Opinion ID: 775758
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Strip Search Policy

Text: 20 Although it appears likely that NCCC's strip search policy applied to all persons actually admitted to the jail whether they had been arraigned or not, we consider the legality of that policy as it applies to post-arraignment admittees to the jail because Shain himself was a post-arraignment admittee. 21 Before Officer Dantunono searched Shain in July 1995, we had decided three cases relevant to the issue before us. In Weber, we considered a Monroe County Jail policy calling for strip/body cavity searches of all arrested persons other than those placed in `holding cells,' which are the cells in which arrestees are sometimes placed when their release on bail is imminent. Weber, 804 F.2d at 799. The police arrested plaintiff Ann Weber on misdemeanor charges of making a false complaint and resisting arrest. See id. After jail officials booked Weber, they required her to remove her clothing and expose her body cavities for visual inspection. Id. We held that the Fourth Amendment precludes prison officials from performing strip/body cavity searches of arrestees charged with misdemeanors or other minor offenses unless the officials have a reasonable suspicion that the arrestee is concealing weapons or other contraband based on the crime charged, the particular characteristics of the arrestee, and/or the circumstances of the arrest. Id. at 802. Although the defendants argued that their policy applied only to arrestees who could not make bail and thus were to be admitted to the general prison population, we found it unnecessary to remand for factual findings because even the more narrowly drawn policy would be unconstitutional. Id. We also rejected defendants' request for qualified immunity because all the circuits that had addressed similar policies had found them to be unconstitutional and because we long had stressed the intrusive nature of body cavity searches. See id. at 803. 22 Walsh reaffirmed the Weber holding, see Walsh, 849 F.2d at 68-69, and Wachtler assumed Weber's applicability to the post-arraignment strip search of a person charged only with a misdemeanor. Wachtler, 35 F.3d at 81-82. We also found in Wachtler that the individual defendants were entitled to qualified immunity because the law did not clearly establish whether Wachtler's conduct was sufficient to trigger a reasonable suspicion. Id. at 81-82. However, we reinstated Wachtler's claims against the County of Herkimer pending a fuller development of the record. See id at 82. We said with respect to the County: 23 If the standard procedure included routine strip-searches of misdemeanor arrestees, absent reasonable suspicion of weapons or contraband, and if no reasonable suspicion concerning Wachtler's possession of such items existed, then Wachtler would prevail. 24 Id. (citing Weber, 804 F.2d at 802-03). 25 Defendants contend that Wachtler does not indicate clearly that post-arraignment strip searches of persons charged with a misdemeanor are unconstitutional because the parties did not necessarily argue a distinction between pre- and post-arraignment searches. Be that as it may, we recognized that Wachtler had been arraigned and remanded to custody and nevertheless found that a policy that subjected him to a strip search without individualized reasonable suspicion would be unconstitutional. See id. at 79, 82. Because the unconstitutionality of a post-arraignment strip search absent reasonable cause was necessary to the court's holding in Wachtler, we reject defendants' argument. 26 Defendants next argue that we must not read Wachtler to prohibit strip searches of persons arrested for a misdemeanor after they have been arraigned because this reading would conflict with two Supreme Court decisions, Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979), and Block v. Rutherford, 468 U.S. 576 (1984). In Bell, the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a policy that subjected pre-trial detainees to strip searches after a contact visit. It reasoned that maintaining institutional security and preserving internal order and discipline are essential goals that may require limitation or retraction of the retained constitutional rights of both convicted prisoners and pretrial detainees. Bell, 441 U.S. at 546. Quoting Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S. 817,827 (1974), the Court held that in the absence of substantial evidence in the record to indicate that the officials have exaggerated their response to these considerations, courts should ordinarily defer to their expert judgment in such matters. Id. at 548, 99 S. Ct. 1861. Applying these principles, the Court upheld a visual, no-contact body cavity search of detainees after contact visits with persons from outside the institution. It said, assuming for present purposes that... pretrial detainees... retain some Fourth Amendment rights upon commitment to a corrections facility, we nonetheless conclude that these searches do not violate that Amendment. The Fourth Amendment prohibits only unreasonable searches, and under the circumstances, we do not believe that these searches were unreasonable. Id. at 558, 94 S. Ct. 2800 (internal citations omitted). 27 In Block, the Supreme Court upheld jail policies prohibiting contact visits by pre-trial detainees and permitting jail authorities to conduct random searches of cells in the absence of their pre-trial detainee occupants. However, its holding rests on a due process analysis and thus adds little to the holding of Bell. See Block, 498 U.S. at 590; see also Weber, 804 F.2d at 800. 28 In Weber, we said that Bell did not read out of the Constitution the provision of general application that a search be justified as reasonable under the circumstances. Weber, 804 F.2d at 800. We also described three factors potentially supporting the determination that the Bell plaintiffs had no right to be free of a strip search: they already had been arraigned; they had failed to make bail; and they had presumably chosen to receive visitors and to enjoy physical contact with them. Id. In Wachtler, we implicitly held that the mere fact of arraignment did not remove a misdemeanor arrestee from the purview of Weber and place him within the ambit of Bell. See Wachtler, 35 F.3d at 79, 82. The Wachtler result is not at odds with Bell. First, the Bell court did not address the issue of whether persons charged only with misdemeanors must be treated differently from persons charged with felonies. 2 Second, and more important, Bell authorized strip searches after contact visits, where contraband often is passed. See Block, 468 U.S. at 586. It is far less obvious that misdemeanor arrestees frequently or even occasionally hide contraband in their bodily orifices. Unlike persons already in jail who receive contact visits, arrestees do not ordinarily have notice that they are about to be arrested and thus an opportunity to hide something. For the exceptions - for example, a person who is allowed to visit the bathroom unescorted before an arrest - reasonable suspicion may well exist. 29 Finally, defendants argue that arraignment represents a crucial step in criminal proceedings that justifies heightened security measures. In Block, the Supreme Court said that [t]he very fact of nonrelease pending trial... is a significant factor bearing on the security measures that are imperative to proper administration of a detention facility because of the ease of obtaining bail or release on one's own recognizance. Block, 468 U.S. at 583. The same cannot be said of a misdemeanor arrestee in New York because he must be released on his own recognizance or granted bail. See N.Y. Crim. Proc. L. § 170.10(7). It is only because Denier proceeded civilly against Shain in Family Court that the judge could hold him without bail and without considering the statutory factors relevant to criminal detainees despite the fact that he was charged only with a misdemeanor. Compare N.Y. Fam. Ct. Act § 155(2) with N.Y. Crim. Proc. L. § 510.30(2)(a). Although a New York felony defendant's post-arraignment detention may well be an indicator of an increased security risk, a person charged with a misdemeanor who remains in jail in New York after arraignment probably does so because (a) he cannot afford the bail set; (b) he refuses to post bail; or (c) he was arraigned on a Family Court matter, see N.Y. Fam. Ct. Act. § 155, Douglas J. Besharov, Practice Commentary (discussing abuse of Section 155). None of these scenarios creates a reasonable suspicion that the alleged offender has secreted contraband or a weapon. 30 The dissent, albeit not the defendants or the amicus who supports defendants' position, argues that a separate line of Supreme Court cases employing a different analytical model controls the outcome of this appeal. These cases hold that a reasonable relation to a legitimate penological interest suffices to establish the constitutionality of a prison regulation. Washington v. Harper, 494 U.S. 210, 223 (1990); O'Lone v. Estate of Shabazz, 482 U.S. 342, 349 (1987); Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 87 (1987). Between Walsh and Wachtler, we employed the Turner model to uphold the legality of a strip search that took place in a prison. Covino v. Patrissi, 967 F.2d 73 (2d Cir. 1992). Covino, who had been charged with kidnapping a child under the age of sixteen, id. at 74 n.1, was housed in a state correctional facility where he was commingled with sentenced inmates. Id. at 75. We upheld the pertinent regulation, which allowed random strip searches of inmates, despite Covino's pretrial detainee status because the regulation was reasonably related to legitimate penological interests. Id. at 78 and n.4. Turner, Washington, O'Lone and Covino each approved a regulation of a state correctional facility or prison, but NCCC is a local correctional facility or jail. A prison is[a] state or federal facility of confinement for convicted criminals, esp[ecially] felons. Black's Law Dictionary 1213 (7th ed. 1999). A jail, on the other hand, is [a] place where persons awaiting trial or those convicted of misdemeanors are confined. Id. at 838. This distinction is reflected in New York where state correctional facilities, commonly referred to as prisons, house those convicted of the most serious crimes and local correctional facilities or jails house persons convicted of minor crimes and pre- trial detainees. See N.Y. Crim. Proc. L. § 430.20(2),(3); N.Y. Penal L. §§ 70.00(1), 70.15. 31 Despite the limitation of Turner, Washington, O'Lone, and Covino to prison regulations and the substantial difference between jail and prison populations, the dissent contends that Turner implicitly overruled Weber. We disagree. We start with the proposition that we have no authority to depart from Second Circuit precedent, unless it has been overruled in banc or by the Supreme Court. Leecan v. Lopes, 893 F.2d 1434, 1443 (2d Cir. 1990). Additionally, we should not lightly assume that two prior cases of this court are inconsistent, and we must accept a plausible reading of a case that renders it consistent with other Second Circuit precedent even where an alternative reading exists. See, e.g., Rocket Jewelry Box v. Noble Gift Packaging, 157 F.3d 174, 176 (2d Cir. 1998). Neither Turner nor Covino purports to address any issue other than prison regulations. Thus, these cases can be read consistently with Weber and its progeny by confining them to their facts and actual holdings. 3 The dissent's arguments for assum[ing] that when the Turner Court developed the `reasonably related' standard, it intended for it to apply to facilities like NCCC may be relevant to whether the Turner line of cases should be extended to jails by the Supreme Court, but they are not relevant to the question of whether Turner overruled Weber. [Dissent, infra, at 74] 32 The district court therefore correctly held that because it was clearly established in 1995 that persons charged with a misdemeanor and remanded to a local correctional facility like NCCC have a right to be free of a strip search absent reasonable suspicion that they are carrying contraband or weapons, Jablonsky was not entitled to qualified immunity. The illegality of the sheriff's policy also provides the necessary basis for affirming the County's liability. See Weber, 804 F.2d at 803 (holding Monroe County liable for strip search policy implemented by its sheriff).
33 Even assuming the illegality of NCCC's policy, defendants argue that Shain cannot complain because NCCC had reasonable suspicion concerning him based on the court remand and on facts known by law enforcement personnel other than Dantunono, the officer who actually performed the strip search. We disagree. Although searching officers may rely on information provided to them by their colleagues, see Velardi v. Walsh, 40 F.3d 569, 574 (2d Cir. 1994), there is no evidence that Ellison, who was employed by the Nassau County Police Department, or the officers who accompanied Shain to and from court, communicated any information to Dantunono. Thus, the only information Dantunono knew and the only fact NCCC required for a strip search was the fact of the remand. 4 This remand merely required NCCC to receive and detain Shain until his Family Court appearance and indicated that Shain had been charged under Article 8 of the Family Court Act. Because Article 8 covers offenses ranging from disorderly conduct to assault, the remand itself could not provide reasonable and individualized suspicion. In fact, Lieutenant John Considine, commanding officer of NCCC's operations unit, conceded that the information in Shain's file would not have provided reasonable suspicion that he possessed contraband.
34 Although plaintiff requested an injunction against future enforcement of the blanket strip search policy, the district court judgment neither explicitly granted nor denied this request. Plaintiff's attorney objected to the proposed judgment, in part, on the basis that it did not address the injunction. Plaintiff now claims that the district court erred by failing to grant an injunction once the illegality of the strip search procedure was established. Defendants respond that the district court did not err because NCCC voluntarily suspended its policy pending appeal. However, the record before us is not adequate to determine whether injunctive relief is necessary, and the district court did not make findings of fact or conclusions of law relevant to the grant or denial of injunctive relieve. Therefore, we remand to allow the district court to make the necessary findings and conclusions. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 52(a).
35 In his charge, the district judge instructed the jury that if it found defendants had violated Shain's constitutional rights but he had not suffered a compensable injury, it should award nominal damages not to exceed one dollar. The judge also instructed the jury that he previously had found defendants' strip search policy to be unconstitutional. When the jury returned its verdict, the court asked what compensatory and punitive damages the jury had awarded on the strip search claim and the foreman responded Zero. The judge did not ask what nominal damages the jury had awarded. Plaintiff then moved to set aside the verdict and for a new trial, and the court denied both motions. However, the court did enter a nominal damages judgment of one dollar. On appeal, Shain argues only that the court should have granted him a new trial on damages. 36 We review a district court's decision not to grant a new trial on damages solely for abuse of discretion. See Amato v. City of Saratoga Springs, 170 F.3d 311, 314 (2d Cir. 1999). The district court should not grant such a motion unless [it] is convinced that the jury has reached a seriously erroneous result or that the verdict is a miscarriage of justice. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Shain cannot meet this high standard. He produced no objective medical or psychological testimony linking a psychological or physical injury to the strip search, and although he and his former girl friend testified that he was emotionally traumatized by the search, the jury was not required to credit this testimony. See id. at 314-15. Nor was it error for the court to correct the jury's verdict by entering a nominal damages award of one dollar since nominal damages are appropriate for the violation of a constitutional right. See Dawes v. Walker, 239 F.3d 489, 497 (2d Cir. 2001) (collecting cases holding that it is error not to award nominal damages where a constitutional violation is established).