Detention Officer Legal Updates

1. Detention Officer Legal Updates

2. Training Objectives • Analyze the test for “use of force” as set out in Hudson v. McMillian. • Identify the five factors a court will inquire into to determine if force was used “in a good faith effort to maintain or restore discipline.” • Apply the right of “access to courts” as set out in Lewis v. Casey.

3. Training Objectives • Determine the problems associated with the right of “access to courts.” • Identify what a law library should contain and compare alternatives to a free-standing library. • Compare and contrast the legal requirements for an arrestee strip search with an inmate search.

4. Training Objectives • Distinguish the legal issues associated with visitation. • Discuss frequently encountered First Amendment issues as they apply to the detention environment.

5. Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment Fourteenth Amendment guarantees due process Use of Force

6. Hudson v. McMillian “Unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.”

7. Key Question: “Whether force was applied in a good faith effort to maintain or restore discipline or maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm.”

8. THE FACTORS • Need for application of force • Relationship between need for use of force and the amount of force used • The threat reasonably perceived by the responsible officials • Efforts used to temper the use of force • The extent of injury suffered by the inmate

9. Access to Courts Law Libraries

10. Bounds v. Smith • Requires prison authorities to assist inmates in preparation and filing of meaningful legal paperwork by providing prisoners with adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law • “Law library” case

11. Lewis v. Casey • Right to access narrowed to apply in inmates’ direct or collateral attack on their convictions and to issues dealing with confinement. • Right does not extend to other civil matters. • Does not overrule Bounds, but limits its application.

12. AREAS PROBLEM

13. Contents of Law Library

14. ALTERNATIVES

15. Strip Searches www.newsprogress.com/jal/media/JailPix/cellstorage2.jpg

16. Strip Search Construed by Court • Very broadly • Not limited to requiring a person to remove all their clothing for a visual examination by an officer • Would include officer observing the arrestee dressing out and showering

17. A pretrial detainee not arrested for weapons or contraband: • May not be strip searched routinely • A policy of strip searching all arrestees regardless of the existence of reasonable suspicion is unconstitutional

18. Search of Cells

19. Visitation News.bbc.co.ul/olmedia/180000/images/_182571_300prison.warder.jpg

20. Mail Religion Reading Material First Amendment Issues

21. Training Objectives • Analyze the test for “use of force” as set out in Hudson v. McMillian. • Identify the five factors a court will inquire into to determine if force was used “in a good faith effort to maintain or restore discipline.” • Apply the right of “access to courts” as set out in Lewis v. Casey.

22. Training Objectives • Determine the problems associated with the right of “access to courts.” • Identify what a law library should contain and compare alternatives to a free-standing library. • Compare and contrast the legal requirements for an arrestee strip search with an inmate search.

23. Training Objectives • Distinguish the legal issues associated with visitation. • Discuss frequently encountered First Amendment issues as they apply to the detention environment.

24. Questions?