Barnes v. District of Columbia

242 F.R.D. 113, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20856, 2007 WL 896282
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedMarch 26, 2007
DocketCivil Action No. 06-315(RCL)
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 242 F.R.D. 113 (Barnes v. District of Columbia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barnes v. District of Columbia, 242 F.R.D. 113, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20856, 2007 WL 896282 (D.D.C. 2007).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

LAMBERTH, District Judge.

This is a case in which history insists on repeating itself. The subject matter is virtually identical to a prior case before this Court, the arguments are the same, even the same procedural defaults have been made. If the past is prologue, then the result here must be predictable. Before the Court is the District of Columbia’s Motion [14] to Dismiss, or in the alternative, its Motion [15] for Summary Judgment, and its Motion [26] for an extension of time to respond to plaintiffs’ motion for class certification. As explained more fully below, all of these motions are DENIED, and the plaintiffs’ Motion [7] for Class Certification is GRANTED, with the result that the Court certifies this action as a hybrid class action. Finally, plaintiffs’ Motions [24 & 30] for Discovery are DENIED as moot.

[115]*115I. Background

This case is directly linked to one that previously came before this Court, Bynum v. District of Columbia, Civil Action No. 02-956(RCL). In that case the Court certified a class of some 4,000 former prisoners of the District of Columbia’s Department of Corrections (“D.O.C.”) who alleged they had been detained by D.O.C. beyond the point at which their release had been ordered, for periods ranging from an extra day to many days or even months on end. Also certified was a class of former prisoners who alleged that they were subjected to strip searches after their release had been ordered. The Court certified an “Overdetention Class” and a “Strip Search Class” representing both types of claimants, which overlapped a great deal, and denied motions by the District to dismiss and for summary judgment. The parties reached a settlement of that ease in August of 2005, which the Court approved in January, 2006.

The problem in Bynum, as alleged by plaintiffs in that case and this one, was that “court releases,” inmates who were entitled to release after a court appearance, were typically taken from court to the Central Detention Facility (“D.C.Jail”) or the Correctional Treatment Facility (“CTF”) to await the administrative processing of their release, often called “out-processing.”1 This process, which apparently involves ministerial tasks such as acquiring the release order, checking a prisoner’s record to make sure there was no other warrant or order that would justify continued detention, retrieving a prisoner’s personal property, and the like. The class members in Bynum were all held at least past midnight on the day their release was ordered, and frequently one day of overdetention turned into two, or a week, or even more. Because these prisoners were returned to the general population while they awaited outprocessing, they were subjected to strip searches, sometimes multiple times, as it appears that the D.O.C. policy is to strip search everyone who enters the general population from outside. See Second Amended Complaint (“2AC”) at ¶¶ 4, 13[12]; Defendant’s Mem. in Support of Motion to Dismiss [14] at 4.

In August of 2005, as Bynum neared settlement, D.O.C. adopted a policy of diverting in-custody defendants who had been ordered released or who were otherwise entitled to release to a holding facility on the grounds of D.C. General Hospital. 2AC ¶ 40. D.O.C. administered outprocessing there instead of at D.C. Jail or the CTF, which meant that inmates were not subjected to strip searches absent some individualized suspicion. Id. But sometime around December 2005, the cracks in this system began to widen, with more and more inmates who were entitled to release slipping through and being returned to D.C. Jail or the CTF. Once there, they encountered the same dance with D.O.C. that arose in Bynum: inmates entitled to release were not released until the next day, or sometimes days or even weeks later, and inmates who were entitled to release were forced to undergo strip searches. The named plaintiffs — who allege they were detained for anywhere from four to 29 days after their release dates — identify almost forty other individuals who were overdetained, strip searched, or both, and allege there are potentially hundreds of other inmates who were subjected to the same treatment.2

According to plaintiffs, the recurrence of the overdetention and strip search issues is due to many factors, including computer problems and “the deliberate indifference of the acting warden Patricia Britton and the acting director Elwood York and the resignation of competent managers from the Records Office and the failure to replace them.” 2AC ¶ 42. They also allege that D.O.C. staff reported the problems up the chain of command, but that superiors “are disregarding the problem and acquiescing in the current [116]*116overdetention and strip search problem.” 2AC ¶¶ 43, 44.

Plaintiffs brought this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the overdetention violates the Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments, while the strip searches violate the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. 2AC ¶¶ 3, 4. They allege that District administrators and policymakers were deliberately indifferent to the rights of inmates while administering the maintenance of inmate records and in imposing the strip search policy. They also allege that it is the practice and custom of the District to overdetain inmates. Id. ¶¶ 79-82. Plaintiffs seek damages and declaratory and injunctive relief.

II. Motion to Dismiss

A. Alternative Motion for Summary Judgment

The District has moved [14] to dismiss for failure to state a claim, or, in the alternative, for summary judgment. [15] The decision of whether to convert a motion to dismiss to one for summary judgment rests in the discretion of the court. The only extraneous matter the District submitted was an affidavit from a D.O.C. employee which, as plaintiffs point out, suffers from several evidentia-ry deficiencies. More importantly, this case is at far too early of a state for summary judgment to be appropriate. There has been no discovery and the record is thin.

In Bynum summary judgment was rejected where, as here, “it would be premature to consider a motion for summary judgment when the discovery process, which has apparently not even commenced, might yield additional facts that would guide the Court’s decision as to the merits of plaintiffs’ strip search claims.” Bynum v. District of Columbia, 215 F.R.D. 1, 2 (D.D.C.2003). As then, it is still the general rule that “decision by summary judgment is disfavored when additional development of facts might illuminate the issues of law requiring decision.” Nixon v. Freeman, 670 F.2d 346, 362 (D.C.Cir.1982). Nearly every issue in this case would benefit from illumination via the discovery process: the causes for and extent of delayed release, the nature of the strip search policy, where and with whom these problems originated, and a host of other factors the Court must consider are all dependent on facts that have not been developed. For this reason the Court will not treat the District’s motion as one for summary judgment, but rather as a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, and the Motion [15] for Summary Judgment is DENIED.

B. Standard on 12(b)(6) Motion

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
242 F.R.D. 113, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20856, 2007 WL 896282, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barnes-v-district-of-columbia-dcd-2007.