Full opinion text
MEMORANDUM-DECISION AND ORDER MUNSON, District Judge. This action was commenced under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by six inmates who were incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility (“Clinton”) in Dannemora, New York in 1974 and 1975. It is alleged that during this period, plaintiffs were held in Clinton’s Special Housing Unit 14 (“SHU” or “Unit 14”), a unit in which inmates were separated from the institution’s general population for punitive purposes, as a result of findings made at Adjustment Committee Proceedings which were conducted in violation of their procedural due process rights. Plaintiffs also claim that they were subjected to the use of excessive force by prison guards in the years in question, that prison officials routinely conducted body cavity searches of plaintiffs in violation of their constitutional rights, and that the conditions within Unit 14 violated the eighth amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments. Compensatory and punitive damages are sought. Plaintiffs have also requested declaratory relief, but because plaintiffs are no longer housed in Unit 14 and because the policies of 1974 and 1975 that are challenged here are no longer in effect, such relief is unavailable in this case. See Socialist Labor Party v. Gilligan, 406 U.S. 583, 585, 92 S.Ct. 1716, 1717, 32 L.Ed.2d 317 (1972). Three of the plaintiffs named in the caption have discontinued their claims with prejudice. A non-jury trial of the claims of the remaining three plaintiffs — Zachary Morgan, Born-Allah, and Phillip Goggins — was conducted July 13-15, 1987. The following constitutes the court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law in accordance with the mandate of Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a). I. BACKGROUND Plaintiffs were confined in Unit 14 during a period of serious unrest in the New York prison system in the wake of the 1971 uprising at the State’s Attica Correctional Facility (“Attica”). Each of the plaintiffs were placed in SHU after Superintendent’s Proceedings that the parties agree comported with the requirements of due process. Plaintiff Zachary Morgan had been transferred from Attica to Clinton on February 1, 1974 to serve 45 days in Unit 14; plaintiff Born-Allah was initially sentenced to 60 days in SHU for the failure to obey an order and was placed in Unit 14 on April 2, 1974; plaintiff Phillip Goggins was ordered confined to SHU for seven days commencing January 27, 1974 after he had become embroiled in a dispute with another inmate and a Clinton correctional officer. Morgan would remain confined in SHU until his transfer to the Green Meadow Correctional Facility on September 7, 1975, a total of 584 days, only 225 of which are attributable to findings made at Superintendent’s Proceedings. Born-Allah was housed in Unit 14 for 357 days, only 60 of which are traceable to a Superintendent’s Proceeding. Goggins was held in SHU for 213 days, only the initial seven of which were mandated by a determination made after a Superintendent’s Proceeding. Plaintiffs maintain that they were retained in Unit 14 beyond the periods established in Superintendent’s Proceedings in violation of their due process rights protected by the fourteenth amendment. Plaintiffs argue that they were falsely accused of violating prison rules in some instances and were written up for frivolous infractions in others by the defendant correctional officers. These disciplinary reports were referred to Clinton’s Adjustment Committees, which conducted less formal factual inquiries than were made in Superintendent’s Proceedings. Plaintiffs claim they were not given advance notice of the charges made by correctional officers before plaintiffs were required to appear before the Adjustment Committees, that they were not given an adequate opportunity to present evidence concerning the charges levelled against them, and that the Adjustment Committee Proceedings were conducted in a summary manner. As a result of these proceedings, plaintiffs were commonly sanctioned for their alleged misdeeds by having their period of confinement in SHU extended for as many as fourteen days (so-called “keeplock” confinement). In 1974 and 1975, the Adjustment Committees had the discretionary power to extend keeplock for successive fourteen day periods. Plaintiffs Morgan and Born-Allah also testified that during the time they were housed in SHU they were subjected to abusive and demeaning treatment by the correctional officers named as defendants in this case. For example, plaintiff Morgan attested that prison guards would not allow him to shower unless he “barked like a dog;” Morgan and Born-Allah both stated that the correctional officers would place tags with the names of animals on them over the inmates’ cells, implying that the prisoners were akin to animals in a zoo; plaintiffs testified that they were forcibly subjected to unnecessary strip searches; and'plaintiffs allege that Clinton’s correctional officers commonly sprayed tear gas into their faces under circumstances not warranting the use of tear gas. In addition, each of the plaintiffs complain of separate incidents where excessive force was allegedly applied to them by Clinton’s guards. This action was commenced on July 15, 1975. II. DISCUSSION A. Eleventh Amendment Immunity Initially, the court must address defendants’ contention that plaintiffs’ claims for damages relating to the alleged procedural deficiencies of Clinton’s Adjustment Committee Proceedings are barred by the eleventh amendment. The eleventh amendment provides that “[t]he Judicial Power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State or Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.” U.S. Const, amend. XI. The Supreme Court has found that the amendment’s “greater significance lies in its affirmation that the fundamental principle of sovereign immunity limits the grant of judicial authority” in Article III of the Constitution. Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 98, 104 S.Ct. 900, 906, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984) {“Pennhurst II”). Consequently, the amendment’s prohibition has been broadened to cover suits against a state by one of its own citizens, Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 15, 10 S.Ct. 504, 507, 33 L.Ed. 842 (1890), as well as suits in which a state is not named but “is the party in fact.” Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 237, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 1687, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974); see also Pennhurst II, 465 U.S. at 101, 104 S.Ct. at 908. For example, an action for damages cannot be maintained against a state official in his official capacity, since a judgment in such an action would “impose[ ] liability on the entity that [the official] represents_” Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 169, 105 S.Ct. 3099, 3107, 87 L.Ed.2d 114 (1985) (quotation omitted). On the other hand, the eleventh amendment does not preclude damage claims against a state official accused of depriving another of a federal right under the color of state law notwithstanding the fact that the official holds public office, so long as the money sought is to come out of the official’s own pocket. Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. at 237-38, 94 S.Ct. at 1686-87; Farid v. Smith, 850 F.2d 917, 921 (2d Cir.1988). Consequently, when a state official is named as a defendant in a lawsuit, the court must determine whether the claim is made against that official in his personal capacity or his official capacity. See Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. at 165-68, 105 S.Ct. at 3104-06; Shabazz v. Coughlin, 852 F.2d 697, 700 (2d Cir.1988). The caption of the complaint in this action does not indicate in what capacity defendants are being sued. The court finds that defendants have been sued in their personal capacity. The complaint’s demand for money damages, as well as defendants’ assertion of qualified immunity to liability under § 1983, which is a personal immunity defense, is evidence that defendants were aware that plaintiffs sought to impose personal liability upon them for the constitutional violations with which they are accused. See Shabazz v. Coughlin, 852 F.2d at 700. With regard to the procedural due process claims, defendants argue that they were carrying out the policies of the State of New York, and thus (it is implied) this action must be deemed an official-capacity suit. Support for this contention is found in Jones v. Smith, 784 F.2d 149, 152 (2d Cir.1986). In the more recent case of Far-id v. Smith, however, the Second Circuit rejected any suggestion that might be contained in Jones to the effect that a state official was immune from personal liability for carrying out a state policy that violated federal law. 850 F.2d at 923. In Farid, Judge Pierce examined the history of the Supreme Court’s interpretation of a state’s sovereign immunity and found the Court’s decisions are consistent with the maxim that “ ‘an agent’s liability for torts committed by him cannot be avoided by pleading the direction or authorization of the principal.’ ” Id. at 921 (quoting Pennhurst II, 465 U.S. at 113 n. 23, 104 S.Ct. at 915 n. 23). Judge Pierce noted that although the Supreme Court has moved away from agency principles in analyzing the eleventh amendment in recent years and instead has focused on federalism concerns, this development did not undermine the vitality of the Court’s older cases discussed in Farid. Judge Pierce noted that “the need to reconcile competing interests [of federal and state law] is wholly absent when a plaintiff, alleging that a state official in carrying out state policy has violated federal law, institutes a federal personal-capacity action against the state official,” since “only the federal interest in the supremacy of federal law is implicated, because the state treasury is not at risk.” 850 F.2d at 928. In light of the discussion contained in Farid, the court rejects defendants’ eleventh amendment argument. B. Res Judicata Defendants also claim that many of plaintiffs’ claims are precluded under the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel. In 1973, a class action was commenced in this court under § 1983 by inmates housed in SHU challenging certain prison regulations and practices. Declaratory and injunctive relief was sought in that action; no demand for money damages was made. In December 1974, the Honorable James T. Foley, then Chief Judge of the Northern District of New York, certified a class consisting of the inmates housed in Unit 14. At that time, plaintiffs Morgan and Born-Allah — but not plaintiff Goggins —were members of this class. On February 17, 1977 Chief Judge Foley issued a memorandum-decision and order disposing of the claims raised in that action. Frazier v. Ward, 426 F.Supp. 1354, 1356 (N.D.N.Y.1977). In that decision, Judge Foley held, among other things, that the manner in which Adjustment Committee Proceedings were conducted at Clinton, at least after amendments to the regulations governing those proceedings became effective May 19, 1975, satisfied the mandates of due process. Id. at 1369-70. Clinton’s policy of requiring strip searches before inmates confined in SHU were allowed contact with visitors, however, was found violative of those inmates’ constitutional rights. Id. at 1362-67. The case at bar was commenced after the certification of the class in Frazier and before Judge Foley rendered his decision in 1977. Shortly before trial on this matter was commenced, defendants moved for the dismissal of all of plaintiffs’ claims not predicated on the allegations concerning excessive use of force on the ground that they were barred by the doctrine of res judicata. The court reserved decision on defendants’ motion at that time, and proceeded with the trial. The court now finds that plaintiff Goggins’ claims are not barred by either res judicata or collateral estoppel because he was not a member of the class certified in Frazier. The claims of plaintiffs Morgan and Born-Allah are not precluded by the doctrine of res judica-ta because those plaintiffs were not notified that their membership in the Frazier class would foreclose subsequent individual actions for damages arising out of the constitutional violations that were raised or could have been raised in Frazier. Collateral estoppel does not bar the claims of Morgan and Born-Allah because the issues actually decided in Frazier are not identical to those raised in the present case. The doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel are intended to ensure the conclusiveness of the judgments of judicial tribunals and thus allow the accomplishment of “the very object for which civil courts have been established, which is to secure the peace and repose of society by the settlement of matters capable of judicial determination.” Southern Pacific R. Co. v. United States, 168 U.S. 1, 49, 18 S.Ct. 18, 27, 42 L.Ed. 355 (1897). Once a final judgment has been entered on the merits of an action, the doctrine of res judicata (claim preclusion) mandates that that judgment be “ ‘a finality as to the claim or demand in controversy, concluding parties and those in privity with them, not only as to every matter which was offered and received to sustain or defeat the claim or demand, but as to any other admissible matter which might have been offered for that purpose.’ ” Nevada v. United States, 463 U.S. 110, 129-30, 103 S.Ct. 2906, 2917-18, 77 L.Ed.2d 509 (1983) (quoting Cromwell v. County of Sac, 94 U.S. 351, 352, 24 L.Ed. 195 (1877)); see also Herendeen v. Champion International Corp., 525 F.2d 130, 133-34 (2d Cir.1975). The doctrine of collateral estoppel (issue preclusion) prevents “relitigation of issues actually litigated” in a prior adjudication, provided resolution of that issue was necessary to the prior controversy and the party against whom the doctrine is invoked was a party to the prior controversy. Montana v. United States, 440 U.S. 147, 153, 99 S.Ct. 970, 973, 59 L.Ed.2d 210 (1979); Parklane Hosiery Co. v. Shore, 439 U.S. 322, 326 n. 5, 99 S.Ct. 645, 649 n. 5, 58 L.Ed.2d 552 (1979). Under these estoppel by judgment doctrines, the general rule is that at least some preclusive effect must be given to previous judicial determinations made in cases seeking declaratory relief. See, e.g., Nevada v. United States, 463 U.S. at 110, 103 S.Ct. at 2906. Moreover, it is well-established that “a judgment in a properly entertained class action is binding on class members in any subsequent litigation,” and that in such cases “[bjasic principles of res judi-cata ... and collateral estoppel ... apply.” Cooper v. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 467 U.S. 867, 874, 104 S.Ct. at 2794, 2798, 81 L.Ed.2d 718 (1984). Nonetheless, the preclusive effect to be given a final judgment in a class action in which only declaratory relief was pursued is subject to certain limitations. These limitations are necessitated first, by the circumscribed relief ordinarily obtainable in class actions seeking a declaratory judgment, and second, by the due process problems raised when the judgment preclusion doctrines are applied to class members who were unaware that their membership in the class could foreclose subsequent actions to recover money damages. Due process considerations prevent the application of res judicata or collateral estoppel to the claims of plaintiff Goggins. As a general rule, “due process require[s] that, where possible, a person should be notified of the existence of a lawsuit before he is bound by a judgment in that lawsuit.” Berry Petroleum Co. v. Adams & Peck, 518 F.2d 402, 412 (2d Cir.1975) (citing Eisen v. Carlisle & Jacquelin, 417 U.S. 156, 173-75, 94 S.Ct. 2140, 2150-51, 40 L.Ed.2d 732 (1974), and Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 70 S.Ct. 652, 94 L.Ed. 865 (1950)). For class actions, this requirement is ordinarily fulfilled through the notice provisions of Fed. R.Civ.P. 23(c) and (d). Such notice is usually not provided, however, until after certification of a proposed class. In the Frazier action, Goggins had left the class as defined before certification of the plaintiff class was obtained, and therefore cannot be bound by the disposition of the claims made in that case. Defendants Morgan and Born-Allah, however, were members of the class as certified by Judge Foley in December 1974; indeed, defendant Born-Allah testified at the trial on the merits in Frazier. See 426 F.Supp. at 1372. Nonetheless, the court finds that the individual claims made by these defendants in this case are not barred by the doctrine of res judicata. There is authority to the effect that “before a class member may be barred from pursuing an individual claim for damages, he must have been notified that he was required to adjudicate his damage claims as part of a prior class action suit.” Crowder v. Lash, 687 F.2d 996, 1008 (7th Cir.1982); see also Wright v. Collins, 766 F.2d 841, 847-49 (4th Cir.1985); Norris v. Slothouber, 718 F.2d 1116, 1117 (D.C.Cir.1983); Penson v. Terminal Transport Co., 634 F.2d 989, 995 (5th Cir.1981). The record does not indicate that any such notice was given defendants Morgan and Born-Allah. Moreover, a number of circuit courts, including our own Second Circuit, have specifically held that prison inmates are not precluded from pursuing claims for damages resulting from allegedly unconstitutional prison conditions by an earlier judgment in a class action in which only declaratory or injunctive relief was pursued. Wright, 766 F.2d at 847-49; Crowder, 687 F.2d at 1007-09; Bogard v. Cook, 586 F.2d 399, 408-09 (5th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 883, 100 S.Ct. 173, 62 L.Ed.2d 113 (1979); Cotton v. Hutto, 577 F.2d 453, 454 (8th Cir.1978); Jones-Bey v. Caso, 535 F.2d 1360, 1361-62 (2d Cir.1976). In most of the above-cited cases, the plaintiff class had prevailed in the prior class action for declaratory relief, and individual plaintiffs were then permitted to pursue claims for damages resulting from the constitutional deprivations that were the subject of the class action. The argument for affording a judgment in a class action for declaratory relief preclusive effect would seem stronger where the plaintiff class did not prevail on its constitutional claims. In such cases, if claim preclusion is denied, a defendant who had been vindicated in a prior suit could be subjected to a second lawsuit involving the same core of operative facts. This does not, however, appear to be a determining consideration. In Wright, the Fourth Circuit appears to have assumed that a district court had rejected a constitutional claim by a plaintiff class, see 766 F.2d at 847-48, but found that an individual class member’s subsequent action for damages based on the same constitutional theory was not barred by the res judicata doctrine because that individual “was not notified that participation in the class action would preclude a subsequent individual damage action.” Id. at 848. In reaching this conclusion the court quoted the Seventh Circuit’s observation that it would be inappropriate to require an inmate to elect between joining an ongoing class suit and thereby forfeiting his right to seek individual damages, on the one hand, and removing himself from the class (and hence risking exclusion from any equitable relief granted) in order to preserve the possibility of bringing a subsequent damage action, on the other. Crowder, 687 F.2d at 1009 (quoted in Wright, 766 F.2d at 848). Under this rationale, the success or failure of the plaintiff class in the prior class action would be irrelevant to the propriety of precluding a subsequent damage action by an individual class member on the same constitutional claim. Accordingly, the court must find that the claims of defendants Morgan and Born-Allah are not precluded as a result of the adverse decision rendered in Frazier. Although a class member who is not given proper notice of the potential effect of a judgment rendered in a class action for declaratory relief is not barred from bringing a subsequent action for damages by the res judicata doctrine, that class member can be precluded from relitigating an issue decided adversely to him in the class action. Crowder, 687 F.2d at 1009-11 & n. 10. An issue necessarily decided in an action for equitable relief can have collateral estoppel effect in a subsequent action for damages. Parklane Hosiery, 439 U.S. at 335, 99 S.Ct. at 653. Moreover, the sort of due process problem raised when an individual is bound to an election of remedies he did not knowingly make — which would be the result if a class member is precluded from pursuing money damages by failing to opt out of the class when he had no notice that such a bar would result from his membership in the class — is not present when that individual is bound by factual determinations made in the prior class action. Where, as was the case in Frazier, the class was adequately represented, the representatives of the class had every incentive to press their claims vigorously, and adequate “procedural opportunities” were available to the individual class member in the prior class action, there are no strong equitable considerations preventing the application of collateral estoppel. Cf. Parklane Hosiery, 439 U.S. at 332, 99 S.Ct. at 652. In determining whether plaintiffs are precluded from pursuing any of the claims they have made in the present action because of an adverse finding in the prior class action, a three-pronged inquiry must be made: [F]irst, whether the issues presented by this litigation are in substance the same as those resolved against the [plaintiffs in the previous action]; second, whether controlling facts or legal principles have changed significantly since the [previous] judgment; and finally, whether other special circumstances warrant an exception to the normal rules of preclusion. Montana v. United States, 440 U.S. at 155, 99 S.Ct. at 974. The factual and legal determinations made by Judge Foley in Frazier for which preclusive effect is sought primarily involve plaintiffs’ procedural due process claims. Because the issues resolved in Judge Foley’s decision cannot be regarded as substantively identical to the claims made in the present action, the court finds that the doctrine of collateral estoppel does not apply to the findings made regarding disciplinary procedures. In Frazier, Judge Foley ruled that the plaintiff class had failed to demonstrate that the disciplinary proceedings conducted at Clinton in 1977 violated their due process rights. 426 F.Supp. at 1369-70. Because the plaintiff class sought only prospective relief, Judge Foley did not address the adequacy of the procedures that were in effect in 1974 and the first half of 1975, the time period relevant to the present action. Effective May 19, 1975, the regulations governing New York’s prison disciplinary proceedings were amended. Prior to that date, an inmate could be confined in a special housing unit or segregation unit as a result of conclusions drawn after either Adjustment Committee Proceedings or Superintendent’s Proceedings. As a result of the May 19, 1975 amendment, a correctional institution’s Adjustment Committees were “deprived ... of the power to confine an inmate to a special housing unit without an immediate recommendation that a Superintendent’s Proceeding be convened.” See Powell v. Ward, 643 F.2d 924, 928 n. 2 (2d Cir.) (per curiam) {Powell II), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 832, 102 S.Ct. 131, 70 L.Ed. 2d 111 (1981). This is a significant change, because plaintiffs in the present action do not contend that the procedural protections afforded at the Superintendent’s Proceedings conducted in 1974 and 1975 failed to satisfy due process requirements. The focus of their due process attack is instead the Adjustment Committee Proceedings. The question raised in the present action is whether the extension of an inmate’s period of confinement in special housing after an Adjustment Committee Proceeding conducted pursuant to regulations as they existed in 1974 and 1975 — without the benefit of the adequate post-deprivation hearing that was supposedly provided after May 1975 by a Superintendent’s Proceeding — comported with due process. Judge Foley did not address this issue in Frazier, and thus his disposition of the procedural due process claim in that case does not preclude plaintiffs’ due process claims made in the present action. Judge Foley also ruled that the limitations placed on the access of SHU inmates to library resources did not deny them effective access to the courts. 426 F.Supp. at 1370-72. Plaintiffs protested these limitations in their complaint, but did not present proof regarding this issue at trial. Therefore, it is unnecessary to determine whether plaintiffs should be bound by Judge Foley’s resolution of that claim. An argument could be made that preclusive effect should be given to Judge Foley’s determination that the body cavity searches routinely conducted by Clinton guards before and after inmates housed in SHU visited individuals from outside the prison violated the fourth and eighth amendments. Collateral estoppel has not been pressed by plaintiffs, however, and the burden would be placed upon them to demonstrate that the doctrine applies in this case. Because neither res judicata nor collateral estoppel apply in the case at bar, the court turns to the merits of plaintiffs’ claims. C. The Due Process Claims 1. The Adjustment Committee Proceedings As a general rule, the resolution of a procedural due process claim requires a determination of whether the plaintiff was deprived of a constitutionally protected interest and, if so, whether the procedures used were adequate given the nature of the deprivation contemplated. Logan v. Zimmerman Brush Co., 455 U.S. 422, 428, 102 S.Ct. 1148, 1153, 71 L.Ed.2d 265 (1982); Farid, 850 F.2d at 924. It is now well established that in New York, when an inmate who was properly placed in a special housing unit for disciplinary reasons is kept in that unit beyond his initial sentence because of additional disciplinary charges, he has suffered a significant deprivation of a protected liberty interest created by state law. See McCann v. Coughlin, 698 F.2d 112, 121-22 (2d Cir.1983). Consequently, due process requires that certain minimal procedural protections be afforded in order to assure a more reliable evaluation of the factual basis of the additional charges made and a fairer determination of the punishment warranted by the inmate’s behavior. See, e.g., Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 470-72, 103 S.Ct. 864, 870-72, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983); Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 555-57, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2974-75, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974); Sher v. Coughlin, 739 F.2d 77, 81 (2d Cir.1984). To determine the specific requirements of due process in a particular case, a court must consider the interest of the private individual at issue, the risk that an erroneous deprivation of the private interest will occur because of the procedures being used, the benefits that might result from additional or alternative procedural safeguards, and the governmental interests, including fiscal and administrative concerns, that are implicated. Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 335, 96 S.Ct. 893, 903, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976). In Wolff v. McDonnell, the Supreme Court balanced the interests at stake when a prisoner faces disciplinary-charges that can result in significant deprivations of liberty interests. The Court decided that in such cases the inmate must be provided a hearing conducted by a fair and impartial factfinder on the charges levied against him and is entitled to be informed in writing of those charges at least twenty-four hours before that hearing. 418 U.S. at 563-64, 94 S.Ct. at 2978-79; id. 418 U.S. at 581, 94 S.Ct. at 2987 (Marshall, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). The inmate must be allowed to present evidence and call witnesses in his defense if this can be done without imperilling institutional safety or legitimate correctional objectives. Id. at 566, 94 S.Ct. at 2979. Further, he must be informed of the reasons for the actions taken against him as a result of the disposition of the disciplinary charges by the factfinder and the evidence relied upon by the factfinder in reaching its decision. Id. at 563-65, 94 S.Ct. at 2978-79; see also McCann, 698 F.2d at 121-22. Plaintiffs maintain they were not afforded these basic procedural safeguards in hearings that resulted in the extension of their confinement in SHU. During the period of time relevant to this lawsuit, the two major types of disciplinary proceedings conducted in New York correctional facilities were Superintendent’s Proceedings and Adjustment Committee Proceedings. 7 N.Y.C.R.R. Parts 252, 253. Superintendent’s Proceedings were wholly disciplinary in purpose, 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 253.1, and plaintiffs do not challenge the procedural adequacy of those Proceedings. In contrast, prison officials considered Adjustment Committee Proceedings to be less formal hearings designed to aid an inmate’s “understanding of and adherence to” the institution’s rules governing his behavior; the Adjustment Committees were not to “impos[e] punishment for a violation” of those rules. 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 252.5(a) & (b); see Powell II, 643 F.2d at 928 n. 2; Powell v. Ward, 392 F.Supp. 628, 629 (S.D.N.Y.1975) (Powell I), aff'd as modified, 542 F.2d 101 (2d Cir.1976). The Committees were vested with primary responsibility for ascertaining the facts and circumstances of alleged incidents of inmate misbehavior in the prisons of the State of New York, and were charged with taking “appropriate steps to secure future compliance” with institutional rules. 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 252.2(c). Corrections officials apparently believed that the “steps” the Adjustment Committees were permitted to take implicated comparatively minor private interests, and consequently the procedural safeguards associated with the Superintendent’s Proceedings, much less those mandated by Wolff, were not provided by authorities at Clinton when an inmate appeared before that institution’s Adjustment Committees. Clinton officials misperceived the magnitude of the deprivations that could result from determinations by its Adjustment Committees. If deemed “necessary in order to bring the behavior of the inmate within acceptable limits,” a Committee could continue an inmate’s confinement in SHU for a period as long as fourteen days, and it could do this on successive occasions. Id. § 252.5(e). In the case at bar, Clinton’s Committees regularly extended plaintiffs’ period of confinement in SHU for successive seven day periods. This power was exercised without routinely giving inmates written notice of the charges they faced in the Adjustment Committee Proceedings or providing inmates written findings when the Committee decided to continue punitive confinement. Plaintiffs testified that they did not believe that they could, under certain circumstances, call witnesses to testify at these hearings. In McCann, the Second Circuit conclusively determined that the procedural safeguards set out in Wolff must be provided to an inmate who faces the prospect of being sentenced to additional time in a punitive special housing unit beyond the sentence established after a Superintendent’s Proceeding. 698 F.2d at 121. Since those safeguards were not provided plaintiffs in 1974 and 1975, the court concludes that plaintiffs procedural due process rights were infringed when keeplock was imposed for successive seven day periods pursuant to the discretionary authority of Clinton’s Adjustment Committees. 2. Good Faith Immunity Having determined that the manner in which the Adjustment Committee Proceedings were conducted in 1974 and 1975 violated plaintiffs’ procedural due process rights, the court must determine whether defendants are entitled to immunity from civil damages in this § 1983 action. Generally speaking, state officials, including state prison officials, see Procunier v. Navarette, 434 U.S. 555, 561-62, 98 S.Ct. 855, 859-60, 55 L.Ed.2d 24 (1978), are shielded from liability under § 1983 “insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed. 2d 396 (1982); see also Anderson v. Creighton, — U.S. -, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3038, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987); Shabazz v. Coughlin, 852 F.2d at 700. On the other hand, if the constitutional or statutory law at issue was clearly established at the time it was violated, the state official who violated it is not, absent extraordinary circumstances, protected by the qualified immunity defense. Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818-19, 102 S.Ct. at 2738-39; Walsh v. Franco, 849 F.2d 66, 68 (2d Cir.1988). Plaintiff Morgan was held in Unit 14 between February 1974 and September 1975. With the exception of the initial 45 days of this confinement and three separate 60 day periods commencing in August 1974, January 1975, and April 1975, Morgan’s confinement in SHU resulted from determinations made at Adjustment Committee Proceedings. Plaintiff Born-Allah was placed in SHU in April 1974 and remained there until the end of March 1975; all but the initial 60 days of this time was mandated by Clinton’s Adjustment Committees. Plaintiff Goggins was housed in SHU between January and August 1974, and only the first week of that time is not attributable to an Adjustment Committee determination. In order to resolve defendants’ qualified immunity argument, the court must determine whether the Adjustment Committee procedures offended due process principles that were “clearly established” at any point during the periods in which plaintiffs were housed in Unit 14. The Second Circuit did not decide the exact issue presented in the present case until 1983, when it handed down its decision in McCann. Nonetheless, the lack of “specific authority directly on point” in 1974 and 1975 does not absolutely “preclude a finding that the law was clearly established.” Shabazz, 852 F.2d at 701; see also Weber v. Dell, 804 F.2d 796 (2d Cir.1986), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 107 S.Ct. 3263, 97 L.Ed.2d 762 (1987). Although prison officials have no duty to “anticipate future developments in the field of inmates’ due process rights,” they cannot restrict their reading of previously decided cases “to the particular facts presented to the court in those cases, and claim that the details of the present situation are different in some minor or insignificant way.” McCann, 698 F.2d at 125. In McCann, the Second Circuit rejected the contention that prison officials were entitled to good faith immunity for due process violations found to have occurred in Adjustment Committee Proceedings conducted in New York’s Fishkill Correctional Center in 1979. Id. at 124-25. In McKinnon v. Patterson, 568 F.2d 930 (2d Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1087, 98 S.Ct. 1282, 55 L.Ed.2d 792 (1978), the court found that the Wolff procedures applied when an inmate was to be restricted to his cell in general population for punitive purposes (a punishment similar to but probably less severe than that at issue in McCann), but refused to permit damages for the failure to provide these procedures in 1973, before Wolff had been decided, because at that time “the contours of prisoners’ procedural rights were just starting to take shape.” 568 F.2d at 934-35. The question here is whether principles that were unclear in 1973 but crystallized by 1979 were “clearly established” in 1974 or 1975. The court begins by noting that the leading prisoners’ due process case in this Circuit before Wolff was Sostre v. McGinnis, 442 F.2d 178 (2d Cir.1971) (en banc), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 1049, 92 S.Ct. 719, 30 L.Ed.2d 740 & 405 U.S. 978, 92 S.Ct. 1190, 31 L.Ed.2d 254 (1972). The key passage in that opinion concerning the procedural due process requirements for prison disciplinary actions was as follows: If substantial deprivations are to be visited upon a prisoner, it is wise that such action should at least be premised on facts rationally determined. This is not a concept without meaning. In most cases it would probably be difficult to find an inquiry minimally fair and rational unless the prisoner were confronted with the accusation, informed of the evidence against him, and afforded a reasonable opportunity to explain his actions. Id. at 198 (citations omitted). This is precisely the process provided plaintiffs at the Adjustment Committee Proceedings in 1974 and 1975. At that time, an inmate was given oral notice of the charges against him at the hearing, advised of the evidence supporting the charges, and given an opportunity to contest the allegation or explain his behavior. The court concludes that the Adjustment Committee Proceedings satisfied Sostre. On June 26, 1974 the Supreme Court issued its decision in Wolff. The Court implicitly found that the procedural safeguards contemplated by Sostre were not sufficient when serious deprivations for disciplinary infractions were contemplated, see 418 U.S. at 563-72 & 572 n. 20, 94 S.Ct. at 2978-82, & 2982 n. 20, and prescribed the requirements described above. See text, supra at 1037-38. Wolff involved sanctions such as the loss of good behavior time and solitary confinement. The Court noted, however, that “the [d]ue [pjrocess [cjlause does not require a hearing ‘in every conceivable case of government impairment of private interest,’ ” 418 U.S. at 557, 94 S.Ct. at 2975 (quoting Cafeteria Workers v. McElroy, 367 U.S. 886, 894, 81 S.Ct. 1743, 1748, 6 L.Ed.2d 1230 (1961)), and explained that it did not intend to intimate that the procedures that must be followed when the loss of good time (which effectively extended an inmate’s actual period of incarceration) or the imposition of solitary confinement were threatened are the same as would “be required for the imposition of lesser penalties such as the loss of privileges.” Id. 418 U.S. at 571 n. 19, 94 S.Ct. at 2982 n. 19. New York’s prison officials apparently believed that the extension of keeplock in SHU for a period not exceeding fourteen days was the sort of “lesser penalty” contemplated by Wolffs footnote 19. If so, this belief was not objectively reasonable. Before the Supreme Court’s decision in Wolff, there was substantial authority both within this Circuit and elsewhere to the effect that the placement of an inmate in a special housing unit constituted a “substantial deprivation” or “grievous loss.” Some of those cases are listed in the margin. For example, in United States ex rel. Walker v. Mancusi, 338 F.Supp. 311 (W.D.N.Y.1971), aff'd, 467 F.2d 51 (2d Cir.1972), Judge Curtin found that confinement in a special housing unit apart from an institution’s general population was a “punishment sufficiently severe” to require minimum procedural safeguards. 338 F.Supp. at 314. By affirming, the Second Circuit impliedly adopted this conclusion. 467 F.2d at 53-54. The fact that the Adjustment Committee Proceedings afforded the process required by Sostre during this period is some evidence that the seriousness of the extension of an inmate’s confinement in SHU was recognized by correctional officials. Consequently, it could be argued that when the Wolff decision was issued, prison officials should have been aware that the Sostre procedures would no longer be sufficient, particularly given the Wolff Court’s implicit rejection of the adequacy of the procedural requirements suggested by Sostre for eases involving serious deprivations. See 418 U.S. at 572 n. 20, 94 S.Ct. at 2982 n. 20. The court recognizes that the Wolff Court’s distinction between the substantial deprivations at issue in that case and “lesser penalties” was somewhat ambiguous and may have caused some confusion. If there was any doubt when the Wolff decision was rendered, however, that doubt should have evaporated after a series of cases from courts in the Second Circuit within a year of Wolff established that the Wolff procedures (rather than those suggested in Sostre) were to be used when a substantial liberty deprivation was threatened. In United States ex rel. Larkins v. Oswald, 510 F.2d 583 (2d Cir.1975), the court stated in dicta that if Wolff were to be applied retroactively, it would govern the procedural safeguards that must be provided before an inmate can be removed from a prison’s general population and placed in a special housing unit. Id. at 586-87. Larkins was decided on January 24, 1975. On April 23 of that same year, Judge Stewart reached the same conclusion in Powell I. 392 F.Supp. at 630. Judge Stewart, in turn, relied in part on a decision in a similar case by Judge Brieant of the Southern District of New York issued several months before. Crooks v. Warne, 74 Civ. 2351 (S.D.N.Y.1974), aff'd in part and vacated in part, 516 F.2d 837 (2d Cir.1975). The Crooks decision was vacated by the Second Circuit on May 22,1975 because the court felt that the relief prescribed by Judge Stewart in Powell I should be adhered to in the interest of uniformity. The Second Circuit implicitly recognized in that case, however, that hearings at which “special custodial confinement” might be imposed must be conducted in accordance with Wolff. 516 F.2d at 839. Pinpointing the exact date when defendants reasonably should have known that the principle explicitly enunciated in McCann became “clearly established” is difficult. The court believes that by the time the Supreme Court’s opinion in Wolff was supplemented by Judge Brieant’s decision in Crooks and the Second Circuit’s decision in Larkins, Clinton officials reasonably should have known that confinement in SHU was a deprivation of such magnitude that the procedural minima mandated by Wolff must be met. This would make January 24, 1975 the date upon which defendants could no longer rely on good faith immunity. This conclusion is not undermined by the fact that the Adjustment Committees only extended an inmate’s period of confinement in SHU because of rule infractions committed while the inmate was held in SHU, and thus did not change an inmate’s living situation. It is true that most of the cases cited above involved questions concerning the process that was due when an inmate was to be removed from the general population and placed in a special housing unit or segregation for disciplinary reasons. However, the court finds no rational distinction, at least insofar as the requirements of procedural due process are concerned, between an extension of special housing beyond the period originally specified at a Superintendent’s Proceeding and an inmate’s initial placement in special housing. The liberty interest at stake remains the same: the inmate’s interest in being housed in the less austere environs of the prison’s general population. Indeed, Crooks involved a challenge to procedures utilized in continuing an inmate’s confinement in a special housing unit. 516 F.2d at 839. The result reached in this case is not changed by the fact that prison officials did not intend to impose significant punitive sanctions through Adjustment Committee Proceedings. “The test cannot be based upon the motives of prison officials, but must rely upon the effect of the more restrictive confinement on the inmate.” Diamond v. Thompson, 364 F.Supp. 659, 664 (M.D.Ala.1973). The fact that an inmate would have his time in special housing extended by only one week at a time does not support an argument that Adjustment Committees only imposed “lesser sanctions,” since the Adjustment Committees had unlimited power to extend such confinement in successive seven-day terms. Indeed, plaintiffs themselves were retained in SHU for several months through successive extensions by Clinton’s Adjustment Committees. The disciplinary history of plaintiffs belie any good faith contention on the part of defendants that the short duration of any single sanction took Adjustment Committee Proceedings outside the scope of the Wolff decision. There are cases from the mid- to late-1970s in which Adjustment Committee procedures were upheld in the face of procedural due process attacks. In 1977, the New York Court of Appeals found that “[s]inee no sanction more severe than the loss of minor privileges can result from adjustment committee action, strict full due process standards need not be met in these informal proceedings.” Amato v. Ward, 41 N.Y.2d 469, 472-73, 393 N.Y.S.2d 934, 937, 362 N.E.2d 566, 569 (1977); see also Flaherty v. Fogg, 72 A.D.2d 861, 421 N.Y. S.2d 736 (3d Dept.1979), appeal denied, 48 N.Y.2d 612, 425 N.Y.S.2d. 1028, 402 N.E.2d 144 (1980). In Frazier v. Ward, Judge Foley found that the procedures afforded in disciplinary hearings within New York prisons did not offend due process. 426 F.Supp. at 1369-70. A close reading of these cases reveals that these courts were assessing the constitutionality of prison disciplinary proceedings as they should have been conducted after amendments made to the regulations governing New York’s correctional facilities became effective on May 19,1975. In Amato, the Court of Appeals summarized these regulations (as amended) and concluded that inmates in New York prisons “received, with regard to all discrete charges of misconduct, procedural protections in excess of those mandated by the Wolff doctrine.” 41 N.Y.2d at 473, 393 N.Y.S.2d at 937, 362 N.E.2d at 570. In Frazier, Judge Foley similarly determined that the relevant regulations, as amended May 19, 1975, comported with the requirements of Wolff. 426 F.Supp. at 1370. The proof in the present case clearly indicates that the regulatory framework discussed in Amato and Frazier was not followed at Clinton in the period of time relevant to plaintiffs’ claims. Consequently, these cases do not alter the court’s conclusion that correctional officials in New York should have known by the Winter of 1975 that the imposition of keeplock confinement by Clinton’s Adjustment Committees offended due process. In sum, the court finds that defendants are not entitled to good faith immunity after January 24, 1975. Plaintiffs Morgan and Born-Allah were confined in Unit 14 after that date as a result of Adjustment Committee Proceedings conducted in violation of the Constitution’s due process clause. Plaintiff Goggins, on the other hand, left Unit 14 in August 1984 (shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision in Wolff), and with respect to his procedural due process claim defendants are entitled to qualified immunity from liability. 3. Relief Section 1983 codifies “ ‘a species of tort liability’ in favor of persons who are deprived of ‘rights, privileges, or immunities secured’ to them by the Constitution,” Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. 247, 253, 98 S.Ct. 1042, 1047, 55 L.Ed.2d 252 (1978) (quoting Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 417, 96 S.Ct. 984, 988, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976)), and consequently the level of damages awarded for the violation of constitutional rights under § 1983 is determined, for the most part, by reference to principles gleaned from the common law of torts. Memphis Community School District v. Stachura, 477 U.S. 299, 106 S.Ct. 2537, 2542, 91 L.Ed.2d 249 (1986). To obtain an award of compensatory damages under § 1983, a plaintiff must show that he has suffered an actual injury and that there is a causal connection between that injury and the deprivation of a federal right caused by the defendant. Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. 247, 262-64, 98 S.Ct. 1042, 1051-53, 55 L.Ed.2d 252; see also Stachura, 106 S.Ct. at 2542-45; McCann, 698 F.2d at 126. In this case, the injury suffered by plaintiffs Morgan and Born-Allah was their continued confinement in SHU. The procedures afforded plaintiffs Morgan and Born-Allah in the Adjustment Committee Proceedings were constitutionally defective in three particulars: plaintiffs were not given written advance notice of the charges against them, were not informed of their qualified right to call witnesses, and were not provided a written statement from the Committees explaining the actions taken and disclosing the evidence relied upon in deciding to take that action. Determining whether there is a causal relationship between these deficiencies and plaintiffs’ injuries is not an easy matter in this case, particularly in view of the long period of time that has elapsed since the occurrence of the events germane to this lawsuit. The court will examine the circumstances surrounding the punishment of Morgan and Born-Allah in turn. Morgan’s disciplinary record reveals that between January 24, 1975 and his transfer from Unit 14 in September 1975, he refused to leave his cell to attend Adjustment Committee Proceedings. Morgan testified that he felt that the Adjustment Committee was a “kangaroo court” that perfunctorily credited false or trivial charges made by Clinton’s correctional officers. There is no evidence that this opinion had a basis in fact. Although the Adjustment Committee Proceedings failed to satisfy the Wolff requirements, they hardly constituted a mockery of justice. Indeed, the procedural safeguards provided satisfied Sostre, a well-considered opinion by Judge Kaufman speaking for a majority of the Second Circuit sitting en banc. See 442 F.2d at 194-99. Moreover, the court rejects Morgan’s contention that the disciplinary charges made against him were either false or trivial. Consequently, Morgan’s voluntary decision to refuse to meet with the Adjustment Committee was unjustified. Without deciding whether there may be circumstances under which the exhaustion of the disciplinary procedures available to an inmate would not be required before he would be allowed to challenge disciplinary charges in a judicial forum, the court finds that under the circumstances of the present case Morgan’s failure to contest the charges made against him through the Adjustment Committee Proceedings provided precludes him from challenging in federal court the factual basis those charges. To allow Morgan to challenge the charges after he unjustifiably refused to comply with established administrative procedures would undermine respect for all of the administrative mechanisms established by the State of New York for resolving disputes within its penal institutions. The court will not go down this road, and will assume that the charges made against Morgan are supported in fact. Cf. Hasan Jamal Abdul Majid v. Henderson, 533 F.Supp. 1257, 1273 (N.D.N.Y.) (failure of inmate to request that witnesses be called to testify at disciplinary hearing prevented inmate from challenging failure of Adjustment Committee to call witnesses under due process clause), affd mem., 714 F.2d 115 (2d Cir.1982); see also Wolfe v. Carlson, 583 F.Supp. 977, 983 (S.D.N.Y.1984) (“Plaintiff cannot turn his own lack of diligence into a constitutional deprivation”). Deeming the charges made by correctional officers during the period following January 24, 1975 to be true, the court concludes that the punishment dispensed— continued confinement in SHU — was fair and appropriate. Therefore, Morgan suffered no actual injury as a result of the deficiencies in the Adjustment Committee Proceedings, and is not entitled to compensatory damages. Morgan is entitled to nominal damages and an award of attorney fees for the deprivation of his “absolute” right to procedural due process. See Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. at 266, 98 S.Ct. at 1053 (citing cases). Plaintiff Born-Allah was confined in SHU from January 24,1975 until the end of March of that same year without the benefit of a hearing that met the procedural requisites of Wolff. In that period, there were eight occasions in which keep-lock confinement was imposed after Born-Allah appeared before Clinton’s Adjustment Committees. The record indicates that at only one of those appearances did plaintiff admit to the charges made against him. Because of the procedural shortcomings attending the hearings plaintiff was provided on the seven remaining occasions that he appeared before the Adjustment Committees, the court cannot assume that Born-Allah committed the rule violations with which he was charged but to which he had not confessed between January 21, 1975 (the date of the last Adjustment Committee Proceeding conducted by prison officials in objective good faith) and March 25, 1975. Largely because of the substantial amount of time that has elapsed since these disciplinary reports were made, the testimony at trial did not adequately establish that plaintiff committed these violations. It is unlikely that providing plaintiff a new hearing conforming with the requirements of Wolff at this time would effectively resolve whether the violations were fairly attributable to Born-Allah or whether the punishment meted out for those violations, if they occurred, was appropriate. In light of this, the court concludes that plaintiff Born-Allah suffered actual injury that resulted from the denial of his procedural due process rights, and is entitled to $750 in compensatory damages. Compare Larkins, 510 F.2d at 589 (jury award of $1,000 was “not ‘so grossly excessive as to shock the judicial conscience’ ” in a case where an inmate was held in segregation for twelve days in violation of Sostre). Plaintiffs have sought punitive damages. In Smith v. Wade, 461 U.S. 30, 103 S.Ct. 1625, 75 L.Ed.2d 632 (1983), the Supreme Court held that punitive damages are available in § 1983 actions when one party has maliciously or wantonly deprived another of a federal right. Id. 461 U.S. at 51, 103 S.Ct. at 1637. Plaintiffs allege that Clinton’s guards maliciously made false or frivolous disciplinary charges against them which could not be effectively disputed at the Adjustment Committee hearings that were provided. The court rejects plaintiffs’ contention that Clinton’s correctional officers purposefully made unwarranted disciplinary charges against plaintiffs. Plaintiffs conceded that they had committed many of the rule infractions with which they were charged in their testimony at trial. The court accepts the testimony of Clinton’s correctional officers regarding other rule violations committed by plaintiffs. Further, although the procedures utilized in Clinton’s Adjustment Committee Proceedings were inadequate, the court finds no evidence that these deficiencies resulted from an intention on the part of correctional officials to deny inmates housed in SHU their due process rights, nor were they designed as a pretext for unfairly punishing unpopular inmates. Therefore, punitive damages will not be awarded. Plaintiffs Morgan and Born-Allah have “succeeded] on [a] significant issue” in this § 1983 action by “achieving] some of the benefit [they] sought in bringing suit,” and thus are “prevailing parties” within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 1988. Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 433, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1939, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983). When a plaintiff is a prevailing party within the meaning of § 1988, he is entitled to an award attorney fees absent “ ‘special circumstances which would render such an award unjust.’ ” Oliveri v. Thompson, 803 F.2d 1265, 1272 (2d Cir.1986) (quoting Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, Inc., 390 U.S. 400, 402, 88 S.Ct. 964, 966, 19 L.Ed.2d 1263 (1968) (per curiam)), cert. denied, 480 U.S. 918, 107 S.Ct. 1373, 94 L.Ed.2d 689 (1987). No such special circumstances exist here, and thus the court will entertain an application from plaintiffs’ attorney for work reasonably expended on plaintiffs’ procedural due process claims. Finally, although the issue is largely academic given the State of New York’s policy of indemnifying its public servants for torts committed while in the course of their public employment, see N.Y. Pub.Off.Law §§ 17 and 18 (McKinney 1988), the court must determine which of the defendants is liable for the damages sustained by plaintiffs Morgan and Born-Allah. A defendant cannot be held liable for damages under § 1983 unless he was personally involved in the deprivation of the plaintiff’s rights under federal law. Gill v. Mooney, 824 F.2d 192, 196 (2d Cir.1987); McKinnon v. Patterson, 568 F.2d at 934. Initially, the court has rejected the contention that plaintiffs were the victims of a conspiracy among Clinton’s correctional officers to file false or frivolous disciplinary reports against them, and thus there was no personal involvement on the part of the individual correctional officers in the deprivation of plaintiffs’ due process rights. The requisite personal involvement on the part of defendant Ronald Fuller, in 1974 and 1975 Clinton’s Safety and Security Lieutenant in charge of the conduct of Clinton’s disciplinary hearings, does exist and thus he is liable under § 1983. Defendants Benjamin Ward, New York’s Commissioner of Correctional Services in 1975, and J. Edwin LaVallee, Clinton’s Superintendent, are also liable. A supervisory official may be liable under § 1983 when he “created a policy or custom under which unconstitutional practices occurred, or allowed such a policy or custom to continue,” or when he learned of a constitutional violation through a report or an appeal and failed to remedy the violation. Williams v. Smith, 781 F.2d 319, 323 (2d Cir.1986). Both Ward and LaVallee can fairly be charged with constructive notice of the Adjustment Committee procedures that were employed at Clinton. See McCann, 698 F.2d at 125. D. Use of Force Each of the plaintiffs allege that they were subjected to the use of excessive force by Clinton’s correctional officers on separate occasions. Plaintiff Morgan testified that he was attacked without provocation by at least six correctional officers as he was returning to his cell after showering on August 15, 1974. Plaintiff Goggins claims that three days later, he was beaten by eight correctional officers as he was leaving the showers. Plaintiff Born-Allah testified that on November 9, 1974 he was struck in the head with an ax handle by Correctional Officer Clifford Martin and beaten by other correctional officers while a search of his cell was being conducted. Defendants admit that force was applied by correctional officers in each of these incidents (though they maintain that the force used was not as great as plaintiffs claim), but contend that the force used in each case was a reasonable and justifiable response to violent attacks initiated by plaintiffs. The assessment of an inmate’s allegation of the excessive use of force by correctional personnel is controlled by Judge Friendly’s definitive analysis in Johnson v. Glick, 481 F.2d 1028 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1033, 94 S.Ct. 462, 38 L.Ed.2d 324 (1973). There, Judge Friendly posited that the Supreme Court’s decision in Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 72 S.Ct. 205, 96 L.Ed. 183 (1952), stood for the principle “that, quite apart from any ‘specific’ of the Bill of Rights, application of undue force by law enforcement officers deprives a suspect of liberty without due process of law,” 481 F.2d at 1032, and that this same principle extended “to acts of brutality by correctional officers.” Id. at 1033. Judge Friendly noted that the violent realities of this nation’s correctional facilities must be taken into account in formulating a standard by which to determine whether correctional officers at these facilities have engaged in “conduct that shocks the conscience” or “offend[s] even hardened sensibilities,” see Rochin, 342 U.S. at 172, 72 S.Ct. at 209, and, conscious of these realities, he set out a nonexhaustive list of factors to be considered in assessing excessive force claims: In determining whether the constitutional line has been crossed, a court must look to such factors as the need for the application of force, the relationship between the need and the amount of force that was used, the extent of injury inflicted, and whether force was applied in a good faith effort to maintain or restore discipline or mali