Cerniglia

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

I. MOTION PRESENTED

Plaintiff Steven Robert Cerniglia was convicted of sexual abuse of a child and served a term of imprisonment. Upon his release he was committed for a two-year term as a Sexually Violent Predator (“SVP”) under California’s Sexually Violent Predator Act (“SVPA”), Cal. Welfare & Institutions Code §§ 6600 , et seq. At the completion of that two-year term and at the expiration of each two-year increment thereafter, Cerniglia was recommitted. He is currently committed to the Coalinga State Hospital. Each commitment is based in part on a finding that Cerniglia cannot control his behavior and as such presents a substantial risk of violence to others. In 1999, after completing his first two-year commitment as a SVP, and while awaiting proceedings to determine whether he should be recommitted, Cerniglia was housed in the Sacramento County jail in total separation (“T-Sep”). He brings this action seeking damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 arguing that the conditions of his confinement violated his constitutional rights because his confinement was more onerous than confinement suffered by other civil detainees and pretrial detainees, and the…