Plaintiff-Appellant Edgar Searcy, who at all times relevant to this appeal was an inmate housed in the Hutchinson Correctional Facility (“HCF”), brought an action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging violation of certain constitutional rights stemming from the Kansas Department of Corrections’ (“KDOC”) Sexual Abuse Treatment Program (“SATP”). The district court entered summary judgment in favor of Defendants on all claims and Mr. Searcy timely filed his notice of appeal.
Searcy v. Simmons,
Background
In January 1997, Mr. Searcy entered a plea of nolo contendere to charges of sexual exploitation of a child and was sentenced to 65 months imprisonment. To assist in the rehabilitation of sex offenders and other inmates with a history of sexually deviant behavior, the KDOC instituted the SATP. Because of his conviction of a sex offense, the KDOC recommended that Mr. Searcy be placed in the SATP. Mr. Searcy accepted this recommendation by signing an inmate program plan that stated,
I acknowledge that I have been afforded an opportunity to enter into a program plan. I understand that such a program plan is optional but that failure to participate in or successfully complete recommended programs shall result in the withholding of good time credits which affect my date of release.
Aplee. SuppApp. at 15.
Inmates in the SATP must complete and sign a form stating that they accept responsibility for the crime for which they have been sentenced. In addition, inmates in the SATP must complete a sexual history form. In completing the sexual history form, the inmates must list sexual activities where they were the perpetrator and a victim was involved, regardless of whether criminal charges were brought in response to the activity in question. Although inmates in the SATP apparently are not required to divulge full details of these prior incidents, see Aplee. SuppApp. at 56, they are provided a sample sexual history form that calls for the name of the victim, the victim’s age, and the age of the inmate at the time of the incident. Aplt. App. at 243. The SATP uses a polygraph examination to verify the truth and completeness of each inmate’s sexual history.
An inmate’s sexual history receives limited confidentiality. They are informed that the information they provide could be revealed in a variety of circumstances, including when required under mandatory child abuse reporting laws,
see
Kan. Stat. § 38-1522, pursuant to a court order, or
*1223
when the information is needed to protect a third party.
See McKune,
— U.S. at -,
Mr. Searcy refused to sign the admission of responsibility form on the ground that he was not willing to admit to having committed the crime of sexual exploitation of a child. 1 Certain consequences resulted from this refusal. At all times relevant to this case, the KDOC had in effect its Internal Management Policy and Procedure 11-101 (“IMPP”). The IMPP, implemented to provide a system of earnable privileges subsequent to changes in Kansas sentencing laws, establishes levels of privileges and incentives to inmates. The lowest level, level one, allows an inmate limited activities, limited expenditures, limited incentive pay, and only limited access to personal property. At level three, the highest level for an incarcerated inmate and the level at which the KDOC had classified Mr. Searcy prior to his refusal to sign the required forms for the SATP, inmates may purchase audiovisual equipment, handicraft materials and supplies, participate in all organizations and formalized activities, maintain magazine and newspaper subscriptions, and have other expenditure and visitation privileges not available at the lower levels.
In addition, under the pertinent prison regulations, inmates that do not “constructively work or participate in assigned programs” lose the ability to earn any additional good time credits. Kan. Admin. Reg. § 44 — 6—124(g)(6). Because the KDOC considers the admission of responsibility and sexual history an integral part of the rehabilitative process of the SATP, an inmate’s refusal to provide these is deemed a refusal to participate in an assigned program. As a result, an inmate that refuses to provide the required information loses the opportunity to earn any further good time credits. In addition, those good time credits that an inmate loses due to his non-participation cannot be regained. Kan. Admin. Reg. § 44-6-124(e) (“If the entire allocation of good time credits is not awarded at a program classification review, part of that allocation shall not be awarded at a later date.”).
As a result of these policies, Mr. Sear-cy’s refusal to admit responsibility and to provide his sexual history resulted in his reduction from level three to level one. Pursuant to the reduction in his privilege level, prison officials took Mr. Searcy’s television, radio, and typewriter. In doing so, prison officials informed Mr. Searcy that the property would be sent outside of the HCF. Mr. Searcy refused to sign the consent form for this reproval because he apparently had no one outside the prison to care for the property. The prison officials then sent the property to Mr. Sear-cy’s out-of-state relatives whom Mr. Sear-cy believes will never return his property to him.
Mr. Searcy then brought this § 1983 action, alleging that prison officials had violated various constitutional rights, including: (1) his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination; (2) his Freedom of Speech under the First Amendment when they punished him for asserting his right to remain silent; (3) his right of Free *1224 Exercise of Religion when they punished him for adhering to his religious tenets by not untruthfully admitting to crimes he did not commit; and (4) his rights under .the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment when they sent his property from the HCF without his consent. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court rejected all of Mr. Searcy’s claims of constitutional violations and granted the Defendants’ motion for summary judgment.
Discussion
In this appeal, Mr. Searcy challenges the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the Defendants on his Self-Incrimination, Free Exercise of Religion, and Due Process claims. We review the district court’s grant of summary judgment
de novo,
applying the same legal standard used by the district court.
Simms v. Okla. ex rel. Dep’t of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Serv.,
Self-Incrimination
In
Lile v. McKune,
A divided Supreme Court reversed. Four Justices stated that the question of whether the KDOC compelled self-incriminating statements from SATP participants could be answered by looking to the standard enunciated by the Supreme Court in
Sandin v. Conner,
Justice O’Connor, though not joining the plurality, did concur in the judgment. AI-
*1225
though Justice O’Connor did not agree with the plurality that a finding of compulsion under the Fifth Amendment should be measured by reference to
Sandin’s
'“atypical and significant hardship” standard, she did agree that the consequences of Lile’s refusal to incriminate himself were not “so great as to constitute compulsion for the purposes of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.”
Id.
at 2032-33 (O’Connor, J., concurring). ■' Because Justice O’Connor based her conclusion on the narrower ground that the KDOC’s policy was not compulsion under the Fifth Amendment, we view her concurrence as the holding of the Court in
McKune. See Marks v. United States,
Had the only consequences Mr. Searcy suffered for his refusal to provide his sexual history been the reduction in his privilege level and a concomitant transfer to a maximum security prison,
McKune
would clearly call for affirming the district court’s decision. In
McKune,
however, the plurality noted specifically that Lile’s refusal to participate in the SATP for fear of self-incrimination did not extend his term of incarceration nor affect his eligibility for good-time credits. — U.S. at -,
*1226 At first blush, it might seem that the KDOC is punishing Mr. Searcy directly in response to his invocation of his self-incrimination privilege. Looking at events sequentially without reference to the context, the KDOC recommended Mr. Searcy for the SATP, Mr. Searcy accepted this recommendation (although refusal to participate would have resulted in the withholding of good-time credits, see Aplee. SuppApp. at 15), the SATP, as an integral part of the program, required Mr. Searcy to provide incriminating information, Mr. Searcy refused to do so, and, as a consequence, the KDOC withheld his good-time credits. But this concatenation of events does not so much describe compulsion as it does display the-consequences of Mr. Sear-cy’s own individual choice.
“[T]he Constitution itself does not guarantee good-time credits for satisfactory behavior while in prison.”
Wolff v. McDonnell,
Mr. Searcy therefore, was left with a choice: take advantage of a benefit the KDOC provided or turn down that benefit in order to avoid providing what he feared, perhaps legitimately, would be self-incriminating statements. “Although a defendant may have a right, even of constitutional dimensions, to follow whichever course he chooses, the Constitution does not by that token always forbid requiring him to choose.”
McKune,
— U.S. at -,
Finally, Mr. Searcy’s predicament is quite different than the situation where, as described by Justice O’Connor in her
*1227
McKune
concurrence, the consequences of refusing to provide information “go beyond the criminal process and appear, starkly, as government attempts to compel testimony.”
McKune,
— U.S. at-,
We conclude that the pressure imposed upon Mr. Searcy for his refusal to provide an admission of responsibility and a sexual history for the SATP does not “rise[ ] to a level where it is likely to ‘compelí]’ a person ‘to be a witness against himself.’ ”
McKune,
— U.S. at -,
First Amendment
Mr. Searcy also claims that the admission of responsibility requirement for the SATP violates his First Amendment right to freely exercise his religion. According to Mr. Searcy, his sincerely held religious beliefs prohibit him from lying. Because, according to Mr. Searcy, he did not commit the offense of sexual exploitation of a child, signing an admission of responsibility form for that crime would constitute a lie. As such, under Mr. Searcy’s reasoning, punishing him for not admitting responsibility constitutes punishment for exercising his religious principles.
*1228
The district court rejected Mr. Searcy’s assertion of a First Amendment violation on two grounds. First, the district court noted that Mr. Searcy’s participation in the SATP was voluntary.
Searcy,
97 F.Supp.2d. at 1061. Because of the voluntary nature of the program, the district court concluded that Mr. Searcy could hardly claim that the KDOC, by way of the SATP, was forcing him to tell a lie. The district court also analyzed Mr. Searcy’s claim using the factors from
O’Lone v. Estate of Shabazz,
In light of our conclusion that the KDOC’s system of revoking privileges and withdrawing good time credit opportunities in response to an inmate’s refusal to participate in the SATP does not amount to compulsion, Mr. Searcy’s First Amendment claim must fail.
See Engel v. Vitale,
Even were we to assume the admission of responsibility impinges upon Mr. Searcy’s right to freely exercise his religious beliefs, we would agree with the district court that the requirement is “reasonably related” to the KDOC’s penological interests.
Turner,
The state’s interest in rehabilitating sex offenders is a valid one, and the requirement for admission of responsibility is considered a legitimate part of the rehabilitative process. See McKune, — U.S. at -, 122 S.Ct. at-2024-25. As the district court noted, in the context of this case the applicability of whether Mr. Sear-cy has an alternative means to exercise his tenets against lying seems questionable. Be that as it may, Mr. Searcy can avoid this difficulty by not joining what we have already concluded is a voluntary program. Clearly, accommodating Mr. Searcy in this instance would undermine the precept of the entire SATP, that admission of responsibility and overcoming denial are integral to the rehabilitation of sex offenders. Finally, Mr. Searcy’s suggestion that the KDOC has an alternative means of accommodating his free exercise rights — not re *1229 quiring an admission of responsibility— would eviscerate the SATP’s legitimate rehabilitative process of accepting responsibility for past behavior. As such, it is not an alternative at all.
Due Process
Mr. Searcy also claims the KDOC violated his constitutional right to due process when it sent his property to his relatives without his consent. The district court reasoned that because, under Kansas law, Mr. Searcy still retained formal ownership of the property, the requirements of procedural due process were met when the prison authorities provided him the opportunity to dictate where to send the property.
We agree with the district court. It is well-settled that “[w]hile an inmate’s ownership of property is a protected property interest that may not be infringed without due process, there is a difference between the right to own property and the right to possess property while in prison.”
Hatten v. White,
The record reveals that Mr. Searcy had every opportunity to dictate where his property should go, but refused to do so. Given his refusal, it was entirely proper for the prison authorities to dispatch Mr.' Searcy’s property in the manner they did. Indeed, the federal prison regulations provide for similar disposal of contraband, defined broadly to include any material prohibited by statute or regulation, 28 C.F.R. § 500.1(h), in instances where an inmate refuses to provide an address to send the confiscated property. 28 C.F.R. § 553.13(b)(2)(iii) (“Where the inmate has established ownership ... but ... refuses to provide a mailing address for return of the property, the property is to be disposed of through approved" methods, including destruction of the property.”). While there may be a case, such as that suggested by Mr. Searcy, where a prison so limits an inmate’s control over his property that it has effectively vanquished any meaningful ownership interest, this is not it. First, the KDOC provided Mr. Searcy a meaningful opportunity to decide the fate of his own property. Second, the KDOC acted reasonably in sending the property to Mr. Searcy’s own relatives.
AFFIRMED.
Notes
. While the KDOC apparently based its conclusion that Mr. Searcy failed to participate in the SATP on the ground that he refused to admit responsibility, it is also clear that he objects to providing a sexual history. Be. that as it may, we conclude that admitting responsibility to his crime of conviction could have potentially incriminated Mr. Searcy, despite the fact he pleaded
nolo contendere. See Thomas v. United States,
. We note here that both the panel in
Lile
and the Supreme Court in
McKune
determined that the sexual history and admission of responsibility implicated the self-incrimination privilege. The Kansas Supreme Court, however, stated in
Bankes v. Simmons,
. While we are mindful that Mr. Searcy suffered consequences other than the withdrawal of good time credit opportunities, those other consequences were rejected by a majority of the Supreme Court as constituting compulsion under the Fifth Amendment. As such, *1226 our independent examination focuses on .the good time credits, but our conclusion recognizes the entire set of consequences occasioned upon Mr. Searcy.
. While there seems to be no question that the KDOC has a valid state interest in operating the SATP,
see
McKune, - U.S. at-,
