.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Cracker Squire

THE MUSINGS OF A TRADITIONAL SOUTHERN DEMOCRAT

My Photo
Name:
Location: Douglas, Coffee Co., The Other Georgia, United States

Sid in his law office where he sits when meeting with clients. Observant eyes will notice the statuette of one of Sid's favorite Democrats.

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Yes! - Jail Strip-Searches Allowed .

From The Wall Street Journal:

The Supreme Court said Monday that jails can strip-search all inmates, including those held on minor charges, in an ideologically divided 5-4 ruling penned by Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Writing that the policy "struck a reasonable balance between inmate privacy and the needs of the institutions," Justice Kennedy's decision quashes a claim by a New Jersey man arrested in error and effectively authorizes jails across the U.S. to strip-search any detainee who is sent into the general inmate population.

Most federal appeals courts had found it unconstitutional to strip-search detainees arrested for minor offenses without a reasonable suspicion they have hidden contraband in body cavities. But many local authorities, either because they were unaware of those precedents or believed they weren't bound by them, have imposed blanket policies to strip-search all inmates.

That exposed those jurisdictions to lawsuits under federal civil-rights statutes, and several attorneys had obtained large settlements for class actions filed on behalf of hundreds or thousands of low-level inmates who were strip-searched.
_______________

See also an article in The New York Times.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home