MEMORANDUM DECISION and ORDER I. INTRODUCTION On November 25, 2020, plaintiff Michael Matzell (“Matzell” or “plaintiff”) filed this 42 U.S.C. §1983 (“§1983″) putative class action against defendants Jeffrey McKoy, Bruce Yelich, Stanley Barton, Trudylynn Boyea, Katherine Heading-Smith, Elizabeth Laramay, Anthony Annucci, and other unidentified New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (“DOCCS”) employees (together “defendants”). Plaintiff, a former inmate in New York state prison, alleges defendants’ decision to administratively disqualify him from DOCCS’ Shock Incarceration Program (“Shock”) despite a sentencing judge’s order that he enter the program violated his rights. Matzell brings claims under §1983 for violation of his rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Defendants have moved for judgment on the pleadings under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Rule”) 12(c). The motion having been fully briefed, the Court will now consider it on the basis of the parties’ submissions without oral argument. II. BACKGROUND A. The Shock Incarceration Program Shock is a six-month program in which inmates are subject to “a highly structured routine of discipline, intensive regimentation, exercise and work therapy, together with substance abuse workshops, education, prerelease counseling, and self-improvement counseling.” Dkt. 1 (“Compl.”), 38 (citing N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 7, §1800.2).1 To be eligible for Shock, an inmate must be: (1) eligible for release (on parole or conditional release) within three years; (2) less than fifty years old; (3) free of any prior conviction for a violent felony offense; and (4) not currently serving a sentence for specified violent crimes. See id. 48 (citing N.Y. CORR. LAW §865(1)). A Shock participant who successfully completes the program is eligible for immediate release on parole or conditional release. See N.Y. CORR. LAW §867(4); N.Y. EXEC. LAW §259-i(2)(e); 7 N.Y.C.R.R. §§1800.2, 1800.4(c); 9 N.Y.C.R.R. §8010.2. Prior to 2009, DOCCS enjoyed broad discretion to admit or exclude individuals from Shock. Compl. 39. Indeed, until that point, only DOCCS could determine an inmate’s Shock eligibility; judges had no authority to order that an inmate be placed in the program. Id. 44. However, in 2009, the New York State Legislature passed the Drug Law Reform Act of 2009, (L 2009, ch 56, as codified in CPL 440.46 “DLRA”), which allowed sentencing judges to offer court-mandated substance abuse treatment to certain non-violent offenders without the approval of prosecutors. Id.
40-41. Specifically, the DLRA amended Penal Law §60.04(7) and enabled a sentencing court to “issue an order directing that [DOCCS] enroll the defendant in the shock incarceration program…provided that the defendant is an eligible inmate, as described in [N.Y. CORR. LAW §865(1)].” Id.
