By Tori Marlan
This isn’t the first time Morrissey and Farley have tangled with the sheriff over his strip-search policy. In 1996 they filed a class-action lawsuit that exposed a practice at the jail whereby women–but not men–were routinely strip-searched after their release had been ordered. A federal judge found this practice unconstitutional and ordered Sheriff Sheahan to end the discriminatory treatment. The ruling was a triumph for female detainees, who can now opt out of a strip search unless they need to go back into the jail to collect their belongings. But according to Morrissey and Farley, Gary v. Sheahan only scratched the surface of what’s wrong with Cook County’s strip searches.
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Morrissey and Farley are not challenging the sheriff’s right–or duty–to conduct strip searches, which they acknowledge are necessary for safety and security. Nor are they seeking damages for their clients. “We’re making a pretty modest request,” says Morrissey, “and that’s to do the strip searches in private.”
The state’s attorney’s office has assigned five lawyers to defend Sheahan, and they have declined to comment publicly on the case. It appears from their motion to dismiss the Wilkes complaint that they consider the allegations inconsequential. They state in the motion that “the foul odors of which the plaintiffs complain,” “the use of derogatory language which plaintiffs allege,” and “embarrassment about being visually strip-searched…or bleeding,” among other allegations in the complaint, do not represent constitutional violations.
The plaintiffs came to court prepared to testify on March 14. Morrissey says on the way back into the jail–after the judge had issued the temporary restraining order–they were again strip-searched together, as if nothing had changed. The following day, the drug case against Townsend was dismissed, and she was released from custody. Without having been convicted of a crime, she’d been publicly strip-searched at least three times.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Lloyd DeGrane.
