Dist. Ct. erred in finding that defendant’s policy that required strip search of every arrestee before said arrestee entered general population of jail did not violate plaintiffs-arrestees’ rights, where Dist. Ct. had certified class as all those persons held in custody who, following warrantless arrest, were strip searched in advance of judicial determination of probable cause. While Dist. Ct.’s decision was consistent with holding in Florence, 132 S.Ct. 1510, to extent defendant placed said arrestees in jail’s general population after their strip searches, certain members of instant class were never placed in general population after their strip searches and were instead immediately released from custody. As such, those class members who were never placed in general population but still endured strip search had much stronger claim that their rights were violated, and thus remand was required for Dist. Ct. to re-define or create sub-class so as to preserve right of said class members to file their own lawsuits. Also, record contained triable issue to extent that prison guards deviated from defendant’s written policy with respect to frequency/circumstances that they engaged in strip searches.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Class Action