## Facts

- Larry D. Jones, a Nebraska prisoner serving a robbery sentence, was placed in solitary confinement, set fire to his mattress, and suffered severe burns.
- After treatment in a private hospital, Nebraska officials transferred Jones to a state mental hospital’s security unit under a statute permitting transfer upon a clinician’s finding of mental disease or defect requiring treatment unavailable in prison.
- The transfer was ordered by the corrections director without a prior adversarial hearing, appointed counsel, or comparable formal procedures.
- Jones brought a federal constitutional challenge alleging denial of Fourteenth Amendment procedural due process.
- A three-judge federal district court held the statute unconstitutional as applied and enjoined further transfers absent specified procedures.
- During litigation, Jones was returned to prison, later paroled with a mental-health-treatment condition, violated parole, and was reincarcerated; the district court found the dispute remained live because Jones remained subject to future transfer.

## Issues

1. Whether the case was moot in light of Jones’s parole and subsequent return to prison.
2. Whether involuntary transfer of a convicted prisoner to a mental hospital for treatment implicates a liberty interest protected by the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause.
3. What minimum procedures due process requires before such a transfer.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court held the case was not moot because Jones remained subject to transfer and the challenged conduct could reasonably recur absent the injunction.
- The Court held that involuntary transfer of a prisoner to a mental hospital for psychiatric treatment implicates a protected liberty interest.
- The Court affirmed the injunction as modified, requiring minimum procedural safeguards before such a transfer.

## Legal Principles

- A prisoner has a due process-protected liberty interest in avoiding involuntary transfer to a mental hospital for psychiatric treatment, based on (a) statutory limits creating an expectation of nontransfer absent specified findings and (b) the stigma and compulsory treatment associated with psychiatric commitment.
- A criminal sentence authorizes confinement but does not, without additional process, authorize the State to classify the prisoner as mentally ill and impose involuntary psychiatric treatment.
- Before involuntary transfer to a mental hospital, due process requires, at minimum:
  - Written notice of the proposed transfer and its basis.
  - A hearing with an opportunity to present evidence and argument and to confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses, subject to legitimate limits.
  - An independent decisionmaker.
  - A written statement of the evidence relied on and reasons for the decision.
  - Assistance of counsel, including appointed counsel for indigent prisoners.

## Conclusion

The Court held that transferring a prisoner to a mental hospital for involuntary psychiatric treatment is a significant change in confinement that triggers a protected liberty interest, and it requires notice, an independent hearing with basic adversarial protections, written findings, and counsel.


Vitek v. Jones, 445 U.S. 480 (1980)