Prison Detainees v Cook County
Jail Strip-Search Suit OK'd as Class Action
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly certified a federal lawsuit as a class action, making Cook County, Illinois potentially liable for the strip searches of some 250,000 men who have entered the County Jail since Jan. 30, 2004.
The county also could be on the hook for tens of thousands of other inmates -- men and women -- who were strip-searched during the same time period despite being charged with misdemeanors or lesser offenses not involving drugs or weapons.
The lawsuit was filed in 2006 on behalf of three named plaintiffs, two of whom were arrested on warrants for traffic violations.
One of the attorneys who brought the lawsuit said as many as 100 new inmates at a time are ordered to strip naked in a cold hallway, forced to bend over and undergo visual cavity searches.
The process can take a half-hour or more because of the size of the group and often involves hazing by officers. Male detainees "are treated no better than animals," one court filing by the plaintiffs contended.
The suit charges that the jail improved its strip-search policy for women almost a decade ago to settle another lawsuit.
