Richardson v. Dist. of Columbia

322 F. Supp. 3d 175
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedAugust 24, 2018
DocketCase No. 16-cv-209 (CRC)
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 322 F. Supp. 3d 175 (Richardson v. Dist. of Columbia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Richardson v. Dist. of Columbia, 322 F. Supp. 3d 175 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

Opinion

CHRISTOPHER R. COOPER, United States District Judge

Plaintiff Andrea Richardson, a transgender woman, claims that she was sexually assaulted by her male cellmate while incarcerated in the District of Columbia jail-specifically, its Central Detention Facility in Southeast D.C. She brought this lawsuit against the District and several jail officials alleging that they failed to protect her from the assault. The defendants have moved for summary judgment on some of her claims, including her claim that the jail officials violated the Eighth Amendment by acting with deliberate indifference toward the risk of her assault.

Richardson's Eighth Amendment claim names, as defendants, Warden William Smith in his individual and official capacities and several unknown jail officials designated as "John Does I-X." Richardson concedes that because she did not identify the John Doe defendants during discovery, her Eighth Amendment claim against them should be dismissed without prejudice. As for Warden Smith: The undisputed facts concerning his role in the alleged assault show that he did not violate Richardson's clearly established constitutional rights. He is therefore entitled to qualified immunity in his individual capacity. And Richardson has offered no evidence that a District policy or practice of ignoring inmates' concerns about the risk of assault caused the purported Eighth Amendment violation here, as would be required to support her official-capacity claim against Smith. The Court will therefore grant summary judgment on Richardson's Eighth Amendment claim. And because that is her sole federal claim, the Court will remand the rest of the case to the District of Columbia Superior Court.

I. Background

The District of Columbia's Department of Corrections has a formal policy for housing "transgender, transsexual, inter-sex, and gender variant persons who are incarcerated." Defs.' Mot. Summ. J. Ex. G ("Housing Policy"), at 1. It enacted these protocols in the wake of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 ("PREA"), 34 U.S.C. §§ 30301 - 30309, a statute that prompted the creation of national standards for state prisons and jails to take effect in 2012. See 28 C.F.R. §§ 115.11 - 115.93.

At the time of Richardson's incarceration, the Department's policy provided as follows: When individuals arrived in D.C. jail whose "gender-related expression, identity, appearance, or behavior differ[ed] from their biological sex," those individuals were to be housed alone during the intake process and assessed to determine whether they should be designated as transgender. Housing Policy at 3-4. Inmates designated as transgender then had a right to go before the Transgender Housing Committee within 72 hours of their arrival. Id. at 4-5. The Committee was made up of a physician, a mental health worker, a jail supervisor, a case worker, and a volunteer who is a member of the transgender community or an expert on transgender issues. Id. at 3. In its hearings, the Committee *180would consider the inmate's "records and assessments, including an interview with the inmate," to decide whether the inmate should be housed in the general male population, the general female population, or "protective custody." Id. at 5. An inmate would be housed in protective custody when there was "reason to believe the inmate presents a heightened risk to him/herself or to others or where the inmate fears he or she will be vulnerable to victimization in any other housing setting." Id. at 5-6. The protective custody could last "only for the period during which the heightened risk and/or fear exists," id. at 6, a limitation demanded by the PREA, 28 C.F.R. § 115.43 ; see also id. § 115.42 (barring jails from placing transgender inmates "in dedicated facilities, units, or wings solely on the basis of such identification or status" unless required by consent decree).

The Committee would forward its housing recommendation to the jail's warden for final approval. If the warden disagreed with the Committee's recommendation, he needed to explain his disagreement in writing to the Director of the Department, who then had the power to override the Committee.

Inmates could also waive the right to a hearing by agreeing to be housed with the general population of their biological sex and signing a form to that effect. That is what Richardson did when she arrived at D.C.'s Central Detention Facility in June 2014. At that time, she identified as female and was undergoing hormone therapy in preparation for sex-reassignment surgery. She had fully developed breasts, dressed in traditionally feminine clothing, and wore make-up. In her interactions with inmates and prison employees, she went by Andrea rather than by her legal name, Andre. During her intake, Richardson opted to waive her hearing and to be housed in the general male population, and she signed the required form indicating that. Defs.' Mot. Summ. J. Ex. A. She testified that she made this choice because she believed, based on statements of Committee members, that she was choosing between (1) being celled alone or with another transgender female within the larger male population or (2) being housed "essentially in isolation." Pl.'s Opp'n at 6; see Defs.' Mot. Summ. J. Ex. D ("Richardson Depo."), at 79 (Richardson testifying that the Housing Committee told her "that if you wanted to be housed with your sexual expression ... you would be segregated from everyone else").

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
322 F. Supp. 3d 175, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richardson-v-dist-of-columbia-cadc-2018.