Philadelphia has agreed to pay $5.9 million to settle a class-action lawsuit involving thousands of strip searches by city prison guards between 2003 and 2007, the latest payout in a long list of such suits across the region.
The settlement, filed in federal court here last month, provides for payments of roughly $600 to $900 a person to those strip-searched after being jailed for misdemeanors, traffic violations, or other minor crimes.
Until 2007, Philadelphia's six prisons strip-searched all new inmates, even people held overnight when they lacked money for bail.
The search typically included visual "cavity searches," requiring suspects to squat and bend over while guards looked.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Phila. to pay millions in suit over strip searches
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
