Judge Joseph Bianco
After serving concurrent eight-year sentences, Ruffins began serving five years of post-release supervision (PRS), imposed by the Department of Correctional Services (DOCS), in March 2007. He was imprisoned in April for violating PRS. After release in July, he was arrested in April 2008 for violating PRS. In September 2008, he was resentenced to his original sentence, without PRS. In Ruffins’ 42 USC §1983 action the court previously dismissed claims over his 2007 arrest and imprisonment on grounds of qualified immunity. As to claims over his 2008 arrest and imprisonment, the court observed that Ruffins was incarcerated on a PRS violation before People v. Sparber and Garner v. N.Y. State Dep’t of Corrsthat mandatory PRS must be imposed at sentencing to be validand the effective date of Correction Law §601-d, which created a procedure by which improperly sentenced individuals could be resentenced. The court dismissed, on qualified immunity grounds, Ruffins’ §1983 claims over his 2008 arrest. It was objectively reasonable prior to Sparber and Garner for DOCS and state parole division officials to believe that continued enforcement of an administratively imposed PRS term did not violated a prisoner’s constitutional rights.
