Anderson v. County of Kern, s. 92-17040

• Decision Date: 15 March 1994
• Docket Number: Nos. 92-17040,93-15019,s. 92-17040
• Parties: Jerry ANDERSON; Glenna Blair; Terry Davis; John Wardwell; Jesse Vasquez; Irene Jarez; Plaintiffs-Appellees-Cross-Appellants, v. COUNTY OF KERN; John Smith, Sheriff, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1310

45 F.3d 1310

Jerry ANDERSON; Glenna Blair; Terry Davis; John Wardwell;

Jesse Vasquez; Irene Jarez; Plaintiffs-Appellees-Cross-Appellants, v. COUNTY OF KERN; John Smith, Sheriff,

Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees.

Nos. 92-17040, 93-15019.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted March 15, 1994. ^*

Decided Jan. 13, 1995.

Richard A. Derevan and Deborah Fabricant, Snell & Wilmer, Irvine, CA, Richard P. Herman, Laguna Beach, CA, for plaintiffs-appellees-cross-appellants.

Holly N. Gallagher, B.C. Barman, County Counsel, Bakersfield, CA, John Hagar, Los Angeles, CA, for defendants-appellants-cross-appellees.

Thomas E. McConnell, Cal. Bd. of Corrections, Sacramento, CA, for amicus curiae Cal. Bd. of Corrections.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Before POOLE, CANBY and RYMER, Circuit Judges.

POOLE, Circuit Judge:

In this 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 action, the district court entered a permanent injunction in favor of inmates at five Kern County jails. The inmates, who are pretrial detainees and convicted prisoners, appeal the district court's refusal to enjoin prison officials from placing mentally disturbed or suicidal prisoners in safety cells. The county defendants cross-appeal the district court's (1) injunction requiring prison officials to develop a policy regarding joint exercise and day room access for prisoners in administrative segregation, (2) injunction requiring prison officials to provide non-inmate translators for Spanish-speaking inmates seeking medical care, and (3) holding that their former dental and vision care policies were inadequate. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

I Safety Cells

The inmates contend that the district court should have enjoined as unconstitutional Kern County's use of safety cells for suicidal and mentally disturbed inmates. Safety cells are padded cells that are used to temporarily confine violent or suicidal prisoners so they cannot hurt themselves.

The convicted inmates' challenge is evaluated under the Eighth Amendment, and the pretrial detainees' challenge is evaluated under the Fourteenth Amendment. Redman v. County of San Diego, 942 F.2d 1435, 1440 (9th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 1074, 112 S.Ct. 972, 117 L.Ed.2d 137 (1991). Under the Eighth Amendment, the pertinent inquiry is (1) whether placement of mentally disturbed or suicidal inmates in safety cells constitutes an infliction of pain or a deprivation of the basic human needs, such as adequate food, clothing, shelter, sanitation, and medical care, and (2) if so, whether prison officials acted with the requisite culpable intent such that the infliction of pain is "unnecessary and wanton." Farmer v. Brennan, --- U.S. ----, ----, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 1977, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994). In prison conditions cases, prison officials act with the requisite culpable intent when they act with deliberate indifference to the inmates' suffering. Id.; Wilson v. Seiter, 501 U.S. 294, 302-03, 111 S.Ct. 2321, 2326-27, 115 L.Ed.2d 271 (1991); Jordan v. Gardner, 986 F.2d 1521, 1528 (9th Cir.1993) (en banc). Similarly, the placement of pretrial detainees in safety cells is "punishment" in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment only if prison officials act with deliberate indifference to the inmates' needs. Redman, 942 F.2d at 1441-43; Hallstrom v. Garden City, 991 F.2d 1473, 1485 (9th Cir.) (applying Redman to conditions of confinement claim), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 549, 126 L.Ed.2d 450 (1993).

The test for whether a prison official acts with deliberate indifference is a subjective one: the official must "know[ ] of and disregard[ ] an excessive risk to inmate health and safety; the official must both be aware of the facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm exists, and he must also draw the inference." Farmer, --- U.S. at ----, 114 S.Ct. at 1979.

The parties proffered the following evidence.

Kern County currently has one safety cell in use. ¹ It is approximately 10 feet by 10 feet, is covered with a rubberized foam padding, and has a pit toilet with a grate. If inmates are in the cell at mealtime, they eat their meals there.

Sergeant Bradley, a supervisor, estimated that 40% of the prisoners placed into the safety cell were suicidal. Inmates that are placed on suicide watch in the cell are given paper clothing so that they cannot hang themselves with their regular clothing. Sometimes the inmates destroy this paper clothing and thus are naked or clad only in their underwear. According to Sergeant Bradley, inmates placed in the safety cell are always given at least paper clothing and are not put naked into the cell. One inmate testified that she was placed naked into the cell because she threatened to choke herself with the paper clothing.

If inmates are violent, they may be shackled to the grate over the pit toilet. According to one nurse, chaining did not happen frequently. According to Sergeant Bradley, during the period July 1987 to January 1991 he observed approximately ten instances of an inmate shackled with handcuffs attached to a waist chain, leg irons separated with a 12-inch chain, and secondary chains attached from the leg irons to the toilet grate. A supervising nurse testified that sometimes "the kindest thing to do was to restrain [certain inmates] ... to prevent them from hurting themselves.... I've seen inmates bang their heads on the wall [and] ... on the grate in the safety cell since that was the only metal part in there."

Inmates and prison officials testified about three inmates' experiences in the safety cell. One inmate was placed in the safety cell on several occasions, once after he tried to kill himself and twice after he became violent. On the occasion he tried to kill himself, he was shackled all night to the toilet grate with leather restraints and was given only a paper shirt that prison officials placed over his lap. Another inmate, who was placed in the cell for about three hours after she threatened suicide, was shackled to the grate. A third inmate testified that after he told a deputy that he was thinking about hurting himself, he was placed without restraints into the safety cell for about an hour and a half, which made him feel "awful", "depressed", "claustrophobic", and "degraded." The inmates testified that the cell was dark, scary, and smelled bad, and that the pit toilet was encrusted with excrement and urine.

Dr. Rundle, the plaintiffs' expert witness, testified that the cell was small, dark, dingy, and scary. He also testified that these conditions would be psychologically damaging to anyone and would be particularly damaging to mentally disturbed and suicidal inmates left alone in the cell. He opined that it was inappropriate to secure any prisoner to the toilet grate, but he later testified that it would not be inappropriate to restrain violent prisoners in this manner.

A prison administrator from King County, Washington testified that most prisons attach a device to the wall for shackling in lieu of shackling prisoners to the toilet grate. A former administrator with the Federal Bureau of Prisons testified that safety cells in federal prison have a bed, a stainless steel commode, and a wash basin.

Evidence was presented regarding the monitoring of the safety cell. California Code of Regulations title 15, section 1055 provides that an inmate

shall be placed in a safety cell only with the approval of the facility manager or the watch commander and continued retention in such a cell shall be reviewed a minimum of every eight hours. A medical/mental health opinion on placement and retentions shall be secured within 24 hours of placement in such a cell or at the next daily sick call, whichever is earliest, and the inmate shall be medically cleared for continued retention every 24 hours thereafter. Intermittent direct visual supervision shall be provided every half hour.

In addition to section 1055's procedures, nursing staff does a screening within 30 minutes after an inmate is placed in the cell, the inmate is checked visually every 15 to 30 minutes, and the shift supervisor reviews the safety cell placement every 4 hours.

On the basis of this evidence, the district court rejected the inmates' challenge to the use of safety cells, finding that nothing suggested that "the safety cells had been inappropriately used as more than a temporary measure to control violent inmates until they 'cooled down' sufficiently to be released from those cells. The experts ... agreed that the cells could appropriately be used for this purpose." The district court also held that the plaintiffs failed to show that Kern County had an inadequate program for identifying, treating, and supervising suicidal inmates. ²

We affirm the district court's holding. The safety cell is admittedly a very severe environment, but it is employed in response to very severe safety concerns. There was ample testimony that some prisoners became so violent and such a danger to themselves that temporary placement in a safety cell was needed in order to deprive the prisoners of all means of harming themselves. The fact that some prisoners who are violent or threaten violence to themselves or others may be mentally disturbed or suicidal does not detract from the need. There was testimony that sinks, stand-up toilets, and beds can be and have been used by prisoners to harm themselves by banging against them or by other means. Deprivation of these articles for short periods of time during violent episodes is constitutionally justifiable. There was sufficient evidence to support the district court's factual finding that the safety cell was used to control violent inmates, and that the inmates were confined to the safety cell only for short periods of time. See Hoptowit v. Ray, 682 F.2d 1237, 1258 (9th Cir.1982) (in evaluating challenges to conditions of confinement, co...