Leoncio Elizarri v. Cook County Sheriff

Easterbrook, Circuit Judge.

The theme of this constitutional suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is that the Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, did not do enough to prevent guards and other public employees from stealing or losing the belongings of inmates at the Cook County Jail. New arrivals must surrender their possessions. There is no doubt that theft of these belongings is a crime and a tort (conversion) under state law, and a violation of the Due Process Clause (depriving prisoners of property with no process at all), but plaintiffs (a certified class) do not contend that the Sheriff personally…