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C.A.: Inmates Have No Right to TV Set in Cells
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Inmates in state prisons have no right to a television set in their cells, Div. Two of the Fourth District Court of Appeal held Friday.
Justice Michael J. Raphael authored the opinion.
The challenge to the policy at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison (“CVSP”) was mounted by Alan Reed Dohner and William Reno Gerber while incarcerated there. The Court of Appeal decided the matter notwithstanding that both are now confined to a prison that does allow sets in the cells, and treated their appeals from the denial of habeas relief by Riverside Superior Court Judge Russell L. Moore as an original petition.
Inmates at CVSP are able to watch television only in a common area.
Raphael wrote:
“Dohner and Gerber’s contentions in habeas that various constitutional rights are violated by CVSP’s prohibition on possessing a personal television fail on the merits. They have not cited any case that holds there is a constitutionally protected right to watch television at all while incarcerated or detained, let alone the right to possess a personal television so programs can be watched privately, rather than on a shared television. On the contrary, to our knowledge, courts have universally rejected such arguments.”
He added that “although inmates retain some property rights while in prison, those rights do not extend to possessing any particular item of personal property, including a television.”
The case is In re Dohner, E072797.
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