Divided 9th Circuit Upholds Frisco Strip Searches of All New Inmates
In a 6-5 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that San Francisco’s process for strip-searching thousands of new jail inmates over a 21-month period is constitutional.
The decision, which applies to jails in California and eight Western states, spares the city from monetary damages and allows the sheriff’s office to reinstate the strip-search policy, which had been suspended six years ago, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The opinion (PDF), overturns a standard set by the court in 1984 that strip searches are justified only for inmates suspected of committing violent crimes, drug-related crimes or hiding contraband. But the court held Tuesday that sheriff’s deputies are entitled to search new inmates to protect against drugs and weapons being smuggled into the jail.
Writing for the majority, Judge Sandra Ikuta concludes that “in light of the documented evidence of the ongoing, dangerous and perplexing contraband-smuggling problem, and given the deference we owe to jail officials’ professional judgment.”
Dissenting Judge Sidney Thomas said the ruling gives jailers “the unfettered right to conduct mandatory, routine, suspicionless body cavity searches on any citizen who may be arrested for minor offenses, such as violating a leash law or a traffic code, and who pose no credible risk for smuggling contraband into the jail.”
The Los Angeles Times reports that Thomas recounted in his dissent that one of the plaintiffs in the class action in question, Mary Bull, had been arrested at a peaceful protest, slammed to a concrete floor during booking, stripped and subjected to a body-cavity search, then left naked in a cell for 11 hours. A second strip search was conducted before Bull was released sans charges.
Several counties had adjusted their strip-search policies and paid multimillion-dollar settlements following earlier federal court decisions. Those settlements will stay intact, the Chronicle reports.
