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Last updated on Tuesday, August 18, 2015
(CARLISLE) - A federal appeals court says the state may not be able to prevent a former prison employee from marrying a prisoner.
While working as a contractor at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle more than seven years ago, Rebecca Riker began a romantic relationship with inmate Paul Vest, who was serving a 50 year sentence for robbery. After Riker left her job, she continued corresponding with Vest, but her request to marry Vest was denied by the state Department of Correction as a security risk, since Riker had "intimate" knowledge of the inside of the prison.
A U.S. District Judge upheld DOC's decision, but that was reversed in a decision released Friday by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, who returned the case to the district court.
"The prohibition of Ms. Riker's marriage was not rationally related to legitimate penological ends and violated our client's constitutional rights," said Gavin Rose, an attorney with the ACLU of Indiana, who represented Riker.
While the appeals court found that the department was within its right to deny visitation privileges to Riker, the court said the DOC did not justify the risk in allowing Riker and Vest to marry.
"It is implausible to suggest, without some supporting evidence, that a brief marriage ceremony cannot be accommodated without threatening institutional security and without imposing more than a de minimis impact on prison resources," wrote appeals judge Kenneth Ripple in his opinion for the unanimous three-judge panel.
In its ruling, the appeals court also noted the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that barred state's from preventing same-sex couples from marrying, citing the "right to personal choice" and the dignity in an individuals' "autonomy to make such profound choices."
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