“The Habeas Corpus Secures Every Man, Alien Or Citizen, Against Everything Which Is Not Law, Whatever Shape It May Assume.” Thomas Jefferson.

After the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation [CDCR] “validated” a Pelican Bay inmate to be a gang associate of the Mexican Mafia, the inmate challenged the decision by filing a habeas corpus petition. [California Code of  Regulations, tit. 15, § 3378(c)(3)-(4), states that once prison officials determine that an inmate is a member, or associate of a prison gang, the inmate is routinely transferred to administrative segregation in the Security Housing Unit.] The inmate had participated in a disturbance involving 200 Hispanic inmates, but he claimed the disturbance involved prison conditions, not gang activity. The superior court granted the petition and ordered the gang validation expunged. The warden appealed. In affirming the trial court’s grant of the inmate’s habeas corpus petition, the Court of Appeal noted the evidence “arguably establishes at most” that the inmate participated in a disturbance ordered by the Mexican Mafia prison gang, but “does not establish a direct link between [the inmate petitioner] and the Mexican Mafa.”  (In re Martinez (Cal. App. First Dist., Div. 2; November 18, 2015) 242 Cal.App.4th 299.)