Prison Officials Face Class Action Lawsuit for Denying Inmates Access to Early Release Program

Michael Matzell of New York claims he got in trouble with the law in 2015 and was sentenced by a judge to serve time and participate in the Shock Incarceration Program for early release, a boot-camp style program of substance abuse treatment, education, and therapy.

After serving two and half years, Matzell became “time eligible” to participate in the Shock early release program, but the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision denied him entry, unlawfully, he says. The reason given was that he had been found in possession of and using controlled substances while in prison.

A legal battle followed and eventually the courts sided with Matzell, agreeing that the Department of Corrections lacked the authority to alter elements of a criminal sentence handed down by a judge.

Now, Matzell is suing the state prison system officials who kept him from enrolling in the Shock program for almost two years – and delayed his early release from prison by as much. He filed a class action lawsuit on Nov. 25 in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York claiming his civil rights have been violated. He is seeking the court’s approval to represent himself and hundreds of other current and former New York state inmates who were also denied access to early release programs specifically named in their sentence.

Matzell and his lawyers named Acting Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Anthony J. Annucci, Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey McKoy, Superintendent Bruce Yelich, Deputy Superintendent of Programs Stanley Barton, Coordinators Kay Heading Smith, Elizabeth Laramay, and “Jane” Boyea and John/Jane Does 1-10 as defendants.

He is asking the court to declare their actions unconstitutional and to award monetary damages to Matzell and the potential Class Members for the harm they’ve suffered as a result of being denied their court-mandated early release program.

The Shock Incarceration Program provides qualifying inmates with a six-month program of a ”highly structured routine of discipline, intensive regimentation, exercise, and work therapy, together with substance abuse treatment, education, pre-release counseling, and life skills counseling,” according to the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

Successful completion of the program typically results in early release for the inmates, sometimes as much as years early, Matzell’s class action lawsuit says.

“Had defendants followed the orders of plaintiff’s sentencing judge to enroll Mr. Matzell in Shock, Mr. Matzell would have been released from prison 506 days earlier than he was,” the plaintiff’s lawyers argue in the class action lawsuit. “Instead, defendants violated the sentencing court’s order and … He and the [C]lass of people he seeks to represent were incarcerated for months—and years—longer than they would have had the Shock aspect of their sentences been honored and carried out.”

The plaintiff began inquiring about his enrollment in the Shock program ahead of the January 2018 date of his eligibility, he said.

Between August 2017 and January 2018, he received a series of at least four denials from defendants Boyea, Barton, Smith and McKoy, all citing his drug-related disciplinary actions as disqualifying him for Shock, the class action lawsuit says. Matzell’s lawyer got involved and began pushing back.

Matzell continued to be denied access to the Shock program, despite it being an integral part of his sentence, according to the class action lawsuit.

“[The department of corrections] caused Mr. Matzell real and significant damage,” the class action claims, “Mr. Matzell was deprived of both needed drug treatment and his rightful opportunity to earn early conditional release upon his successful completion of the program.”

Matzell and his lawyers took the corrections department to court in May 2018 and, in March 2019, prevailed. State Supreme Court Judge Andrew G. Ceresia ruled in favor of Matzell, saying prison administrators lack the power under the law to alter a sentence handed down by a judge.

After an unsuccessful appeal, the state eventually allowed Matzell into the Shock program, which he completed in December 2019. He was granted an early release from prison on Christmas Eve, the class action lawsuit says.

According to the class action lawsuit, public records indicate that more than 300 New York state inmates who were ordered by the court to participate in the Shock program have been blocked from doing so by corrections officials.

Have you, or someone you know, ever been denied access to an early release program that was included as part of a criminal sentence? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Matzell and the proposed Class Members are represented by Katherine Rosenfeld, Debra L. Greenberger, and Vivake Prasad of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel, LLP.

The Early Release Class Action Lawsuit is Michael Matzell, et al. v. Acting New York state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Anthony J. Annucci, et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-09963, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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