http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/cook-county-jail-strip-searches-class-action-lawsuit-settlement-reached-20101116Chicago - In what plaintiffs' lawyers are calling the largest-ever class-action settlement of its kind, Cook County will pay $55 million to settle a lawsuit over illegal strip searches conducted at Cook County Jail.
At least a quarter of a million people jailed between January 2004 and March 2009 are eligible to share in the settlement, according to a release from the law firm of Loevy and Loevy.
In February 2009, a federal judge faulted the jail for strip searching people who were awaiting bail on minor crimes like traffic violations. He also found that the jail would perform the searches "by needlessly humiliating the detainees with group strip searches of upwards of 100 people at a time standing shoulder to shoulder in unsanitary conditions," the release said.
More than 400 class members submitted affidavits attesting that "guards used insults or abusive language during strip searches," the law firm said. "These included insults about body odor, anatomy, sexual orientation, and race."
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