CA4: Delousing jail inmates was reasonable strip search under Florence

Delousing male jail inmates by same sex guards was subject to qualified immunity as to them. As to injunctive relief against the agency, it is premature without further evidence being taken, and it appears reasonable as a strip search under Florence. Cantley v. W.Va. Regional Jail, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 21631 (4th Cir. November 14, 2014):

The delousing of Cantley and Teter, while undoubtedly unwelcome, cannot compare to the seriousness of the intrusion in Amaechi. The male officer in Amaechi manhandled the naked female plaintiff in public “without any apparent justification.” Id. at 361. By contrast, the delousing of Cantley and Teter was done in a private room with only one officer, who was of the same sex, and it did not entail the officer himself touching either plaintiff. Furthermore, the jails have a significant “interest in reducing the outbreak of lice.” Cantley, 2013 WL 5531885, at *12. In short, at the time of the delousing, “existing precedent [did not] place[] the statutory or constitutional question beyond debate.” Ashcroft v. al-Kidd, 131 S. Ct. 2074, 2083 (2011). The defendants thus are entitled to qualified immunity for the delousing of Cantley and Teter.

. . .

A court should not impose an injunction lightly, as it is “an extraordinary remedy involving the exercise of a very far-reaching power, which is to be applied only in the limited circumstances which clearly demand it.” Centro Tepeyac v. Montgomery Cnty., 722 F.3d 184, 188 (4th Cir. 2013) (en banc) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Issuing a declaratory judgment is similarly within the court’s discretion. Wilton v. Seven Falls Co., 515 U.S. 277, 286-87 (1995). It is well-settled that remedies must be tailored to violations, see, e.g. Winter, 555 U.S. at 32-33, and injunctive relief would not appear an appropriate course where, as we note infra, WVRJA’s policies already do not permit, absent some particularized suspicion, strip searches conducted on pre-arraignment detainees held outside the general population.

The application of equitable power is in part a pragmatic exercise as the standards set forth in Winter and eBay illustrate. Before a court uses its equitable powers to enter the field of institutional governance in this area, correctional authorities deserve the chance to absorb the implications of Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of County of Burlington, 132 S. Ct. 1510 (2012), and to take steps to ensure that their policies conform to that decision. Although Florence may not have reached the precise constitutional questions presented by the case at bar, the decision altered the legal playing field for detention facilities across the nation. Specifically, taking the varying opinions in their totality, Florence made clear that blanket strip searches prior to arraignment of arrestees not designated for assignment to the detention facility’s general population are constitutionally suspect in the absence of some particularized justification.

Florence did, however, note that correctional officers “must have substantial discretion to devise reasonable solutions to the problems they face.” 132 S. Ct. at 1515 (detailing the different difficulties that large and small detention facilities may encounter). Even before Florence came down, the WVRJA had ordered Tygart Valley to cease any blanket practice of strip-searching and delousing pre-arraignment arrestees not designated for the general jail or prison population. See J.A. 751-52 (internal Tygart Valley order); J.A. 1574 (e-mail order from WVRJA to jail administrators). The WVRJA maintains that its written policies do not allow its officers to require, without particularized suspicion, strip searches of these arrestees. While the distance between a front office directive and its implementation in the field can be a long one, we think it premature at this point to draft an equitable decree without affording some prior opportunity for West Virginia administrators to apply their own experience in complying with Florence and the shifting boundaries of the law in this area.

The searches of the type conducted here are “undoubtedly humiliating and deeply offensive to many.” Florence, 132 S. Ct. at 1524 (Alito, J., concurring). At the same time, correctional authorities have an unquestionably legitimate interest in limiting the influx into their facilities of weapons and drugs, whose chief risk is to the physical safety and well-being of other arrestees themselves. Id. at 1519-20 (majority opinion). The Supreme Court has struck the balance in this difficult area by questioning whether “indiscriminate strip searching of detainees held outside of the general population” is constitutional. West v. Murphy, No. 13-2014, slip op. at 19 (4th Cir. 2014) (Wynn, J., concurring). Conforming its policies to the directives of the Court would seem destined for high placement on any list of administrative priorities, and we trust there will be no absence of diligence in the effort.