From today's opinion:
"At trial, Shorter presented uncontroverted evidence that
the County, tasked with supervising high-observation
housing for mentally ill women, has a policy of shackling the
women to steel tables in the middle of an indoor recreation
room as their sole form of recreation, and that jail officials
routinely leave noncompliant detainees naked and chained
to their cell doors, for hours at a time without access to food,
water, or a toilet."
At a minimum, that doesn't sound like particularly fun "recreation."
A bit more detail:
"For recreation,
deputies move the women to an indoor day room, where they
leave the women with one arm restrained by a handcuff
extended from a chain secured to the floor. The women sit
individually at indoor steel tables and benches. Some watch
television and others participate in group activities. Jail
policy requires the women to remain handcuffed to the chain
next to the table at all times, and HOH detainees do not have
access to a gym or an outdoor recreation area. Shorter participated in two and half hours of this type of recreation
during her thirty-two days in the jail. The jail’s daily logs
also show that on seven days of her confinement Shorter
received less than three meals per day. And the same logs
show that Shorter showered only three times, going six,
seven, or eight days during her confinement without a
shower, and instead relying on feminine pads for personal
sanitation."
And then there's the always-fun cavity search:
"Shorter also challenges the jail’s visual body cavity
search policy, which all inmates are subjected to upon return
from trips to court, and the jail’s pervasive practice of
leaving noncompliant detainees shackled to their cell doors.
The search process begins with the detainee inside her cell,
with both hands in handcuffs. The detainee then places her
hands outside the chute of her cell, where the deputy, on the
other side of the door, unlocks one of the handcuffs. Then,
with one hand still handcuffed and attached to a chain
outside of the door, the detainee removes her pants, socks,
and shoes, as well as her shirt and bra, which remain attached
to the chain extending from her handcuff. The detainee must
then lift her breasts, lower her underwear, bend over, open
her vagina and rectum, and cough. The County’s official
policy mandates that inmates shall not be required to
“remain in any search position for more time than is
reasonable and necessary to complete the search.”
In practice, however, where the detainee failed to comply
with the search procedures, it was common for deputies to
leave the detainee chained to her cell door for hours at a time.
Deputies Avalos and Ortiz testified that they were trained to
leave noncompliant detainees who did not follow search
procedures chained to their cell doors. Shorter testified that,
on three occasions, deputies Avalos and Ortiz left her
chained to her cell door for three to six hours, without access to food, water, or clothing. On one occasion, the deputies
did not leave enough slack on Shorter’s chain to allow her to
reach the bathroom in her cell. Shorter testified that there
was only enough slack on the chain to allow her to sit on the
floor and hold her hand up in the air. Each time the deputies
chained Shorter to her cell door, Shorter freed herself by
manipulating her hand out of the restraints or by convincing
another deputy to release the restraints. Shorter said that
these incidents made her feel like “an animal on display.”"
Plaintiff loses below. The Ninth Circuit reverses and remands.