Federal Judge Elaine Bucklo ruled that the Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart violated the US Constitutional rights of men who were released by judges. Tom Morrissery is the attorney for these men.
ABC7 reported on the decision:
CHICAGO (WLS) – A federal judge ruled the rights of Cook County Jail inmates are violated when they are strip searched on release.
Strip searches are common-place in jails, but if an inmate goes to court and the charges against him are dropped, or he is acquitted, should he be compelled to undergo a strip search back at the jail before he’s set free?
A class action lawsuit- representing thousands of former Cook County Jail inmates argued that strip searching inmates before their release is unconstitutional, and a judge has now agreed.
Bullock is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit contending that the County has no business, nor right to strip search male inmates once they’ve been acquitted or charges against them dropped.
“They’re still doing this on a nightly basis involving 100 to 150 men- all of whom have been found innocent. They’re brought back to the jail, put with 50-60 other inmates, told to bend and squat,” said Tom Morrissey, Bullock attorney.
Judge Elaine Bucklo however was unconvinced ruling that the blanket strip search policy of male discharges violates the fourth amendment. That ruling sets the stage for a trial on financial damages for thousands of former inmates strip searched before their release from jail.
“We’re asking for damages in the millions of dollars,” said Morrissey.
The ruling on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo came a decade after another judge found similar strip-searches of female detainees at the jail were unconstitutional and ended the practice.
Thomas Morrissey, who filed suit on behalf of an estimated 150,000 men who underwent searches at the jail since 2002, said he is now seeking a trial date to determine monetary damages.
Since so many more men have been strip-searched than women, Morrissey estimated the lawsuit could cost the county tens of millions of dollars. The 1996 suit filed by female detainees at the jail was settled in 2001 by the Cook County Board for about $6.8 million.
When Quentin Bullock was found not guilty of robbery in a Cook County Courtroom, he didn’t leave triumphantly through the front doors. Before being released, he had to go back into the jail while his paperwork was processed. Bullock says that meant a final strip search in a hallway full of other naked prisoners. Listen to WBEZ story here
The practice violates both the Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable searches and the Fourteenth Amendment’s assurance of equal protection under the law, said U.S. District Judge Elaine E. Bucklo.
