jamesrage

Only in California would the judges do something so stupid.

Jail strip-searches were illegal, court rules
San Francisco violated the rights of thousands of jail inmates who were strip-searched without authorities having any reason to believe they were carrying weapons or contraband, a divided federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The 2-1 decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco applied to a city policy that was in effect from April 2002 to January 2004 at the city's reception jail, where all newly arrested inmates are taken before being transferred to another jail in 24 hours or released.

Under the policy, every inmate who was designated for transfer to another jail was subjected to a visual body cavity search.

Jail officials said they needed the strip searches to keep inmates from smuggling guns and drugs into the jails. But the appeals court, upholding a federal judge's 2005 ruling, said the policy violated constitutional standards that allow such searches only for specific reasons - that the inmate is charged with a violent or drug-related crime, has committed those crimes in the past, or is reasonably suspected of concealing contraband.

Sheriff Michael Hennessey changed the jail's policy in January 2004 to conform to those standards.

"Blanket strip searches of (newly arrested inmates) regardless of severity of charge and without reasonable suspicion is unconstitutional" under the court's rulings dating to 1984, Judge Sidney Thomas said in Friday's decision.

The ruling drew a sharp dissent from Judge Richard Tallman, who said the court was ignoring jail officials' evidence of smuggling by inmates arrested for minor crimes.

The third panel member, Judge Sandra Ikuta, said she was compelled to follow the precedents cited by Thomas but agreed with Tallman that "we have dangerously substituted our judgment for the judgment of jail administrators."

City Attorney Dennis Herrera will consider asking the full appeals court for a rehearing, spokesman Matt Dorsey said. The case has "a direct bearing on the safety of jail inmates and staff," Dorsey said.

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Kandahar

What's the problem? This was a holding jail, not a prison. Why should the government have the right to strip-search people who have committed no crime, without probable cause?

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RightinNYC

Once they have probable cause to arrest them, what more do you think they should need in order to search them?

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Hatuey

....searching somebody is fine. That whole gay pad down, ass grab, dick slap cops do. It's fine. STRIP SEARCHING however is a little bit more...intimate. Trust me on this one.

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Kandahar

Having probable cause to arrest someone for public drunkenness doesn't necessarily translate into probable cause to looking in their sphincter for cocaine.

RightinNYC

But what should be the test? Who should get to decide?

The long-standing policy in this situation was that the Correctional Facility administrators were given the authority to make that decision based on what they had observed. After observing that many individuals (including those having been arrested for minor offenses) were involved in smuggling contraband, they made the decision to institute a policy of visual inspections for all persons being transferred from one jail to another.

If the people whose job it is to run these facilities are not authorized to make the decision of what warrants a visual strip search, then who should be?

Personally, I can easily see the reason they would want this policy instituted. Say you want to sneak some drugs into a prison. Just have someone tape a couple baggies to the bottom of their cash and prizes, then tell them to leave their license at home and take a piss in the street on a Friday night.

1) They get a 3 day stay in county
2) Your drugs get into the main jail
3) ??????
4) Profit!

rathi

The primary purpose of a search before entering jail should be weapons not drugs. I have no problem with this ruling, mostly because if someone does sneak drugs in their body cavities, their aren't any serious consequences. All it means if that someone gets high in a controlled environment where guards can control them if they get violent, and medical facilities if they OD. I see no compelling reason for causeless cavity searches before entering a holding jail.

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jallman

You seemed to like it when we were playing cops and robbers last time.

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