Deering v. Nix

HARRIS, Justice.

The question here is whether a prisoner, charged and then cleared on disciplinary charges, must be returned from the general prison population to his former placement in a less restrictive correctional center. The answer turns on the meaning of the term “original status” which appears in a written prison policy guideline. The post-conviction court determined that the prisoner had no such right and we agree.

The petitioner was incarcerated as an inmate in the men’s prison from 1979 to 1981 when he was transferred to the John Bennett Correctional Center. At the center he was…