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Strip Searched and Left Unclothed in Jail

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Sun Sep 07, 2003 at 12:02:41 AM EST
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Two women have filed suit against the San Francisco Police Department alleging they were arrested, jailed, strip searched and left naked for hours on the floor of a jail cell.

One of the women was arrested for public intoxication. The other was a peace activist protesting the war.

In California, the use of "sobering" cells is tightly controlled. They are to be used for inmates who "are a threat to their own safety or the safety of others" who should be removed when they are able to continue the booking process, according to Board of Corrections regulations.

Both women's full stories are detailed in the article.

Neither woman was arraigned. No criminal charges were filed against Flick; two felony vandalism charges later were dropped against Bull.

Flick sued San Francisco, its police and its Sheriff's Department in federal court Wednesday. Bull sued the city and the Sheriff's Department in April, asking the federal court to certify her suit as a class action.

The lawyer for the women said:

The barbaric treatment to which they were exposed is reminiscent of 16th century torture chambers," said Mark Merin, a Sacramento attorney representing the women. "It was perverse. . . . We have a right to expect a lot more from our law enforcement than what these women were subjected to."

According to the information provided in the article, the women should neither have been strip searched nor forced to undress:

California's penal code prohibits strip searches or visual body cavity searches of people being held in custody before arraignment on misdemeanors or infraction offenses except those involving weapons, controlled substances or violence unless a peace officer has reasonable suspicion, "based on specific and articulable facts," that they are concealing a weapon or contraband.

What about the "cold room treatment?"

... law enforcement experts say that "cold rooms," a relic of long- ago, heavy-handed lockup tactics, are used so little these days that the term is almost archaic. The rooms once were used as a form of physical torture designed to punish, coerce or let drunks sleep off a binge.

....Today they aren't very common; they are considered pretty inhumane. No one should be put in there nude -- it is wrong, improper. People should be provided clothes, a blanket, a toilet, bed, sink, basic necessities."

We'll keep an eye on this lawsuit as it progresses and report back.

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