Elizarri v. Sheriff of Cook County, No. 17-1522 (7th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CaseNew arrivals at the jail must surrender their possessions. A class action under 42 U.S.C. 1983 charged that the Sheriff did not do enough to prevent guards and other employees from stealing or losing those belongings. Evidence showed that the loss-or-theft rate had been falling as the Sheriff implemented additional controls. The Seventh Circuit affirmed a jury’s rejection of the suit. The thefts are a crime, a tort, and a Due Process Clause violation (depriving prisoners of property with no process) but the class did not contend that the Sheriff personally stole anything or even tolerated a known thief; no guard is a defendant. Failure to prosecute thieves does not violate the Constitution; a guard’s negligence does not violate the Constitution. The jury concluded that the Sheriff had taken “reasonable measures.” The court upheld a jury instruction that the Sheriff could be found liable for violating the Fourteenth Amendment if there was a widespread custom or practice which allowed plaintiffs’ property to be lost or stolen, that was the moving force behind plaintiffs’ losses, and the defendant was deliberately indifferent to those losses. Another instruction said: “The Office of the Sheriff ... need not have formally approved the conduct so long as Plaintiffs prove that a policy-making official knew of the pattern and allowed it to continue.” The court noted a problem with state remedies, but state remedies are not a constitutional entitlement.
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