Opinion ID: 1906308
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: issue of fourth amendment

Text: The district court issued an order suppressing evidence based on its findings and conclusions that neither party had prior notice that their telephone conversation might be monitored; that Susan and Robert Fischer had a reasonable expectation of privacy while talking on the jail's telephone; and that Jailer Robert Parsons committed an unlawful search in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and § 18 of the North Dakota Constitution when he listened in on the February 17, 1977, jail telephone conversation between Susan Fischer and Robert Fischer. The State, in its appeal, claims that Jailer Parsons' overhearing of the telephone conversation between Susan Fischer and Robert Fischer on the jail telephone was not an unlawful search because the usual Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures do not apply in penal institutions. The United States Constitution and the North Dakota Constitution provide protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. As we stated in State v. Erdman, 170 N.W.2d 872, 875 (N.D.1969): There is no formula for determining the reasonableness of a search under the Federal or the State constitutional forbiddance of unreasonable searches and seizures, as prohibited by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and by Section 18 of the North Dakota Constitution. Each case must stand or fall upon its own facts and circumstances. State v. Chaussee, 138 N.W.2d 788 (N.D.1965). See State v. Gagnon, 207 N.W.2d 260 (N.D. 1973); Harris v. United States, 331 U.S. 145, 67 S.Ct. 1098, 91 L.Ed. 1399 (1947); United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 70 S.Ct. 430, 94 L.Ed. 653 (1950). Because the circumstances surrounding a search are important in determining the reasonableness of the search, the fact that the search in the present case took place in a jail is central to our decision. Traditionally, Fourth Amendment cases have been decided on the basis of whether or not the search took place in a constitutionally protected area, e. g., a person's house. Lanza v. New York, 370 U.S. 139, 82 S.Ct. 1218, 8 L.Ed.2d 384 (1962), specifically discussed the applicability of the Fourth Amendment to penal institutions and indicated that a jail is not a constitutionally protected area. In Lanza, jail officials had monitored and recorded a conversation between the defendant and his incarcerated brother in the jail's visiting room. The Court rejected Lanza's claim that the visiting room of a jail is a constitutionally protected area. The United States Supreme Court stated, in Lanza, supra 370 U.S. at 143, 82 S.Ct. at 1220: . . . to say that a public jail is the equivalent of a man's `house' or that it is a place where he can claim constitutional immunity from search or seizure of his person, his papers, or his effects, is at best a novel argument. To be sure, the Court has been far from niggardly in construing the physical scope of Fourth Amendment protection. A business office is a protected area, and so may be a store. A hotel room, in the eyes of the Fourth Amendment, may become a person's `house,' and so, of course, may an apartment. An automobile may not be unreasonably searched. Neither may an occupied taxicab. Yet, without attempting either to define or to predict the ultimate scope of Fourth Amendment protection, it is obvious that a jail shares none of the attributes of privacy of a home, an automobile, an office, or a hotel room. In prison, official surveillance has traditionally been the order of the day. [Footnotes omitted.] Since Lanza, several courts have indicated that, in terms of protected areas, the usual Fourth Amendment protections do not apply in a penal institution. United States v. Kelley, 393 F.Supp. 755, 756-757 (W.D.Okl.1975), stated that prisons and reformatories have been held not to be within the protection of the Fourth Amendment; Gettleman v. Werner, 377 F.Supp. 445 (W.D.Pa.1974), held that the constitutional rights of a prison employee may be diluted in prison; and Hoitt v. Vitek, 361 F.Supp. 1238 (D.N.H.1973), and United States v. Kahn, 251 F.Supp. 702 (S.D.N.Y. 1966), held that a jail cell is not a constitutionally protected area. In Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967), the United States Supreme Court developed a new analytical framework for reviewing Fourth Amendment issues. Instead of determining the reasonableness of a search by looking at the area searched to determine if it was a constitutionally protected area, the Court will now inquire whether the person who is the subject of the search had a reasonable expectation of privacy. This new doctrine, however, does not completely abolish the importance of the constitutionally protected area doctrine because the area of the search is still an important factor in determining whether or not the person searched had a reasonable expectation of privacy. See United States v. Hearst, 412 F.Supp. 888, 889 (N.D.Cal.1976), which held that reference to the `place' of surveillance must be had in determining whether an unconstitutional search and seizure has occurred. The United States Supreme Court, in Katz, supra 389 U.S. at 350, 88 S.Ct. at 510, stated that: . . . the correct solution of Fourth Amendment problems is not necessarily promoted by incantation of the phrase `constitutionally protected area'. The Court held, in Katz, supra 389 U.S. at 351, 88 S.Ct. at 511: . . . the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. [Citations omitted.] But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected. We adopted the Katz interpretation of the Fourth Amendment in State v. Matthews, 216 N.W.2d 90, 103 (N.D.1974); and in State v. Howe, 182 N.W.2d 658, 662 (N.D. 1971), cert. den. 403 U.S. 933, 91 S.Ct. 2261, 29 L.Ed.2d 712 (1971). Many cases since Katz have applied the reasonable expectation of privacy test to jailhouse search situations and have upheld jail surveillance of prisoners. As a general rule, a person in a penal institution rarely has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Privacy in jail is not an expectation considered to be reasonable by society. See Lanza, supra, 370 U.S. 139, 82 S.Ct. 1218; United States v. Hitchcock, 467 F.2d 1107 (9th Cir. 1972), cert. den. 410 U.S. 916, 93 S.Ct. 973, 35 L.Ed.2d 279 (1973); United States v. Hearst, 563 F.2d 1331 (9th Cir. 1977); United States v. Stumes, 549 F.2d 831 (8th Cir. 1977); United States v. Dawson, 516 F.2d 796 (9th Cir. 1975), cert. den. 423 U.S. 855, 96 S.Ct. 104, 46 L.Ed.2d 80 (1975); Gettleman, supra ; and United States v. Brown, 317 F.Supp. 531 (E.D.La. 1970). The main reason for reduced Fourth Amendment protection in prison is the recognized governmental interest in maintaining security and order. Hearst, supra 563 F.2d at 1345. As stated in Gettleman, supra 377 F.Supp. at 451: A Penitentiary is a unique institution fraught with sensitive security hazards, not the least of these being smuggling of contraband such as drugs, money, knives, etc. The state has a high security interest in eliminating smuggling into and out of penitentiaries. [Footnotes omitted.] See, Stumes, supra . We must now consider whether Robert and Susan Fischer had a reasonable expectation of privacy, i. e., that their telephone conversations on the jail's telephone line would not be monitored by jail personnel. When determining the constitutionality of the search in the present case, we must consider several other cases that have specifically dealt with monitored jail conversations. In United States v. Hearst, supra 412 F.Supp. 888, the Federal District Court refused to suppress the contents of several tape recordings of conversations between the defendant and her family and friends which were held in the county jail. The Court held that the search and seizure of the defendant's conversations did not violate the Fourth Amendment because the defendant had a lower expectation of privacy in jail. Id. at 889. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision. United States v. Hearst, supra 563 F.2d at 1344-1345. In North v. Superior Court of Riverside County, 8 Cal.3d 301, 104 Cal.Rptr. 833, 502 P.2d 1305 (1972), a police detective allowed a prisoner and his wife to use the detective's private office in the jail building to hold a conversation. The detective left the two people alone in the office, shut the door, and monitored their conversation by using a hidden tape recorder. The California Supreme Court held that, under the circumstances, the defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in that the detective's search by means of tape recording the conversation was unlawful. North held that, as a general rule, an inmate of a jail ordinarily has no right of privacy. North, supra, 104 Cal.Rptr. at 837, 502 P.2d at 1309. In addition an ordinary jailhouse conversation between spouses could not be deemed to have been `made in confidence' as is necessary to invoke the husband-wife privilege. [1] Id., 104 Cal.Rptr. at 839, 502 P.2d at 1311. In North, however, the detective's actions lulled the defendant and his wife into believing that their conversation would be confidential. Id., 104 Cal.Rptr. at 839, 502 P.2d at 1311. Under the circumstances, the parties to the conversation had a reasonable expectation of privacy which was violated by the search resulting from the detective's taping of their conversation. In conclusion, the North court emphasized that its decision was directed toward the outrageous activities of the detective and that most jailhouse communications between spouses would not be entitled to Fourth Amendment protection. The court stated that: . . . nothing in our opinion should be deemed a disapproval of the common practice of monitoring inmates' conversations with others, including their spouses, in visiting rooms or similar places. That practice seems reasonably necessary in order to maintain jail security . . .. But jail security can be adequately maintained without resorting to the deliberate creation of a situation in which marital privacy could reasonably be expected to exist. We cannot sanction the device of secretly exploiting marital confidences, as was done under the circumstances of this case, for the sole purpose of gathering possibly incriminating evidence. Such a device constitutes, we believe, an `unreasonable governmental intrusion' of the sort condemned in our prior cases. North, supra, 104 Cal.Rptr. at p. 839, 502 P.2d at 1311-1312. In People v. Hill, 12 Cal.3d 731, 117 Cal. Rptr. 393, 528 P.2d 1 (1974), the conversation between the defendant and his wife was recorded while they talked over a jailhouse intercom. The California Supreme Court followed the general rule which it stated in North, supra, that most jailhouse conversations between spouses are not made in confidence. Hill, supra, 117 Cal. Rptr. at 418, 528 P.2d at 26. The court reiterated that its North decision was based on the detective's deliberate attempt to create an expectation of privacy [italics in original]. Id. In upholding the tape recording search and seizure of the conversation between spouses, the court held that Absent such unusual circumstances [as in North ], spouses can have no reasonable expectation that their jailhouse conversations will be private. Id. In the present case, Robert and Susan Fischer were talking on a jail telephone. We believe that the overheard telephone conversation should be treated the same as a monitored jail visiting room conversation or an intercom conversation because, in all three cases, the verbal exchange took place in a jail. As with most jailhouse conversations, we adopt the view that parties to a jailhouse conversation usually have no reasonable expectation of privacy due to the security needs of maintaining order and of limiting the introduction of contraband, such as drugs, into the jail. In some rare cases, a party to a jailhouse conversation may be given an expectation of privacy due to the deceptive actions of law enforcement personnel. In the present case, however, neither Jailer Parsons nor anyone else made any representations to the Fischers that their conversation would be private. We hold that Robert Fischer had no reasonable expectation of privacy while he was in jail. Although he was the only prisoner being held in the second floor cell block, he had no reason to believe that his telephone calls would not be monitored. Because Robert Fischer had no reasonable expectation of privacy, Jailer Parsons' listening in on Fischer's conversation constituted a proper search under the United States Constitution and the North Dakota Constitution. The statements made by Robert Fischer during the conversation that incriminated Susan Fischer were properly used as a basis for the showing of probable cause for the issuance of a warrant in order to search Susan Fischer's trailer house. Therefore, we reject the defendants' argument that the warrant was improper because the information that provided probable cause was obtained as a result of an unlawful search. We hold that the February 17, 1978, search of Susan Fischer's trailer house at 228 South Prairie Lane in Mandan was not unconstitutional and that the evidence obtained during the search may be used against Susan Fischer and Jeanne Fischer at their trials. The order suppressing evidence is reversed. ERICKSTAD, C. J., and PEDERSON, VANDEWALLE and SAND, JJ., concur.