contemporaneous and uniform construction of § 5003 (a) by the Bureau of Prisons, the agency that proposed its enactment and is charged with its administration, has been that the statute authorizes contracts based on a broad range of purposes, including such a transfer as is shown by the record in this case. In the absence of any evidence of congressional objection, the agency's interpretation must be given great weight. Pp. 485-487.

625 F. 2d 454, affirmed.

BURGER, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BRENNAN, WHITE, MARSHALL, BLACKMUN, POWELL, and REHNQUIST, JJ., joined. STEVENS, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, post, p. 487. STEWART, J., filed a dissenting statement, post, p. 487.

William A. Nelson argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs was James L. Morse.

Barbara E. Etkind argued the cause for the federal respondents. With her on the brief were Solicitor General McCree, Assistant Attorney General Jensen, and Deputy Solicitor General Frey. John J. Easton, Jr., Attorney General of Vermont, argued the cause for respondent Ciuros. With him on the brief were Peter M. Nowlan and Alan B. Coulman, Assistant Attorneys General.*

CHIEF JUSTICE BURGER delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented by this case is whether a State may transfer a prisoner to federal custody pursuant to 18 U. S. C.

*Briefs of amicus curiae urging reversal were filed by Ernest Winsor for Families & Friends of Prisoners, Inc., et al.; and by David J. Gottlieb for the Kansas Defender Project.

§ 50031 in the absence of a prior determination that the prisoner who is being transferred has a need for specialized treatment available in the federal prison system.

I

In December 1974, the Commissioner of Corrections for the State of Vermont announced that he would soon close the 187year-old Windsor prison, the State's only maximum-security facility, because Windsor had become inadequate in several respects. Rebideau v. Stoneman, 398 F. Supp. 805, 808, n. 7 (Vt. 1975). In anticipation of that closing, the United States and Vermont entered into an agreement pursuant to 18 U. S. C. § 5003 (a) by which the United States agreed to house in federal prisons up to 40 prisoners originally committed to the prisons of Vermont. The contract recited that

1 Title 18 U. S. C. § 5003 provides in pertinent part:

"(a) The Attorney General, when the Director [of the United States Bureau of Prisons] shall certify that proper and adequate treatment facilities and personnel are available, is hereby authorized to contract with the proper officials of a State or Territory for the custody, care, subsistence, education, treatment, and training of persons convicted of criminal offenses in the courts of such State or Territory: Provided, That any such contract shall provide for reimbursing the United States in full for all costs or other expenses involved.

"(c) Unless otherwise specifically provided in the contract, a person committed to the Attorney General hereunder shall be subject to all the provisions of law and regulations applicable to persons committed for violations of laws of the United States not inconsistent with the sentence imposed."

2 The contract between the United States and Vermont provides in pertinent part:

"1. The [United States] will undertake the custody, care and treatment, including the furnishings and subsistence and all necessary medical and hospital services and supplies, of State prisoners committed to the Federal institution. . . .

"2. The State may without prior approval by the [United States] and without individual application to the [United States] transfer up to 40

Opinion of the Court

452 U.S. the Director of the United States Bureau of Prisons had certified that facilities were available at federal institutions to accommodate 40 Vermont prisoners.

In 1975, when Windsor was finally closed, Vermont was left with several minimum-security community correctional centers and the Vermont Correction and Diagnostic Treatment Facility at St. Albans, Vt. St. Albans has the capacity for short-term incarceration of inmates with high security needs, but it is not designed for long-term incarceration of inmates classified as high security risks.

II

The petitioner, Robert Howe, was convicted in a Vermont court of first-degree murder arising out of the rape and strangulation of an elderly female neighbor. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and assigned to the St. Albans facility to begin serving his sentence. Because of the nature of his offense and the length of his term, however, the Classification Committee of the Vermont Department of Corrections determined that he should be kept in a maximum-security facility and recommended that he be transferred to a federal prison. Accordingly, the Vermont Department of Corrections held a hearing to decide whether he should be transferred to a federal institution. Howe was afforded advance notice of the hearing and of the reasons for the proposed transfer; he was present at the hearing; and he was represented by a law adviser from the facility's staff, who submitted various items of evidence in opposition to the proposed transfer.

The hearing officer recommended that the petitioner be transferred to a federal institution on the ground that "no treatment programs exist in the State of Vermont, which could provide both treatment and long term maximum security supervision" for him. App. 25. The hearing officer found

State prisoners for commitment to a Bureau of Prisons facility." 625 F. 2d 454, 455, n. 1 (1980).

that Howe was dangerous and could not be integrated into a community-based program. The State relied on a psychiatric report describing Howe as a "dangerous person who could well repeat the same pattern of assaultive behavior toward women at any time in the future.'" Id., at 26. The hearing officer also found that Howe would be "highly resistant to treatment" and that he was an escape risk. Indeed, Howe had escaped from the maximum-security wing of St. Albans while detained there prior to his trial.

On March 9, 1977, Vermont's Acting Commissioner of Corrections approved Howe's transfer to the federal prison system. Under the terms of the contract between the United States and Vermont, he was incarcerated initially in the federal penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga., and later was transferred to the federal penitentiary at Terre Haute, Ind.

As an inmate in the federal maximum-security penitentiaries, Howe enjoyed the same complete freedom of movement within the institution as other prisoners. By contrast, at St. Albans, he had not been given this freedom of movement, but had been generally confined to the maximum-security wing. The programs at St. Albans were substantially the same as those at the federal prisons, although Howe had less opportunity to take advantage of them because of the restrictions on his mobility at the state facility. The only two programs in which he actually participated at St. Albans were psychiatric counseling and educational courses. At Terre Haute, he ran a sewing machine until he had a heart attack. His principal activities now are knitting and crocheting.

On December 5, 1978, the petitioner filed this civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Vermont, naming as defendants the Attorney General of the United States and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Respondent William Ciuros, Vermont's Commissioner of Corrections, intervened. Relying on Lono v. Fenton, 581 F.2d 645 (CA7 1978) (en banc), the petitioner challenged his transfer to the federal prison system on the ground that the