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Phila. inmate strip-search suit settled

Final settlement of a strip-search lawsuit brought against Philadelphia means 5,321 people will each get compensation of $100 or $1,400, and the attorneys representing them will share $1.7 million in fees.

Philadelphia agreed this year to settle for $5.9 million the challenge to its policy of strip-searching all new inmates. The suit covered the years between 2003 and 2007 and encompassed about 37,000 people.

The city, which admitted no wrongdoing, now typically makes use of metal detectors and noninvasive techniques to find contraband. Some strip searches are still performed.

A mass mailing and television and newspaper advertising campaign were launched to find people eligible for compensation.

Ultimately, 7,647 claims were submitted, of which 5,353 are eligible for awards.

"For a case like this, it was good, just because not everyone is still at the residence that was provided to the prison," lead attorney Daniel C. Levin said.

People jailed on misdemeanor or nonviolent charges will get $1,400, and those jailed on more serious charges will get $100. There are 2,509 people in the first category and 2,844 in the second.

The attorneys' fees were approved by U.S. District Judge Mary A. McLaughlin. The sum, which amounts to 30 percent of the settlement, will go to the team of lawyers headed by Levin, of Levin, Fishbein, Sedran & Berman.

The lawyers calculated that they spent 2,877.65 hours on the case.

Until 2007, Philadelphia's six prisons strip-searched all new inmates, even those held overnight who had no bail money.

The procedure typically included visual "cavity searches," requiring suspects to squat and bend over.

Levin's firm got involved after receiving complaints from its clients.

McLaughlin ruled that the lawyers' fees were justified by the risk, complexity, and length of the case.

"We take these cases with a risk that we won't get paid," Levin said. "We could litigate these cases for three or four years, we put out all the money, we devote our time . . . [and] if you lose, you don't get paid at all," he said.

"People only see the cases where you are successful," he added.

People arrested on drug or weapons charges still can be strip-searched. But for most minor offenders, city prisons now use metal scanners and mechanical drug sniffers to check for hidden contraband.

Outside Philadelphia, a 2007 Inquirer investigation found a wide disparity in the practice, with some areas rarely strip-searching, and others stripping all incoming inmates.

 


Contact staff writer Nathan Gorenstein at 215-854-2797 or ngorenstein@phillynews.com.

 

Comments   
Posted 09:29 AM, 11/07/2009
remucho
now at least they can bring in dope and cocealed weopons......viva the brothers!
Posted 10:37 AM, 11/07/2009
Barbouze
A total victory for prison drug dealing.
Posted 10:43 AM, 11/07/2009
dee99999
Those that actually went to jail/prison received food and shelter that they did not pay for. Perhaps this money should be paid back to the taxpayers instead...
Posted 11:17 AM, 11/07/2009
jeffrn
I don't know why people on this blog tend to focus on the negative criminals of society. Imagine being taken to jail for a simple infraction and being violated by someone putting their fingers inside you. There were truly innocent people affected by this crime and who knows what psychological damage could have been done.
Posted 11:22 AM, 11/07/2009
phillypapers
I was 1 of over 400 non-violent protesters of the RNC jailed in 2000. We were strip searched. A prison doctor told me that he was going to give us all (the women) Pap smears and then winked in a gross way. We were hoping that Bush wouldn't be elected. I was arrested for holding a sign in front of city hall and spent 13 days in jail. All charges were eventually dismissed. The strip search was unnecessary and demeaning. I wish this suit covered back to 2000 but I'm glad they are doing something now.
Posted 11:39 AM, 11/07/2009
DexterMorgan
The attorneys representing them will share $1.7 million in fees. That says it all .
Posted 11:44 AM, 11/07/2009
2012 ~ Ron Paul
Joke of a city! You shouldn't have any right while in prison. Search them inside and out!
Posted 12:05 PM, 11/07/2009
JRadek
I guess jeffrn didn't read "The procedure typically included visual "cavity searches," requiring suspects to squat and bend over." Putting fingers inside someone for a search requires a search warrant (it seriously does). I bet you're the type of guy that would sue the prisons if you were to get stabbed there. You can't have it both ways.
Posted 12:38 PM, 11/07/2009
phillypapers
If I hold a sign to disagree with a governmental matter they have the right to hold me in jail and violate my body. You actually agree with this sentiment? You really believe that that level of personal intrusion is necessary for EVERY person arrested, innocent or not?
Posted 01:04 PM, 11/07/2009
JRadek
Absolutely. Every prisoner should be thoroughly searched before being admitted into a prison. I'd actually prefer an all-inclusive policy rather than have some arbitrary guideline dictating who gets searched and who doesn't.
Posted 01:34 PM, 11/07/2009
Falstaff
phillypapers: it's not the jail's job to determine guilt or innocence. Only to detain you and keep you, other inmates, and staff safe during that detainment. Anything that diminishes the jail's ability to do that job makes the jail more inherently dangerous. Now that there is more gray area in the policy wait for the follow-up profiling/discrimination suit for those who are still strip searched.
Posted 01:52 PM, 11/07/2009
hfjhfj
"Now that there is more gray area in the policy wait for the follow-up profiling/discrimination suit for those who are still strip searched." If they get sued, it's their fault for not establishing and following a policy with no "gray area". I don't cry a river when the government gets sued because they violated the law. Do you?
Posted 02:07 PM, 11/07/2009
JRadek
Yes hfjhfj, because it our money. The settlement admits no guilt. Nobody knows whether the government "violated the law". They settled because it's cheaper (as usual) to settle a suit, than risk going in front of an activist judge. There was no gray area in the policy before. Now there will be. And needless to say, everybody who gets searched now is going to complain that they were violated.
Posted 02:15 PM, 11/07/2009
JRadek
And just to add on the legality of the searches.... The Supreme Court sided with prisons on this issue in Bell v. Wolfish.
Posted 03:04 PM, 11/07/2009
Wassup!
Seeing how easy it is to get arrested in Philly, I'm glad the city lost this case and the policy has changed. Too many people get arrested by some overzealous cops, mistaken identity, and false claims of domestic violence, just to mention a few. For you overzealous people that approve blanket strip searches, just keep in mind, you never know if you will get mistakenly or accidently arrested. It can happen to anyone. To be stripped naked and then a stranger peers into private places is got to be extremely humiliating, especially for your daughter, wife, girlfriend, or mother. Drug dealers, on the other hand, are known to hide money and drugs on their person. Regarding the law firm, I have no objection to their fee. They won the case for the plaintiffs, risking the possibility of losing the case and not getting paid for their services. It takes a lot of hours to set up appointments and to meet thousands of plaintiffs and interview them for their deposition.
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