The American Civil Liberties Union is interviewing inmates at the Monroe County Correction Center as potential plaintiffs in a new lawsuit on jail conditions.
ACLU attorney Ken Falk began meeting with inmates Wednesday morning, according to Jail Commander Kyle Gibbons.
In May, the ACLU dismissed a 2008 lawsuit over jail conditions after Monroe County missed a deadline to select a site for a new jail. The organization said the dismissal would allow it to pursue new litigation after repeatedly extending deadlines that the county failed to meet.
To prepare for a new lawsuit, the County Council approved a $30,000 appropriation Tuesday for the Sheriff's Office to hire outside legal counsel.
“We're already getting approached with different, varying aspects of this litigation,” Gibbons said. “We were previously the only party named, and we are the only party guaranteed to be named in the new case.”
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Gibbons said while the office has legal representation for other matters, this case will require its own counsel.
“This litigation aspect is something that I've never encountered before from the ACLU, other than this agreement we've been working under,” Gibbons said, referring to a 2009 private settlement agreement. “This is uncharted territory in some regards, and that's why we need a specialized counsel.”
The council approved a $30,000 appropriation in April for its own legal counsel related to ACLU litigation.
“What I wanted to do is to be fair and be treated the same way as the council treated themselves,” Sheriff Ruben Marté said. “That’s the reason why we matched that amount at the present time.”
The council approved the requested appropriation 6-1.
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The council was not named in the previous ACLU lawsuit. However, council members said separate legal representation was necessary to prepare for potential new litigation in which the council could be named because county attorneys are employed by the commissioners.
“An attorney has to serve one master, and can't serve two,” Council member David Henry said during the April 28 meeting. “When we have a schism or a disagreement between two bodies that are borrowing from one set of lawyers that are employed by one elected body, not the other. It puts them all in a hard spot.”
The appropriations mean the County Council, County Commissioners and Sheriff's Office each have separate legal counsel for potential litigation from the ACLU.
The ACLU and Sheriff's Office did not respond to requests for comment.
