By MATT CHANDLER
Buffalo Law Journal

In the ongoing battle between Erie County and the U.S. Department of Justice over alleged violations at the Erie County Jail Holding Center and Erie County Correctional Facility, County Attorney Cheryl Green has filed a motion seeking to dismiss the pending DOJ lawsuit.

The lawsuit stems from a 50-page report released last summer by the DOJ that alleged numerous violations in both facilities, including incidents where guards encouraged inmates to fight, lack of proper sanitary conditions and physical abuse of inmates at the hands of guards.

Both Green and Erie County Executive Chris Collins have said the allegations are largely unsubstantiated.

"The DOJ-Civil Rights Division has no legal foundation to support its allegations related to Erie County, and the county's motion to dismiss highlights the weaknesses in the DOJ's case," Collins said in a statement. "This lawsuit is nothing more than hearsay and fictionalized events passed off as reality, and it does not meet the standards under the law."

When the DOJ requested a tour of the facilities, Green asked that an assistant county attorney be allowed to accompany the feds on the visit. That request was denied, and a stalemate followed.

The county was criticized when actor Keanu Reeves was allowed access to the holding center this summer while scouting locations for an upcoming film.

Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard, who oversees both facilities and is in the middle of a re-election campaign, has maintained that his department is doing the best it can with available resources. Collins said he refuses to bow to pressure "to provide hotel-room standards for people in our facilities."

In its motion, the county outlined why it believed the DOJ-Civil Rights Division case should be dismissed. Primarily, Collins and company say that under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, the regulation of local jails falls to the state government, not the feds.

"Erie County continues to provide constitutionally adequate conditions of confinement for people incarcerated in our facilities," Collins said. "Erie County will not be bullied by the DOJ-Civil Rights Division."

The county's motion to dismiss will be heard in federal court on Dec. 16. The document is posted on Erie County's Web site at www.Erie.gov/depts/county_attorney.

There has been no word yet as to whether the county will seek dismissal of a state lawsuit, filed by the New York State Commission of Correction, alleging similar violations at the two facilities.