Opinion ID: 2212055
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: application of the harris standard

Text: Viewing the facts developed at trial in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party, [3] we conclude that a reasonable, properly instructed jury could have found in favor of Ms. Rushing. With respect to the failure of jail policymakers to adequately train jail personnel, the jury could have found not only that policymakers failed to instruct employees in the constitutional limitations on the stripping and exposure of inmates, but also to formulate any policy in this regard. We further believe that the jury could have viewed this failure as a manifestation of a deliberate indifference to the sort of deprivation allegedly sustained by Ms. Rushing and that the occurrence of such a deprivation was an obvious result of this failure coupled with the recently adopted suicide prevention plan.
Even before the United States Supreme Court's landmark decision in Griswold v Connecticut, 381 US 479; 85 S Ct 1678; 14 L Ed 2d 510 (1965), it was held in the context of a § 1983 suit that a complaint alleging the unnecessary creation and distribution of nude photographs by police of a female citizen stated a claim that the woman's privacy, a liberty interest guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, had been violated. York v Story, 324 F2d 450, 455 (CA 9, 1963), cert den 376 US 939 (1964). The court explained: We cannot conceive of a more basic subject of privacy than the naked body. The desire to shield one's unclothed figured [sic] from view of strangers, and particularly strangers of the opposite sex, is impelled by elementary self-respect and personal dignity. A search of one's home has been established to be an invasion of one's privacy against intrusion by the police, which, if unreasonable, is arbitrary and therefore banned under the Fourth Amendment. We do not see how it can be argued that the searching of one's home deprives him of privacy, but the photographing of one's nude body, and the distribution of such photographs to strangers does not. In Lee v Downs, 641 F2d 1117, 1119-1120 (CA 4, 1981), the court upheld a jury verdict for a female inmate who brought a § 1983 claim alleging that she had been forced to disrobe in the presence of male guards. The court stated: Persons in prison must surrender many rights of privacy which most people may claim in their private homes. Much of the life in prison is communal, and many prisoners must be housed in cells with openings through which they may be seen by guards. Most people, however, have a special sense of privacy in their genitals, and involuntary exposure of them in the presence of people of the other sex may be especially demeaning and humiliating. When not reasonably necessary, that sort of degradation is not to be visited upon those confined in our prisons.    Because of the conflict in the testimony, the jury was entitled to accept the plaintiff's version that she expressed a willingness to remove her underclothing if the male guards would withdraw. Viewing the case in this light, as we must, it was wholly unnecessary for the male guards to remain in the room and to restrain the plaintiff while her underclothing was forcefully removed. If the plaintiff was uncooperative and abusive as defendants testified and if it was impractical to assemble enough female guards to restrain the big, strong plaintiff within a reasonable time, as they also testified, there would be a different case, but the jury seems clearly to have accepted the plaintiff's version of the occurrence. In Cumbey v Meachum, 684 F2d 712 (CA 10, 1982), the court reinstated a prisoner's claim under § 1983 for invasion of privacy. The plaintiff alleged that female guards were assigned to posts where they could view him while he undressed, showered, and used the toilet. Id., p 713. Reviewing federal case law, the court observed that [o]ther courts have held that if guards regularly watch inmates of the opposite sex who are engaged in personal activities, such as undressing, using toilet facilities, or showering, the inmates' constitutional rights to privacy are being violated. [ Id., p 714. Citations omitted.] The court concluded that the plaintiff's statement that the male inmates were subject to a certain amount of viewing by female guards does not necessarily fall short of a cognizable constitutional claim. The district court thus erred in dismissing the entire action as frivolous. [ Id. ] In Fisher v Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, 690 F2d 1133, 1142 (CA 4, 1982), the court held that a pretrial detainee had a general right, constitutionally protected, not to be subjected by state action to involuntary exposure in a state of nakedness to members of the opposite sex unless that exposure was reasonably necessary in maintaining her otherwise legal detention. See also Forts v Ward, 621 F2d 1210, 1217 (CA 2, 1980) (The privacy interest entitled to protection concerns the involuntary viewing of private parts of the body by members of the opposite sex); Hudson v Goodlander, 494 F Supp 890 (D Md, 1980) (the court found that the inmate's rights to privacy were violated by the assignment of female guards to posts where they could view him while he was completely or entirely unclothed, despite the government's argument that it was necessary to give the female guards such jobs in order to protect their right to equal employment opportunities); Bowling v Enomoto, 514 F Supp 201 (ND Cal, 1981). Finally, in Kent v Johnson, 821 F2d 1220 (CA 6, 1987), the plaintiff brought suit under § 1983, alleging that the prison's policy of allowing female guards to view him unclothed while showering and performing bodily functions violated his Fourth and Eighth Amendment rights. The court reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment, holding that the complaint stated a constitutional claim in respect to both the Fourth and Eighth Amendments. The defendant in the instant case does not dispute the existence of Ms. Rushing's protected liberty interest in not being exposed to members of the opposite sex. Instead, counsel has argued on appeal that under Fisher, supra, Ms. Rushing's right was not violated because it was reasonably necessary for her to be exposed in order for the jail to comply with the court-ordered suicide prevention plan. [4]
In Harris, the Supreme Court remanded the case to the Court of Appeals after concluding that the evidence in the record did not meet the deliberate-indifference standard set forth above. The plaintiff claimed that the city had inadequately trained its officers to deal with medical treatment of persons in police custody. The Supreme Court emphasized, however, that in Harris, the record made clear that the city did in fact train its officers and that the training included first-aid instruction. Thus, on remand the Court of Appeals was instructed to consider the city's argument that it could not have been obvious to the city that the first-aid training was insufficient to administer its constitutional written policy. Id., p 390, n 11. By analogy to Harris, if a city may be said to have a policy for which it may be held liable if it fails to train employees adequately, then the outright failure to formulate any policy (which might in turn require instruction to be properly implemented) in the face of an obvious need to do so may also suffice to create liability. Otherwise, a municipality could avoid liability by simply ignoring an obvious need. This, however, was clearly not the Court's intention in Harris. The very notion of deliberate indifference contemplates a failure to act when the need to do so is obvious. The jury could have concluded that the complete failure of policymakers to formulate a policy regarding the handling of stripped inmates manifested such a deliberate indifference to constitutional rights. [5] The jury could well have concluded on the basis of the court-ordered suicide prevention plan, as well as psychologist Kim's testimony, that policymakers knew to a moral certainty that many inmates would be stripped and detained unclothed in the jail. Harris, supra, p 390, n 10. Thus, unless precautionary measures were taken, the violation of inmates' right not to be exposed unnecessarily to the view of other persons was certain to result. The evidence could have supported the conclusion that the failure to adequately instruct employees, and, indeed, to formulate any policy in the first instance, actually caused and was closely related to the deprivation of Ms. Rushing's constitutional rights. The jury could also have concluded that the exposure of Ms. Rushing to male deputies, while Ms. Rushing was disrobing and being escorted naked in the jail, to the male custodian, and to the group of male visitors who peered into Ms. Rushing's cell, was unnecessary and could have been prevented if, for example, the need to provide naked detainees with protective covering or to house them in an isolated area had merely been communicated to employees by jail policymakers. [6]
Finally, the Court of Appeals, in reviewing the trial court's disposition of the county's motion for directed verdict, applied an improper standard of review. The Court of Appeals appears to have undertaken independent review of the record and to have concluded that the plaintiff's proofs did not, in fact, demonstrate a deliberate indifference on the part of jail policymakers. The proper inquiry would have been whether a reasonable jury could have concluded that the deliberate indifference standard had been satisfied. DiFranco, supra, p 59. Applying this standard, we find that a reasonable jury, properly instructed, could have reached this conclusion. [7]