Dodge v. County of Orange

282 F.Supp.2d 41

Anthony DODGE, Peter A. Machado and Joseph Petriello, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. COUNTY OF ORANGE and Sheriff H. Frank Bigger, in his individual and official capacity, Defendants.

Samuel Rango, Jarrod H. Mann, and Rocco Manniello, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. County of Orange and Sheriff H. Frank Bigger, in his individual and official capacity, Defendants.

No. 02 CIV. 769(CM)(LMS), 02 CIV.8451(CM)(LMS).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

September 9, 2003.

James Edward Monroe, Dupee, Dupee & Monroe, P.C., Goshen, NY, Robert N. Isseks, Middletown, NY, for Anthony Dodge.

James Edward Monroe, Dupee, Dupee & Monroe, P.C., Goshen, NY, for Peter A. Machado, Joseph Petriello, Samuel Rango, Jarrod H. Mann, Rocco Manniello.

Christina Sanabria, County Atty, County of Orange, Goshen, NY, Robert Groban, Epstein Bechen & Green, P.C., New York, NY, for County of Orange.

James M. Fedorchak, Gellert & Cutler, P.C., Poughkeepsie, Christina Sanabria, County Atty, County of Orange, Goshen, NY, for H. Frank Bigger.

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW FOLLOWING TRIAL

MCMAHON, District Judge.

This case began in January of 2002, when the complaint in Dodge v. County of Orange, 208 F.R.D. 79 (S.D.N.Y.2002) ("Dodge") was filed. Plaintiffs brought suit pursuant 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ("Section 1983") and sought to represent a class of pre-trial detainees charged with misdemeanors who were admitted to the Orange County Correctional Facility ("OCCF") from January 1, 1999 to the present and allegedly subject to strip searches upon their admission to the facility that they contend violated the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The plaintiffs in Dodge moved for a preliminary injunction against further unconstitutional strip searches at OCCF in February of 2002, and defendants moved to dismiss plaintiffs' complaint as moot. I denied defendants' motion to dismiss and granted plaintiffs' request for a hearing on their motion for a preliminary injunction. See Dodge v. County of Orange, 208 F.R.D. 79 (S.D.N.Y.2002). I also consolidated the preliminary injunction hearing with a hearing to determine whether class certification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(2) was appropriate, or whether partial class certification under Rule 23(c)(4)(A) would be the best method for adjudicating plaintiffs' case.

A one-day hearing was held on June 24, 2002. Following the hearing, I granted plaintiffs motion for class certification pursuant to Rule 23(b)(2) and issued a preliminary injunction. See Dodge v. County of Orange, 209 F.R.D. 65 (S.D.N.Y.2002). The injunction enjoined defendants to conduct strip searches of newly-arrived inmates only when they had reason to believe the new arrival might be secreting contraband, based on (1) the nature of the crime charged; (2) the circumstances of the arrest; and (3) the particular characteristics of the arrestee. [DX 33].

On October 22, 2002, a second complaint, Rango v. County of Orange, 02 Civ. 8451 (S.D.N.Y.2002) ("Rango") was filed. The Rango plaintiffs purported to represent a class of pre-trial detainees charged with felonies who were admitted to the Orange County Correctional Facility ("OCCF") from January 1, 1999 to the present and allegedly strip searched in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Rango plaintiffs moved for a preliminary injunction soon after filing their complaint.

At oral arguments on the Rango plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction, I deferred my decision on that motion pending an evidentiary hearing. The parties then agreed to consolidate the Dodge and Rango cases so that a single trial could be conducted on plaintiffs' requests for permanent injunctive relief in both cases. The consolidated trial was conducted over four days, between May 19 and May 28, 2003. At the trial, I heard testimony from twenty six witnesses and received into evidence voluminous exhibits from both parties. I was also given a personal tour of OCCF on May 29, 2003, at which I time I heard additional testimony from OCCF corrections officers.

Upon reviewing that evidence, together with the parties' post-trial submissions, I make the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.

FINDINGS OF FACT

I. The Orange County Correctional Facility

OCCF is a county jail located about sixty miles northwest of New York City, in a county that contains two of the poorest cities in New York State (Middletown and Newburgh), as well as a growing number of suburban developments that are beginning to impinge on the county's extensive rural areas.

For many years, OCCF was housed in Goshen, New York at 40 Erie Street. OCCF officials and counsel were frank in describing the jail as old and decrepit. On September 1, 2001, the County opened its new correctional facility, which is located in Goshen at 110 Wells Farm Road. As part of the trial, I was given an extensive tour of the facility, which is most impressive.

OCCF is a county jail. In the jurisprudence of the Second Circuit, county jails are not considered "prisons." Shain v. Ellison, 273 F.3d 56, 65-66 (2d. Cir.2001) (hereafter "Shain").¹ However, at least in the more populous counties (and I include Orange County—one of the fastest growing counties in terms of population in New York State—in that group²), the county jail is not the local pokey, either. Accordingly, a description of the facility is both warranted and relevant.

OCCF is constructed as four separate modules, each of which contains three or four units. Each unit houses up to fifty-three inmates in a self-contained area, in which not only cells, but also recreation areas (both outdoor and indoor) and facilities for serving food are located. The facility has common areas for educational programs conducted by the Board of Co-operative Educational services (BOCES); medical treatment; personal grooming; and a common kitchen. It also houses administrative offices for jail personnel and the County Sheriff and recreational facilities for use by corrections personnel. (A diagram of OCCF is attached to this opinion as Ex. 1.)³

OCCF is surrounded by high metal fencing topped with barbed wire. It boasts guard towers and lights. It looks nothing whatever like a community lock-up; it is every bit as forbidding as the medium security federal prison I visited some years ago.

OCCF, like all county jails in New York, houses at least three classes of criminal inmates: persons accused of felonies who have not been admitted to (or made) bail; persons convicted of misdemeanors who have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment of less than one year; and persons accused of misdemeanors who have not made bail.⁴ Every criminal detainee who arrives at OCCF has been arraigned. Alien detainees and persons who have been civilly committed are also housed in the facility. [Ryan Direct ¶ 21]. The County is presently negotiating with federal authorities to house certain federal detainees.

When multiple inmates are being transported to the facility (generally by the Orange County Sheriff's Department), no effort is made to segregate accused felons from misdemeanants or civil committees. Similarly, accused felons are not necessarily segregated from accused misdemeanants, sentenced misdemeanants, or civil detainees in the housing units. However, a person being detained for trial on a charge of rape or murder is unlikely to be housed in the same unit as a person who is delinquent on his child support, because New York State law requires that inmates be classified by perceived level of risk (high, medium, low) and housed with other inmates who share a similar risk assessment. Men and women are housed separately, and there is a separate housing unit for juveniles.

OCCF only accepts inmates after a court has issued a securing order that remands the inmate to OCCF until he can either raise bail or be tried on the criminal charges against him. [Ryan Direct ¶ 8]. Approximately thirty seven different local and municipal courts (and, on occasion, federal authorities) remand inmates to OCCF. The arresting agencies include the New York State Police (who serve as the police force for significant parts of Orange County) and the police departments of the various municipalities within the County.

OCCF has the capacity to house 786 inmates. [Ryan Direct ¶ 5]. At present its capacity is not taxed. An average of 530 inmates are housed at OCCF each day. The annual census filed with the State of New York show that just over 5,500 inmates passed through the institution in each of the years 2001 and 2002. In 2001, 36% of the inmates housed at OCCF were felony pre-trial detainees (2,009 inmates); in 2002, 42% were felony detainees (2,322 inmates). The rest are misdemeanants at various stages of the process (both pretrial and sentenced), persons secured under civil commitment orders, and immigration detainees. This contrasts with Rikers Island, New York City's "local jail." Rikers consists of several different buildings, some of which (such as the Anna M. Kross Center) house up to approximately 3,000 inmates on any given day. [Tr. 182 (DeRosa Testimony)].

The record contains no data about how many new arrivals are/were received at either the old or the new facility on any given day. According to Capt. Joseph Ryan, the current daytime shift commander at OCCF, there are some days on which no new arrivals come to OCCF, while as many as thirty or more may show up on the five to ten busiest days of the year. [Tr. 99-100]. Corrections Officer James Ognibene III testified that the average number of new pre-trial detainees who were in-processed on a given day was about fourteen or fifteen, with seven to ten of those on the day tour and fewer at night. I find that the booking and receiving officers at OCCF are not heavily burdened with in-processing new detainees during...