Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail v. Rufo

12 F.3d 286, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 33319, 1993 WL 522348
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedDecember 21, 1993
Docket93-1460
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 12 F.3d 286 (Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail v. Rufo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail v. Rufo, 12 F.3d 286, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 33319, 1993 WL 522348 (1st Cir. 1993).

Opinion

LEVIN H. CAMPBELL, Senior Circuit Judge.

The Commissioner of Corrections for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (the “Commissioner”), defendant-appellant, brought a motion in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts to vacate a consent decree of May 7, 1979 (as modified by the orders of April 11,1985, and April 22, 1985) 1 entered into by the Sheriff of Suffolk County (the “Sheriff’), the Commissioner, and others with the inmates of the Suffolk County Jail (the “Inmates”), 2 the plaintiff-appellee class. The district court denied the Commissioner’s motion. Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail v. Rufo, 148 F.R.D. 14 (D.Mass.1993). The Commissioner appeals, arguing, inter alia, that the district court mistakenly treated his motion to vacate as if it were a motion to modify the consent decree. We affirm.

I.

This appeal is part of an ongoing saga involving the construction and the operation of the new Suffolk County Jail on Nashua Street in Boston, Massachusetts (the “Nashua Street Jail”), which replaced the old Suffolk County Jail on Charles Street (the “Charles Street Jail”). The early chapters of this drama, which began in 1971, need not be repeated. They are fully set out in published opinions. See, e.g., Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail v. Kearney, 928 F.2d 33 (1st Cir.1991); Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail v. Rufo, 148 F.R.D. 14 (D.Mass.1993); Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail v. Kearney, 734 F.Supp. 561 (D.Mass.), aff'd mem., 915 F.2d 1557 (1st Cir.1990), vacated, Rufo v. Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail, — U.S. -, 112 S.Ct. 748, 116 L.Ed.2d 867 (1992); Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail v. Eisenstadt, 360 F.Supp. 676 (D.Mass.1973), aff'd, 494 F.2d 1196 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 977, 95 S.Ct. 239, 42 L.Ed.2d 189 (1974). We pick up the story in July 1989, approximately ten years after the consent decree was entered.

“In July 1989, while the [Nashua Street Jail] was still under construction, the [Sheriff moved to modify the consent decree to allow the double bunking of male detainees in 197 cells, thereby raising the capacity of the [Nashua Street Jail] to 610 male detainees.” 3 *289 Rufo v. Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail, — U.S.-, —, 112 S.Ct. 748, 756, 116 L.Ed.2d 867 (1992). “The Sheriff argued that changes in law and fact [constituted new and unforeseen circumstances-that] justified the modification.” Rufo, 148 F.R.D. at 16. “The asserted change in law was [the Supreme Court’s] 1979 decision in Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979), handed down [shortly] after the consent decree was approved by the District Court. 4 The asserted change in fact was the increase in the population of pretrial detainees.” Rufo, — U.S. at-, 112 S.Ct. at 756 (footnote not in original).

The district court denied the Sheriffs request to modify the consent decree. Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail v. Kearney, 734 F.Supp. 561 (D.Mass.), aff'd mem., 915 F.2d 1557 (1st Cir.1990). It held that the Sheriff had failed to meet the standard for the modification of consent decrees imposed by United States v. Swift & Co., 286 U.S. 106, 119, 52 S.Ct. 460, 464, 76 L.Ed. 999 (1932). 5 The district court also “stated that, even under the flexible modification standard adopted by other Courts of Appeals, the [S]heriff would not be entitled to relief because ‘[a] separate cell for each detainee has always been an important element of the relief sought in this litigation — perhaps even the most important element.’ ” Rufo, —— U.S. at-, 112 S.Ct. at 756-57 (quoting Kearney, 734 F.Supp. at 565) (footnote omitted). As a final matter, the district court “rejected the argument that the decree should be modified because the proposal complied with constitutional standards, reasoning that such a rule “would undermine and discourage settlement efforts in institutional cases.’” Id. at-, 112 S.Ct. at 757 (quoting Kearney, 734 F.Supp. at 565).

This court affirmed the district court’s decision. Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail v. Kearney, 915 F.2d 1557 (1st Cir.1990). Thereafter, the Supreme Court granted certiorari, 498 U.S. 1081, 111 S.Ct. 950, 112 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1991), and, after hearing, vacated the decision below and remanded for further proceedings consistent with its opinion. Rufo, — U.S. at-, 112 S.Ct. at 765. The Supreme Court 1 ruled that the district court had erred in applying the rigid “grievous wrong” standard of United States v. Swift to the Sheriffs motion to modify the consent decree. Id. at -; 112 S.Ct. at 757-58 (holding that Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b) does not intend that “modifications of consent decrees in all eases [are] to be governed by the standard actually applied in Swift ... [but rather] permits a less stringent, more flexible standard”). The Court observed that “[t]he experience of the district and circuit courts in implementing and' modifying such decrees has demonstrated that a flexible approach is often essential to achieving the goals of [institutional] reform litigation.” Id. at-, 112 S.Ct. at 758. Against this backdrop, the Court held that “a party seeking modification of a consent decree bears the [initial] burden of establishing that a significant change in circumstances warrants revision of the decree.” Id. at-, 112 S.Ct. at 760. To meet this initial burden, a party seeking modification of an institutional reform consent decree may show “either a significant change in factual conditions or in *290 law.” Id. Once the .party seeking modification meets this standard, “the court should consider whether the proposed modification is suitably tailored to the changed circumstance.” 6 Id.

On remand, the district court reconsidered the Sheriffs motion’ to modify the consent decree to permit the double-bunking of in-matés in 197 of the 322 regular male housing cells at the Nashua Street Jail.

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12 F.3d 286, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 33319, 1993 WL 522348, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/inmates-of-the-suffolk-county-jail-v-rufo-ca1-1993.