S.H. v. Stickrath

251 F.R.D. 293, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40787, 2008 WL 2152131
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedMay 22, 2008
DocketNo. 2:04-cv-1206
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 251 F.R.D. 293 (S.H. v. Stickrath) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
S.H. v. Stickrath, 251 F.R.D. 293, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40787, 2008 WL 2152131 (S.D. Ohio 2008).

Opinion

OPINION & ORDER

ALGENON L. MARBLEY, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

This matter is before the Court on the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association’s (OCSEA) Motion to Intervene. Plaintiffs brought a class action on behalf of all juvenile detainees incarcerated at Ohio Department of Youth Services (“ODYS”) facilities, alleging a myriad of unconstitutional conditions. OCSEA, a labor union representing over 1,000 ODYS employees, moves to intervene pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a) and (b). For the reasons set forth below, the Court DENIES this motion.

II. BACKGROUND

This litigation arose amid a maelstrom of national media attention surrounding allegations of violence and sexual abuse at Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility (“Scioto”). Beginning in 2003, prosecutors indicted fourteen Scioto Juvenile Corrections Officers (JCOs) for abusing incarcerated minors.

One officer was convicted of attempted sexual battery as a result of allegations that he ordered a female youth to undress while he watched and engaged in inappropriate sexual touching. Another officer pled guilty to misdemeanor assault for slapping and punching a youth, and then kicking the youth after she fell to the floor. A female officer pled guilty to dereliction of duty as a result of allegations that she ordered a male youth to expose himself and engage in inappropriate sexual touching. Another officer tendered an Alford plea to misdemeanor assault and falsification charges for striking a youth during an altercation, puncturing her eardrum. Finally, an officer was convicted of sexual battery and attempted sexual battery for forcing one youth to perform sex acts on him and for inappropriately sexually touching another female youth.1

(United States Dep. of Justice, Civil Rights Div., Rep. on the Investigation of Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility, Delaware, Ohio, May 9, 2007, at 5) (“DOJ Report”). These convictions, coupled with allegations of systemic violence, brought considerable attention to the intolerable conditions of juvenile corrections facilities in Ohio.

In December 2004, Plaintiffs, then incarcerated minors, sued ODYS on behalf of all girls imprisoned at Scioto. The complaint alleged that Scioto’s female inmates were subject to grossly unconstitutional conditions of confinement ranging from inadequate mental health care to endemic violence. The complaint alleged that Scioto staff physically and sexually abused incarcerated minors and arbitrarily placed them in isolation as a form of punishment. Plaintiffs demanded comprehensive declaratory and injunctive relief. Plaintiffs petitioned the Court to close the prison until ODYS implemented a host of [296]*296reforms, including an overhaul of the hiring, training, and supervision of prison staff.

Three months later, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) opened an investigation of Scioto prison. Soon thereafter, the parties to this litigation jointly moved to stay proceedings, including discovery, pending settlement negotiations. Although the parties negotiated for two years without reaching an agreement, in the spring of 2007, a confluence of events reinvigorated the settlement process. First, in April 2007, allegations of violence and abuse at other ODYS facilities prompted Plaintiffs to move to lift the stay and expand the class to include all ODYS detainees. Second, on May 9, 2007, the DOJ published its findings, in which it concluded that Scioto’s juvenile inmates suffered “significant constitutional deficiencies regarding use of physical force, grievance investigation, processing, and use of seclusion.” (DOJ Report, 4). The DOJ also found that incarcerated minors suffered “harm or the risk of harm from constitutional deficiencies as to: [safety]; certain discrete elements of medical care; grievances; and special education services.” Id.

These developments breathed fresh life into settlement negotiations. ODYS consented to lift the stay, amend the complaint to include all ODYS detainees, and certify the class. In May 2007, the parties jointly proposed a Case Management Plan (“CMP”) in which they agreed to commission an independent fact-finding team led by Fred Cohen to conduct a comprehensive investigation of all ODYS facilities. The CMP directed the Cohen Team to “take special note of staffing levels, staff credentialing, and staff training.” (CMP, 3). The CMP declared that the Cohen Report would serve as the basis for negotiating a final settlement.

On December 31, 2007, after almost a six-month investigation, the Cohen Team submitted a 214-page report. It was nothing short of damning. As a preamble, the Cohen Report lamented that ODYS facilities are “overcrowded, understaffed, and underserved in such vital areas as safety, education, mental health treatment, and rehabilitative programming.” (Exec Summ., i). The Report went on, in detail, to “sustain[ ] each area of the complaint, in varying degrees of intensity.” Id.

First, the Cohen Report noted that “excessive force and the excessive use of isolation, some it extraordinarily prolonged, is endemic to the ODYS system. ” Id. (emphasis added). The cause of this systemic violence, according to the Report, is that JCOs are poorly trained, psychologically ill-equipped for their job, and lack effective oversight. Id. As a result, ODYS staff function “more like prison guards (or police officers) than trained partners in a shared rehabilitative effort.” Id. The Report found that this culture of violence has a devastating impact on the mental health of incarcerated youth, to say nothing of their physical suffering. The Report concluded that “a dramatic reduction in staff violence should be the first order of business.” Id. at 8.

Yet the Cohen Report also detailed a multitude of other unconstitutional conditions, including inadequate mental health care, dental care, and educational opportunities. Addressing potential remedies, the Report directed ODYS to: (1) down-size existing facilities in favor of smaller Community Correctional Facilities (“CCFs”), which are geared towards rehabilitation and permit minors to remain geographically closer to their communities and families; (2) overhaul the training, responsibilities, and supervision of JCOs (i.e. replace “cops” with “counselors”); and (3) implement sweeping structural reforms in view of providing health care, education, access to the courts, and above all a safe environment for the state’s juvenile detainees.

On January 9, 2008, the parties began intensive settlement negotiations, mediated by Magistrate Judge Terence P. Kemp, to fashion a remedy to the catastrophic conditions of confinement identified in the Cohen and DOJ Reports. On April 4, 2008, the parties agreed to an 89-page stipulated injunction. The agreement is both a comprehensive and detailed remedy, carefully crafted to redress the unconstitutional conditions at ODYS facilities. Notably, the agreement adopts Cohen’s recommendation to down-size its centralized and overcrowded prisons in order to divert juveniles to smaller regional [297]*297facilities. The stipulated injunction also contemplates changes in the responsibilities, training, and supervision of the ODYS staff in an effort to reduce physical and sexual abuse.

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Bluebook (online)
251 F.R.D. 293, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40787, 2008 WL 2152131, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sh-v-stickrath-ohsd-2008.