Opinion ID: 2169792
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Cell Search

Text: Although we decide this appeal on the aforementioned grounds, we believe it prudent to address defendant's final claim of error as it will undoubtedly reprise at his new trial. He challenges the trial justice's denial of his motion to suppress personal papers and a yellow lined legal pad seized from his prison cell, claiming that the search and seizure constituted a violation of both article 1, section 6, of the Rhode Island Constitution and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The defendant insists that the search of his prison cell and seizure of certain items served, in fact, as a pretextual ruse: What actually was a quest to stack yet another felony onto defendant's tally is now being justified as a search in the name of institutional security. In this state, any discussion of a prisoner's legitimate expectation of privacy in his or her cell pursuant to article 1, section 6, or the Fourth Amendment must begin with this Court's decision in State v. Wilmot, 461 A.2d 401 (R.I.1983). Relying primarily upon dicta borrowed from the United States Supreme Court's opinion in Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979), as well as several other federal decisions in accord, Wilmot held that an inmate retains some residuum of Fourth Amendment protection. Wilmot, 461 A.2d at 406. We expounded that a prisoner has a legitimate, though diminished, expectation of privacy in his cell and thus, limited protection of the Fourth Amendment, subject to the needs and exigencies of the prison environment. Id. at 407. The need for discipline and security in the prisons and the inmates' diminished expectation of privacy require only that every search be reasonable and not undertaken for the purpose of harassing or humiliating an inmate. Id. Wilmot, however, addressed only the rights of convicted inmates and was silent on whether the analysis would differ if at issue instead were the rights of pretrial detainees. In 1984, just one year after we decided Wilmot, the United States Supreme Court addressed head-on the issue of prisoners' Fourth Amendment rights in Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517, 104 S.Ct. 3194, 82 L.Ed.2d 393 (1984). In a five to four decision authored by Chief Justice Warren Burger, the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment proscription against unreasonable searches does not apply within the confines of the prison cell. Id. at 526, 104 S.Ct. 3194. Despite noting that a majority of the Federal Courts of Appeal had recognized a minimal degree of Fourth Amendment protection for inmates, id. at 522 n. 5, 104 S.Ct. 3194, the Hudson Court concluded that society is not prepared to recognize as legitimate any subjective expectation of privacy that a prisoner might have in his [or her] prison cell   , id. at 525-26, 104 S.Ct. 3194. As support for its conclusion, the Hudson Court cited the problems that prison violence, contraband and sanitation continually pose for the efficient and effective administration of detention facilities: Virtually the only place inmates can conceal weapons, drugs, and other contraband is in their cells. Unfettered access to these cells by prison officials, thus, is imperative if drugs and contraband are to be ferreted out and sanitary surroundings are to be maintained. Id. at 527, 104 S.Ct. 3194. Thus, recognition of a Fourth Amendment right for convicted inmates in their cells would hamstring prison officials with warrant requirements that are entirely unnecessary given the suspension of rights that inevitably accompanies incarceration. Id. at 524, 104 S.Ct. 3194; see also Wolfish, 441 U.S. at 545, 99 S.Ct. 1861. With respect to prisoners' rights, this Court has interpreted article 1, section 6, to parallel the Fourth Amendment. Wilmot, 461 A.2d at 405 n. 5. Furthermore, a `decision to depart from minimum standards [imposed by the Fourth Amendment]    should be made guardedly and should be supported by a principled rationale.' State v. Werner, 615 A.2d 1010, 1014 (R.I.1992). [12] The Hudson decision, therefore, demands that we revisit the issue of whether there exists a constitutional proscription, to any degree, of unreasonable searches and seizures in our correctional institutions. The precise issue before this Court, then, is whether either article 1, section 6, or the Fourth Amendment confers upon a pretrial detainee a legitimate expectation of privacy in his or her cell, especially when competent evidence suggests that he or she may be engaged in serious criminal activity in that cell. We are cognizant that Hudson left unanswered the question of whether a pretrial detainee should retain any legitimate expectation of privacy in his or her cell. A review of the post- Hudson decisions from various jurisdictions reveals a sharp split of opinion on this point. A spattering of jurisdictions have found that a pretrial detainee does retain a legitimate expectation of privacy in his or her cell in the wake of Hudson, especially when the prosecution orders the search for the sole purpose of collecting evidence. See, e.g., United States v. Cohen, 796 F.2d 20, 22-24 (2d Cir.1986); McCoy v. State, 639 So.2d 163, 167 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1994); Lowe v. State, 203 Ga.App. 277, 416 S.E.2d 750, 752 (1992); State v. Jackson, 321 N.J.Super. 365, 729 A.2d 55, 63-65 (Law Div.1999). A number of jurisdictions disagree, however, interpreting Hudson to hold that a pretrial detainee has no legitimate expectation of privacy in his or her prison cell, without regard for the purpose motivating the initial search. See, e.g., State v. Apelt, 176 Ariz. 349, 861 P.2d 634, 649 (1993); People v. Davis, 36 Cal.4th 510, 31 Cal. Rptr.3d 96, 115 P.3d 417, 429 (2005); State v. Bolin, 693 So.2d 583, 585 (Fla.Dist.Ct. App.1997), rev'd on other grounds, 793 So.2d 894 (Fla.2001); State v. O'Rourke, 792 A.2d 262, 267 (Me.2001); People v. Phillips, 219 Mich.App. 159, 555 N.W.2d 742, 743-44 (1996); State v. Martin, 322 N.C. 229, 367 S.E.2d 618, 621-22 (1988). We agree with those jurisdictions that interpret Hudson to leave no room for any legitimate expectation of privacy for pretrial detainees regardless of the purpose motivating the search. We find persuasive the reasoning of the California Supreme Court when it recently held the same in Davis, 31 Cal.Rptr.3d 96, 115 P.3d at 428-29. First, the reasons cited by the Hudson majority in foreclosing upon a convict's Fourth Amendment rightsthe safety of prison staff and visitors, the widespread proliferation of contraband, and prison sanitationapply with equal force to pretrial detainees. The United States Supreme Court in Wolfish, 441 U.S. at 556-57, 99 S.Ct. 1861, virtually conceded as much: It may well be argued that a person confined in a detention facility has no reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to his room or cell and that therefore the Fourth Amendment provides no protection for such a person. Indeed, in her concurring opinion in Hudson, Justice O'Connor suggested that it is [t]he fact of arrest and incarceration [that] abates all legitimate Fourth Amendment privacy and possessory interests in personal effects   . Hudson, 468 U.S. at 538, 104 S.Ct. 3194 (O'Connor, J., concurring). Second, Hudson applies to jailhouse searches regardless of the purpose of the search. Davis, 31 Cal.Rptr.3d 96, 115 P.3d at 429. The motivation behind a cell search is simply irrelevant: A determination that a prisoner has no legitimate expectation of privacy in his or her cell because that space is subject toand rightly soboth random and routine searches in the name of safety, security and sanitation is incompatible with the notion that the same prisoner somehow may reacquire a legitimate expectation of privacy in that cell depending on the motivation of prison officials in searching that space. We are confident that adequate safeguards exist to deter and remedy cell searches prompted by improper purposes. As observed by the Hudson majority, the availability of civil remedies and the protections of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution are satisfactory weapons to combat intentionally menacing cell searches. Hudson, 468 U.S. at 530, 104 S.Ct. 3194. In addition, article 1, section 10, of the Rhode Island Constitution and the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution are effective tools to remedy violations of the right to counsel when and if seized materials contain protected communications. See State v. Laurence, 848 A.2d 238, 249 (R.I.2004). [13] Furthermore, we think that preventing the commission of serious felonies within the jailhouse is a compelling reason to allow prison officials unfettered access to inmates' cells. Indeed, one of the several policies justifying incarceration is incapacitationsociety's need to immediately curtail the criminal activities of certain individuals by placing them in an environment designed to restrict the various manifestations of their criminal proclivities. See 1 Wayne R. LaFave, Substantive Criminal Law § 1.5(a)(2) (2d ed.2003). To ensure that true incapacitation is achieved, prison officials must have the proper tools at their disposal to effectively suspend all criminal activity within the jailhouse. Finally, we decline defendant's invitation to interpret article 1, section 6, as according more stringent protections than the Fourth Amendment in the prison context. He cites State v. von Bulow, 475 A.2d 995 (R.I.1984), in which this Court exercised its right as final interpreters of state law, `to impose higher standards on searches and seizures than [those] required by the Federal Constitution,' even if the state constitutional provision is similar to the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 1019 (quoting State v. Benoit, 417 A.2d 895, 899 (R.I. 1980)). As we mentioned above, decisions to depart from the federal interpretation of the Fourth Amendment must be made guardedly, Werner, 615 A.2d at 1014, and we simply are not persuaded by the logic of decisions that would interpret Hudson not to apply to a factual scenario akin to the case at bar. See, e.g., Cohen, 796 F.2d at 22-24. [14] The defendant argues alternatively that even if the search in this case was constitutional, the seizure certainly was not. We disagree. In Hudson, 468 U.S. at 528 n. 8, 104 S.Ct. 3194, the United States Supreme Court categorically dismissed this proposition: [T]he same reasons that lead us to conclude that the Fourth Amendment's proscription against unreasonable searches is inapplicable in a prison cell, apply with controlling force to seizures. Prison officials must be free to seize from cells any articles which, in their view, disserve legitimate institutional interests. We find the logic of the Hudson Court persuasive. Therefore, we conclude that a pretrial detainee does not maintain a legitimate expectation of privacy in his or her cell. The search and seizure in this case were entirely permissible under article 1, section 6, and the Fourth Amendment. [15]