Jan. 26--With the meter running at $425 an hour, it doesn't take long to get to real money.

Erie County has now paid $140,000 to the law firm it hired to fend off a U. S. Justice Department lawsuit filed over conditions at the county's jails. That's enough to pay the wages of four jail-maintenance workers for a year.

County Attorney Cheryl A. Green hired the law firm Alston and Bird for research and advice, at a blended rate of $425 an hour. Through a county spokesman, Green said the firm has completed the work she requested so far.

But the Justice Department lawsuit against Erie County has barely begun. It's on hold as both sides wait for U. S. District Judge William M. Skretny to rule on Erie County's motion to dismiss the case.

When Green argued on Dec. 16 that the lawsuit should be dismissed, Skretny sympathized with her on some of the technical flaws she found in the Justice Department's main set of papers. But Skretny also said he was impressed with the breadth of the agency's accusations about the Holding Center in Buffalo and Correctional Facility in Alden, and it appeared unlikely he would entirely dismiss U. S. v. Erie County.

Green selected Alston and Bird largely because it employs Robert N. Driscoll, a partner who served as a deputy assistant attorney general and chief of staff for the Civil Rights Division from 2001 to 2003 under President George W. Bush.

Driscoll, according to his biography, oversaw cases the Justice Department initiated under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act -- the type of action Erie County faces. So he has seen those prosecutions from the inside.

Among his clients is Sheriff Joseph Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., whose tough-on-crime stands included a mandate that prisoners don pink underwear and work on chain gangs. Dubbed "America's toughest sheriff," Arpaio is under federal investigation for his treatment of Latinos and for his department's arrests of political enemies and its other uses of power.

The Civil Rights Division alleges that Erie County Sheriff Timothy B. Howard and his staff fail to protect the constitutional rights of inmates mental health care and doing too little to prevent suicides, among other things.

At Green's urging, Howard and County Executive Chris Collins took a hard line against the Justice Department. They refused to cooperate with the federal investigation, forced the Civil Rights Division to sue and asked the judge to dismiss the case. In public remarks, they have called the lawsuit frivolous.

Green said her research shows that communities that forced the Civil Rights Division to sue them emerged with less costly outcomes than those that negotiated jail improvement plans. So she and Collins say Erie County's tough stance will benefit its taxpayers. They consider $425 an hour for Alston and Bird money well spent.

But counties that have negotiated with the federal agency say they chose the right course. Take Oklahoma County, Okla., for example.

"Having practiced law for 30-plus years, I am a big believer in getting your adversaries to the table and getting some sort of agreement in advance, if possible," said Ray Vaughn, who as chairman of the Oklahoma County Commission signed a consent agreement with the Justice Department in November.

The Civil Rights Division, after inspecting the Oklahoma County Jail and Jail Annex, concluded in July 2008 that certain jail conditions "violate the constitutional rights of detainees" -- a claim like the one made against Erie County.

Rather than fight the Justice Department, Oklahoma County's top officials and the sheriff flew to Washington to negotiate the agreement that would map out 54 specific improvements involving staffing and supervision, maintenance, sanitation, health care and mental health care.

"I think when we left, we all felt better, not only the county but the Department of Justice officials, about the progress that would be made," Vaughn said. "We were able to negotiate some provisions that worked to our benefit."

Vaughn said about 48 improvements have been completed at low cost.

The remaining half dozen are expensive and will likely spur construction of a new multimillion-dollar jail. That's the very thing Erie County officials say they are trying to avoid, though they are planning a new multimillion-dollar "lock-up" so they need not provide bedding, items of personal hygiene and visitation rights to inmates awaiting arraignment.

Vaughn said Oklahoma County probably needed a new jail even before the Justice Department investigated its facility. But the federal report provided the incentive to finally replace a jail that, while a little more than 20 years old, developed problems in its earliest days, he said.

The Rev. Eugene Pierce was deputy superintendent of the Erie County Correctional Facility from 1984 to 1997 and is now involved in local prisoner-support groups. He said the $140,000 paid to Alston and Bird would buy plenty of the personal hygiene items that Erie County officials do not believe they should have to provide Holding Center inmates awaiting arraignment.

"It's time that the county join other counties in New York State and agree to work with the Department of Justice and stop wasting taxpayers' money," Pierce said.

mspina@buffnews.com

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