Steele v. Warden — prisoner civil rights — affirmance — Restrepo

A pre-trial detainee was put into administrative segregation after he was accused of threatening other detainees into using a particular bail-bond provider, and being in segregation delayed the detainee from posting his own bail. The detainee sued, alleging violation of his substantive and procedural due process rights. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants, and today the Third Circuit affirmed. Most notably, the court held that pretrial detainees have a substantive-due-process liberty interest in exercising his bail option once bail has been set, but ruled that the detainee’s right wasn’t violated here because he was still able to access mail and contact his lawyer.

The court appointed counsel to represent the detainee on appeal and issued the opinion close to a year after oral argument. The opinion is a model of lucidity.

Joining Restrepo were Ambro and Nygaard. Arguing for the detainee was Penn law student William Stewart, while Lori Dvorak of Dvorak & Associates argued for the appellees. The court thanked Stewart and his supervising attorneys from Dechert for handling the case pro bono and for their “excellent advocacy.”