Block v. Rutherford

• Citation: 82 L.Ed.2d 438,468 U.S. 576,104 S.Ct. 3227
• Decision Date: 03 July 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-317,83-317
• Parties: Sherman BLOCK, Sheriff of the County of Los Angeles, et al., Petitioners v. Dennis RUTHERFORD et al
• Court: United States Supreme Court

468 U.S. 576

104 S.Ct. 3227

82 L.Ed.2d 438

Sherman BLOCK, Sheriff of the County of Los Angeles, et al., Petitioners

v Dennis RUTHERFORD et al.

No. 83-317.

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued March 28, 1984.

Decided July 3, 1984.

Syllabus

Respondents, pretrial detainees at the Los Angeles County Central Jail, brought a class action in Federal District Court against the County Sheriff and other officials, challenging, on due process grounds, the jail's policy of denying pretrial detainees contact visits with their spouses, relatives, children, and friends, and the jail's practice of conducting random, irregular "shakedown" searches of cells while the detainees were away at meals, recreation, or other activities. The District Court sustained the challenges, and ordered that low risk detainees incarcerated for more than a month be allowed contact visits and that all detainees be allowed to watch searches of their cells if they are in the area when the searches are conducted. The Court of Appeals affirmed.

Held:

1. Where it is alleged that a pretrial detainee has been deprived of liberty without due process, the dispositive inquiry is whether the challenged practice or policy constitutes punishment or is reasonably related to a legitimate governmental objective. Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447. In considering whether a specific practice or policy is "reasonably related" to security interests, courts should play a very limited role, since such considerations are peculiarly within the province and professional expertise of corrections officials. Id., at 540-541, n. 23, 99 S.Ct., at 1875 n. 23. Pp. 583-585.

2. Here, the Central Jail's blanket prohibition on contact visits is an entirely reasonable, nonpunitive response to legitimate security concerns, consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment. Contact visits invite a host of security problems. They open a detention facility to the introduction of drugs, weapons, and other contraband. Moreover, to expose to others those detainees who, as is often the case, are awaiting trial for serious, violent offenses or have prior convictions carries with it the risks that the safety of innocent individuals will be jeopardized. Totally disallowing contact visits is not excessive in relation to the security and other interests at stake. There are many justifications for denying contact visits entirely, rather than attempting the difficult task of establishing a program of limited visits such as that imposed here. Nothing in the Constitution requires that detainees be allowed contact visits; responsible, experienced administrators have determined, in their sound discretion, that such visits will jeopardize the security of the facility and other persons. Pp. 585-589.

3. The Central Jail's practice of conducting random, irregular "shakedown" searches of cells in the absence of the cell occupants is also a reasonable response by the jail officials to legitimate security concerns. Bell v. Wolfish, supra. This is also a matter lodged in the sound discretion of those officials. Pp. 589-591.

710 F.2d 572 (CA9 1983), reversed.

Frederick R. Bennett, Los Angeles, Cal., for petitioners.

Alvin J. Bronstein, Washington, D.C., for respondents.

Chief Justice BURGER delivered the opinion of the Court.

We granted certiorari to decide whether pretrial detainees have a right guaranteed by the United States Constitution to contact visits and to observe shakedown searches of their cells by prison officials.

I

Los Angeles County Central Jail is one of seven principal facilities operated by the Sheriff of Los Angeles County. The three-story jail complex, located in downtown Los Angeles, is the largest jail in the country, with a capacity of over 5,000 inmates. It is the primary facility in Los Angeles County for male pretrial detainees, the vast majority of whom remain at the facility at most a few days or weeks while they await trial.

In 1975, respondents, pretrial detainees at Central Jail, brought a class action under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985, against the County Sheriff, certain administrators of Central Jail, and the County Board of Supervisors, challenging various policies and practices of the jail and conditions of their confinement. Only respondents' challenges to the policy of the jail denying pretrial detainees contact visits with their spouses, relatives, children, and friends, and to the jail's practice of permitting irregularly scheduled shakedown searches of individual cells in the absence of the cell occupants are before this Court.¹ The District Court sustained both of these challenges. Rutherford v. Pitchess, 457 F.Supp. 104 (CD Cal.1978).

The District Court agreed with respondents that "the ability of a man to embrace his wife and his children from time to time during the weeks or months while he is awaiting trial is a matter of great importance to him," id., at 110, yet it recognized that "unrestricted contact visitation would add greatly" to security problems at the jail. Ibid. The court ultimately concluded, however, that the danger of permitting low security risk inmates to have "physical contact with their loved ones" was not sufficiently great to warrant deprivation of such contact. Ibid. Striking what it believed was a "reasonable balance" between the twin considerations of prison security and the constitutional rights of the inmates, the court tentatively proposed to order contact visitation for those inmates who "have received other than high risk classification," and who have been incarcerated for more than two weeks. Ibid.

With respect to the cell searches, the District Court concluded that allowing inmates to watch from a distance while their cells are searched would allay inmate concerns that their personal property will be unnecessarily confiscated or destroyed. The court concluded that "[f]uture shakedowns should be made while the respective inmates remain outside their cells but near enough to observe the process and raise or answer any relevant inquiry." Id., at 116. The District Court viewed both of its proposed orders as "the least restrictive alternatives consistent with the purpose of [respondents'] incarceration." Id., at 108.

The District Court withheld judgment on all of respondents' complaints pending further evidentiary hearings. In its supplemental memorandum following the additional hearings, the court acknowledged that "many factors strongly militate against the allowing of contact visits," App. to Pet. for Cert. 32, not the least of which being that "establishment of any program of contact visits [would] increase the importation of narcotics into [the] jail, despite all safeguards and precautions." Id., at 31. The court again emphasized that if all or most of the inmates were allowed contact visits, a "great burden" would be imposed on the jail authorities and the public. Ibid. Modification of existing visiting areas, if not additional facilities, would be necessary. New procedures for processing visitors—possibly including interviews, personal searches, and searches of all packages carried by the visitors—would be required. Strip searches of inmates following contact visits would be needed.

The court found that the "hardship" on detainees of being unable to "embrace their loved ones" for only a few days or a few weeks could not justify imposition of these substantial burdens. Id., at 32. However, the court believed, the factors rendering contact visitation impracticable for detainees incarcerated for short periods are considerably less compelling when detention is prolonged.

The court reasoned that "the scope, burden and dangers of [a] program [of contact visitation] would be substantially diminished" were contact visitation limited to detainees "who have been in uninterrupted custody for a month or more and who are not determined to be drug oriented or escape risks," and a ceiling imposed on the total number of contact visits that the jail must provide. Id., at 33 (emphasis added). With these limitations, the court suggested, a contact visitation program would require only "[m]odest alteration" of the existing facility. Ibid. Alternatively, the court said, the Sheriff could build or occupy a new facility for contact visits and transport inmates back and forth, as necessary.

The District Court also reaffirmed in the supplemental memorandum its earlier conclusion that inmates should be allowed to observe cell searches. The court believed that the interests of the inmates "in protecting their meager possessions outweigh[ed] the small increase in the burden upon the [petitioners]." Id., at 36.²

On appeal the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 626 F.2d 866, remanded the case to the District Court for consideration in light of our intervening decision in Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S 520, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979), noting, among other things, that we rejected in Wolfish the suggestion that existence of less restrictive means for achievement of security objectives is proof of an exaggerated response to security concerns. App. to Pet. for Cert. 17.

The District Court on remand reaffirmed its prior orders, "[finding] nothing in Bell v. Wolfish that render[ed] inappropriate any of the . . . challenged orders." Id., at 24. Although the court acknowledged that the Central Jail authorities were not "consciously motivated by a desire to punish," it reiterated its belief that the practices and policies in question were "excessive" in relation to the underlying security objectives. Id., at 25. It characterized petitioners' rejection of all proposals for contact visitation as an "overreaction," id., at 26, which "stem[med] from an unreasonable fixation upon security," id., at 25.

The District Court conceded that Wolfish invalidated a similar order requiring that detainees be allowed to observe searches of their cells, but it went on to identify several factors that it thought distinguished its order...