Former jail inmates win strip search lawsuit

A federal judge has ruled that several thousand former Cook County Jail inmates had their rights violated when they were strip-searched in humiliating conditions.

Attorney Michael Kanovitz says U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly late Monday found the jail humiliated inmates with group searches, with up to 100 inmates at a time standing shoulder-to-shoulder in unsanitary conditions.

The class-action lawsuit alleges that over a period of years, strip searches were conducted without regard to the seriousness of the crime and that bodily fluids were present during these searches for years.

According to the lawsuit, jail guards used abusive language that included insults about anatomy, body odor and sexual orientation during the strip searches.

The Cook County Sheriff's Department did not immediately return a telephone call early Tuesday for comment on the judge's ruling.