Here's a good way to ensure counties don't strip search nonviolent misdemeanants.
Reports KENS-5 TV in Bexar County,"some 30,000 misdemeanants who were detained in the pokey in the last several years could get settlements of up to $1,000" as a result of being subjected to illegal strip searches. Reported the TV station:
Bexar County has already changed its strip-search policy.
Only detainees charged with felony crimes or those suspected of having contraband will continue to be searched.
To qualify for $100-$1,000 in settlement money, claimants had to have been incarcerated for misdemeanor crimes in the Bexar County jail between Nov 15, 2005 and April 9, 2009 and were strip searched.
You have until March 16, 2011 to submit a claim.
If you are unsure, you can call toll free 1-888-448-2130.
In an era when the TSA would subject average airline passengers to body scans and patdowns that reveal nearly as much as a strip search, this suit and its results seem almost quaint. OTOH, the court precedents are pretty clear and such suits have been succeeding not just in Texas or the 5th Circuit but in
other parts of the country.
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10 comments:
What a bunch of crap! Go to jail, get a $1,000 for being strip searched??
You think they are giving out money now, wait until a misdemeanor offender sneaks a weapon into the facility and someone gets killed!!
Next headline: Amount of contraband found during jail shakedowns skyrockets.
5:24 and 5:42,
like it or not that is how the courts have ruled for several years now. And since it is, you have to question where the Sheriff, Chief Deputy and jail administrator are on current case law.
Texas Association of Counties trains intensively on the subject matter to help counties manage their liability in this area.
Again, how do these folks get elected sheriff and stay in office?
Retired LE
Aw, come on boys!
You can still strip search if you can document a legitimate reason - current charge, criminal history of drugs/weapons, even suspicious behavior.
All this means is that you can't blanket strip search everyone, especially those college babes with a past due traffic ticket!
All the Court is asking is for that you use some common sense.
or at least come up with better LIES! when you do violate the law. People are NOW WATCHING!
can't just do it and sweep it under the rug.
I found this on one of the UK Police bulletin boards which I think will make you smile. (It did for me!)
Reminds me of an old sergeant who retired years ago, came from the rough end of Mansfield. He said to a local criminal once, "I've gorra warrant to search yer 'ouse" only up in the north of the county, house is pronounced a bit like "aasse".
Anyway, you can guess what happened, youth bent down and dropped his trousers.
A thousand bucks for someone that could be scarred for life?
This is BS.
Yeah when someone sneaks contraband in the jail it means there's a chance of EVERYONE doing it, but when guards are caught doing it, it's just a "few bad apples".
People think they can never be arrested, so they think it's ok to try to take anyone else's rights away.
Maybe they haven't seen what happens to even crime VICTIMS by some cops...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5hf-aDEAr8
What is not being discussed here is how the county judge, Nelson Wolfe, has been a Lone Ranger demanding these reforms be implemented, and while the county commissioners are voting for things that are costing Bexar County millions of dollars in wasted fines and litigation fees.
Wolfe has been around for a good 30 years now and he's basically a staunch fiscal conservative who takes no prisoners. He's just seen the waste and corruption going on in the Sheriff's Dept and Detention Center and is honestly trying to approach the whole issue with the goal of doing the community good instead of simply playing politics.
Kudos to Judge Wolfe for hanging in there all these years, and being a soldier and doing the right thing.
Not many like him around.
Wolfe has been around for a good 30 years now and he's basically a staunch fiscal conservative who takes no prisoners.
Don't even ask WTF I was thinking.
Shut the hell up fool..
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