The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday followed up on its 50-page report describing inmate abuses at Erie County's two jails with a lawsuit alleging widespread denial of civil rights through beatings, poor health care and failure to heed the risk of suicide, among other things.

The Justice Department asks a federal judge to ensure that civil rights are protected at the Correctional Facility in Alden and the Holding Center in downtown Buffalo.

If the Justice Department proves that the facilities don't meet the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, a judge could order improvements and enforce them with fines or appoint a special overseer, according to a lawyer involved in past federal court cases against the jails.

County Executive Chris Collins and Sheriff Timothy B. Howard called the lawsuit frivolous and cast the Justice Department's actions as an abuse of federal power. They said the Justice Department wants Erie County to provide prisoners the equivalent of a hotel room.

"The Department of Justice continues to ignore the work that has been done by my office and the Collins administration to improve the conditions at both the jail and the Holding Center," Howard said. "These liberal bureaucrats have relied on dishonest means and unfounded allegations made by prisoners to advance their political agenda."

Collins said: "My administration has sought to work with the federal government to resolve this issue while protecting taxpayers at all costs. Unfortunately, the liberal activists driving this agenda continue to insist on a level of care far exceeding what is required under the U.S. Constitution."

Collins later agreed that the Justice Department has not yet specified the improvements it wants to see in Erie County's jails but said its officials have laid expensive remedies on other communities that negotiated out of court.

In a separate statement, a senior Justice Department official said that with the county's ongoing resistance, the department had to sue.

"Jails must provide for the basic medical and mental health needs of inmates and must keep them safe from attacks by other inmates and excessive force by staff," said Loretta King, the acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

"We have repeatedly sought the county's cooperation in working toward an amicable resolution in this matter, and we regret that the county's failure to cooperate compels us to litigate."

The State Commission of Correction expressed a similar lament a week ago when it filed a lawsuit against Howard to force him to meet numerous state rules at the Holding Center.

"Despite our repeated efforts to assist, Erie County has persistently violated regulations and neglected or refused to take necessary remedial action," commission Chairman Thomas A. Beilein said last week. "We are, unfortunately, left with no choice but to seek judicial intervention."

Collins and Howard, on the advice of the county attorney, refuse to let Justice Department investigators inspect the Correctional Facility and Holding Center without a county lawyer present.

Collins, Howard and County Attorney Cheryl A. Green said Wednesday they will fight the Justice Department in court.

"If somebody wanted to sit down in good faith, which Cheryl Green has offered, and talk about any one specific issue, we are more than happy to do it. But they won't do it," Collins said of the Justice Department lawyers.

He was referring primarily to the results of Green's trip to Washington, D.C., in August to discuss the rough outlines of a consent decree that would spell out improvements the Justice Department would expect. The talks went nowhere.

Green said a senior Justice Department official insisted that his agency first be allowed inside the jails. Green later countered that she and the Justice Department lawyers must first agree on the minimum upgrades that would meet the U.S. Constitution.

She later wrote to the Justice Department to deny many allegations in the 50-page report it sent to Collins in July, and she told U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in a separate letter that his Civil Rights Division would exceed its authority if it filed a lawsuit.

In its July report, the Justice Department said the Holding Center and Correctional Facility failed to correct serious problems even after other agencies warned of them for years. The Justice Department called the effort by Howard's Jail Management Division "woefully inadequate" and said it has led to a "pattern of serious harm to inmates, including death."

In describing the beatings, the investigators said Holding Center deputies beat inmates in a special elevator chosen because it has no security camera.

Not everyone in county government agrees that it should fight the Justice Department. One critic is Legislator Betty Jean Grant, D-Buffalo, who will address jail conditions when her legislative committee meets today. Another is Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz.

"If the federal District Court finds that the county has violated the constitutional rights of inmates, it will in all likelihood result in a multitude of lawsuits against the county from many of those detained in the jails during the alleged period of abuse," Poloncarz said.

"In other words, the actions of the county executive and sheriff will likely lead to significant additional costs, all of which will be paid by Erie County taxpayers."

Copyright 2009, The Buffalo News