N.G. v. Connecticut

• Decision Date: 07 September 2004
• Docket Number: Docket No. 02-9274.
• Citation: 382 F.3d 225
• Parties: N.G. and S.G., as parents and next friends of S.C., a minor child, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. State of CONNECTICUT, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

382 F.3d 225

N.G. and S.G., as parents and next friends of S.C., a minor child, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. State of CONNECTICUT, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 02-9274.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: September 3, 2003.

Decided: September 7, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, Peter C. Dorsey, J Thomas W. Kelly, Newport, RI, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Terrence M. O'Neill, Asst. Atty. General, Hartford, CT (Richard Blumenthal, Atty. General, Steven R. Strom, Asst. Atty. General, Hartford, CT, on the brief) for Defendants-Appellees.

Before: NEWMAN, SOTOMAYOR, and WESLEY, Circuit Judges.

Judge SOTOMAYOR concurs in part and dissents in part with a separate opinion.

JON O. NEWMAN, Circuit Judge.

This appeal concerns the lawfulness of strip searches performed upon young girls in juvenile detention centers. The parents of two female children appeal from the September 30, 2002, judgment of the District Court for the District of Connecticut (Peter C. Dorsey, District Judge), ruling that, even though Connecticut's blanket strip search policy for all those admitted to juvenile detention centers ("JDCs") violates the Fourth Amendment, the particular strip searches of their daughters, identified as S.C. and T.W., were lawful. The Appellants contend that the searches were unlawful for lack of a reasonable basis to believe either that the juveniles had done anything that would be a crime if committed by an adult or had possessed weapons or other contraband. The Appellants also seek review of the District Court's denial of their motion for class certification.

We conclude that the searches conducted upon each initial entry into the custody of the State's juvenile authorities were lawful, but that repetitive searches, conducted while the girls remained in custody, violated the Fourth Amendment in the absence of reasonable suspicion that contraband was possessed. We therefore vacate the judgment and remand to determine what relief, if any, should be awarded.

Background

Connecticut's judicial branch, through its Court Support Services Division ("CSSD"), operates three juvenile detention centers located in Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven. Connecticut also confines juveniles in other institutions with which it has contracts — the Girls Detention Center ("GDC"), operated by defendant CSI Connecticut, Inc., and Juvenile Forensic Services ("JFS"), a center operated by defendant Juvenile Forensic Services, LLP. All of these facilities, collectively referred to as "JDCs," admit thousands of juveniles annually. In Connecticut, a juvenile is either a "child," defined as "any person under sixteen years of age," Conn. Gen.Stat. § 46b-120(1) (2003), or a "youth," defined as "any person sixteen or seventeen years of age," id. § 46b-120(2).¹

JDCs house juveniles detained for a wide variety of reasons, but the record is not entirely clear as to precisely what circumstances may result in confinement in JDCs. From the testimony of Judge Christine E. Keller, Chief Administrative Judge for Juvenile Matters, it appears that the principal basis for detention is to await trial following arrest for a serious juvenile offense. Upon arrest for a juvenile offense that is not serious, detention could also occur if the parents refuse to take the child back into their home and the State's Department of Children and Families cannot promptly find a bed in a suitable facility.

Another frequent basis for detention arises from a designation known as "families with service needs." Conn. Gen.Stat. § 46b-120(8). "Families with service needs" means a family that includes a child who has acted in one of five ways: (1) run away from home without just cause, (2) become beyond the control of parents, (3) engaged in indecent or immoral conduct, (4) been a truant or overtly defied school rules, or (5) if thirteen years of age or older, has engaged in sexual intercourse with a person of similar age.² Id. Judge Keller explained that detention can result upon a judge's finding that one of these five circumstances exists and that there is probable cause to believe that a delinquent act has been committed. Of these five categories, the most common are runaways and truants.

The State policy. Operational Policy 311 of Connecticut's Judicial Branch Division of Juvenile Detention Services ("the Policy") provides for various searches, including frisk searches, general facility searches, area searches, perimeter searches, vehicle searches, and, pertinent to this appeal, strip searches. The Policy specifies that a strip search shall be conducted upon each detainee's "initial intake" at a JDC and upon each detainee's "readmission," or after any detainee "has left the supervision of Detention Center or Judicial Branch staff (e.g., a furlough or inpatient hospital admission), or an [Alternate Detention Program] resident returning to the Detention Center to attend a court hearing." The Policy also authorizes strip searches upon "reasonable belief that a detainee may be carrying dangerous contraband."³ The Policy applies at the three state-run JDCs and the JDCs operated under state contract.

Description of strip search.

The Policy, as amended September 1, 2002, prescribes the following steps for a staff member conducting a strip search⁴ to follow:

a. Inform the detainee of the strip search and the purpose of the search.

b. Check the detainee's ears, nose and mouth, including under the tongue.

c. Have the detainee remove and step away from clothing and shoes and put on a JDC-issued robe.

d. Have the detainee run his/her own hands through his/her hair.

e. Check the bottom of detainee's feet.

f. Have the detainee raise one arm of the robe to mid-biceps and examine top and bottom of arm and hand with fingers spread. Repeat the procedure with second arm and hand.

g. Have the detainee raise the bottom of the robe to below the crotch to expose and inspect the front of the legs and feet.

h. Have the detainee turn 180 degrees and drop the robe off the shoulders in order to inspect the upper back and shoulders.

i. Have the detainee raise the bottom of the robe to above the waist in order to inspect the buttocks and legs.

j. Have the detainee turn 180 degrees (facing staff), and drop the robe off the shoulders and open the front of the robe, exposing the entire front of the body, shoulders, and upper arms.

k. Instruct the detainee to shower and dress immediately in a clean uniform.

l. Search all clothing and personal items, and label and store them appropriately.

Prior to the September 1, 2002, revision, the Policy permitted a strip search to include a visual inspection of vaginal and anal body cavities, but the revision now specifies that "[u]nder no circumstances will visual, manual, or instrument inspection of the vaginal or anal body cavities be conducted."

Strip searches of S.C. S.C. has a history of mental illness, suicide attempts, self-mutilation, sexual activity with older men, drug and alcohol abuse, and drug-peddling. In July 2000, S.C., then 14 years old, was adjudicated a member of a "family with service needs" by the Superior Court as a result of her repeated failures to obey court orders requiring her to stay at home or at institutions in which she was placed.

S.C. testified, without contradiction, to having been strip searched eight times. The first occurred in July 2000 after Wallingford police arrested her for running away from home in violation of a court order and brought her to the New Haven Juvenile Detention Center ("NHJDC"). The strip search was conducted by a female staff member upon S.C.'s admission to NHJDC. S.C. was then presented before a Superior Court Judge, who ordered her detained at the Girls Detention Center ("GDC") pending future placement. After her return from state court, she was transported from NHJDC to GDC in handcuffs and leg shackles. The second strip search occurred upon her admission to GDC. The third strip search occurred upon her return to GDC after being transported, in handcuffs and shackles, to court. S.C. was later released to her parents under a court order not to run away from home.

Four more strip searches occurred in the fall of 2000. After S.C. had violated the above-mentioned court order, her parents called the police, who took her into custody and brought her to NHJDC. Upon her admission, a staff member performed a strip search. This was her fourth strip search. She was then presented in court, and ordered detained at JFS to which she was transported in handcuffs and shackles. The fifth strip search occurred upon her admission to JFS. The sixth and seventh strip searches were performed during S.C.'s detention at JFS when institutional searches were conducted due to concern over a missing pencil. S.C. was later released to her parents.

The eighth strip search occurred in January 2001. After S.C. ran away from home again, the state court ordered her placed in Stonington Institute, a hospital, to await placement. S.C. ran away, but eventually turned herself in to the Wallingford Police Department. When the police delivered her to NHJDC, a staff member strip searched S.C. upon admission.

During the second and third searches, S.C. was instructed to squat and cough, as she explained, "to check if there is anything that might fall out of your cavities." The record is unclear as to whether visual inspection of vaginal or anal body cavities occurred during these two searches, but this ambiguity need not be resolved because the Policy currently in effect prohibits such inspections, and, as discussed below, we conclude that these two searches were unlawful for other reasons. No contraband was found in any of the eight strip searches.

Strip searches of T.W. T.W. was strip searched twice. In October 2000, T.W., then a 13-year-old girl with a history of persistent truancy, and possibly mental health issues, had been...